This is the time to get back to our first love, our primary relationship with the Lord. I believe the Lord is stripping leaders and anyone who serves the body back to the basics as to why they are serving. It starts in knowing Him and in knowing Him we learn to do what the Father is doing just like Jesus said in John 5, “… whatever the Father does, the Son does also …”
For the longest time while pastoring in the City the Lord kept on telling me to leave the church. Puzzled I asked, “Leave my church? Quit? Walk away?” He said, “No. Leave the the church.” Confusing. After many years of hearing this off and on, I finally started to understand that He wanted me to let go of serving the institution, stop being the institution of church and to stop playing church. He wanted to make sure that I was serving Him and by doing so serving others.
We are in it for Him and His people with all sincerity of heart and with intentional compassion for all. Serving the institution can take us away from this delicate sincerity of heart and get us off track from our true destiny. That destiny begins in intimate relationship with the Father who begets our true selves in Him. By this we engage the world with a heart meant for true love for those around us whom we serve. We become true ambassadors of Christ. Ambassadors of the institution of church is an insulating wall.
I believe it’s time to examine our motives for serving. It’s time to examine why we do what we do in serving in the church. Whether or not people recognize your serving is truly not important. What’s important is to serve with a sincere heart Him who sees in secret. Accolades, remuneration and titles are not important and if they are, we are serving the institution. From this comes a great deal of unhappiness, disappointments, politics and strife. We are serving ourselves. We are serving other gods. They bring misery. We are breaking the 1st commandment – “Have no other gods besides Me.” Having none is clearly for good reasons.
The call now is for us to come back to seeing and knowing Him and relearning the basics of our faith in true worship of Him and being encountered by Him. We will be amazed as we do so.
Time to leave the church, not literally, but figuratively. We are in it for Him and the people. May it no longer be, “I only do what I see the institution doing.” If your church is doing good stuff, keep on doing it with them – for the right reasons.
“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; He can do only what He sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, and He will show Him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.” John 5:19-20
(As a side note, I don’t believe the Lord is calling people to quit or walk away from any position. He is calling us to examine our hearts as to why we are serving and to make the necessary adjustments inside. Any drastic changes in your life needs the counsel and input of others and especially from those more mature or objective.)