The Real Purpose: Do some Churches miss it?

     Who or what is the church? Regardless of the name on the outside of a building, the church is the people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Francis Chan, former pastor and founder of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA, goes as far as to say that the church is communities. These communities exist in all of our lives. Some communities are where we live, called neighborhoods, while other communities may be where we gain an education, school. Consequently, if you hold to this truth, the church is wherever we as believers are.        Let's pause for a second and think about that..........
     So what is the purpose of the church? Honestly the answer to this question is very, very simple. Our only purpose is to go into the world and share the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. Can anyone argue with that point?
     If this is true, then why do so many churches (body of believers) start new churches in areas they feel led to start a church and its end result is merely pulling other believers from one church (edifice or building) to another church (edifice or building). The start of a church (body of believers) is to go after the lost. If they are not going after the lost, they are merely attempting to win a popularity contest.
     Popularity contest? Did I hear you say churches (body of believers) doesn't do that? Let me pose some questions from an observation from a long time church (body of believers) goer. What happened to Church missions? Oh they call them campuses now... Why did we change the name?
     Let me share with you my concern. I think churches (body of believers) these days likes the idea of how big their church (edifice or building) is. Moreover, I think they really like the numbers connected with their churches name. Churches (body of believers) use to feel led to start a church in an area that needed reached but may have been outside the physical capabilities of the church so they started a mission church. They would seek a pastor for the mission and would support it financially until it would get up off the ground. Once it could support itself, it would come out from under the wing of the mother church. Did I mention that its name was connected with group at that location and did not have the same name the mother church. Churches (body of believers) today wants to call these campuses and attach their name to this location so they can run their numbers up. The pastor is shown to them on a big screen via internet or the mother church doesn't have Sunday night church so the pastor can go to the other location and preach.
     I feel ego and pride gets in the way. I read all the time churches who say they run large numbers for worship only to find out that is counting the people from 4 different locations across the state and in some cases across the country. Is the leadership of the mother church so confident in their abilities that they honestly believe that God could not call someone else to lead that body of believers.
     Our purpose has become an attempt to grow the church (edifice or building). Our one and only purpose to go into the world and share the good news of Jesus Christ to them in hopes that they will accept His offer for eternal life and become a part of the church (body of believers) and go after the lost. Yes it is a cycle. It is the cycle we have been called into.........
I am John Sowders and I am Second..!!!!!