I have long since given up playing the “My church is better than other churches” game.
However, many churches play into this mindset by being convinced that the church needs “Professional Leadership.”
Ironically, the men that Jesus chose to ‘change the world’ were hardly the ‘movers and shakers’ of their day. In the end, the quality that mattered most was their willingness to share what they had witnessed about the Risen Christ – no matter the cost. And that they did!
Adding to the irony, Jesus added Saul of Tarsus (Paul) as the fourteenth apostle. If the church was looking for “Professional Leadership,” surely this was it. But not so!
Paul let the Corinthian church know that he cared nothing for eloquence, or the latest intellectual discoveries. He had been content to ‘embarrass’ himself among the intellectuals at Athens by preaching a message they laughed at.
On his arrival in Corinth, he met Jews of the type who had had him stoned and left for dead at Lystra. No wonder he said that he preached to them in “much fear and trembling.” Thus, he had learned the hard way to get to the heart of his mission and stay there. He reminded the Corinthian congregation:
“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
Herein our faith lies!
This is the foundational message on which all that we believe, and practice stands. In this we walk by faith.
“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Let it never be said of us that we have given our lives for anything less. Instead, we say with Paul:
“I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls” (2 Corinthians 12:15).
John Staiger