Master Mentor #31

Chapter 30 (Book 4, Chapter 8)
I’m reading several books at the same time… aside from even my seminary books. This is a bad habit that I seem to have… starting several books all at the same time. It seems easy enough. Most books draw you in by nature. But then I find myself reading many… too many.
One that I have started recently is called “Simple Church.” It is a book written by “church growth experts” both by category and by self-proclamation. Although they are not talking about a new style of doing church, rather they are talking about doing a different style of church. This style appeals to me. Part of the idea here is that the church should be about one thing… and all of the ‘things’ that the church does should feed into that one thing. And that one thing should be making disciples. All other programs, directions or focuses need to be dropped and the current structure needs to be simplified so that people know what is expected of them next and they naturally ‘move’ in that direction.
Then I’m reading CS today. And he says this: “In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose” (page 171). It seems that CS may have beat the Simple Church authors to the punch. He is talking about whether or not it is difficult to be a Christian and at the same time claiming that it is both difficult and easy. But he is saying that the sole purpose of the church… the sole purpose of the Christian… is to become a little Christ. How incredibly simple. And yet so incredibly difficult.

Jim