2008 Conference, 2nd night. 7 deadly sins of church building
Prakash set up the conference midway with a strong word about the dangers of the Babylonian Church, or, using worldly methods to make the church succeed. On Wednesday Night, I went forward with this to directly call pastors to repent of the 7 deadly sins of church building. I don’t pretend to be an expert on church building, especially in the practical manners of administration, etc. I do however see that according God’s design for the body in Eph 3, 4, Rom 12 and elsewhere, the following 7 common practices have to end:
- Being respecters of persons (James 2)
- Personal kingdoms (aka Running church like a competitive business)
- Among pastors, a sense of having graduated (no longer singing with the church, etc.)
- Jealousy
- Love of Money
- Sectarianism
- Thinking ourselves priests (1Tim 2:5)
This is something the whole church leadership needs to take heed of, and the leaders of Kanchipuram are privileged to hear it first. Hopefully they will run with it and the rest of the church can see wonderful revival transpire here in India and repent also. I doubt most churches would allow this kind of message to be heard. Christian leaders worldwide are bonded to practices they learned not from Christ, but from marketing books, elitist sectarian policies or political expediency. Someone has to say it.
What turned me around on this subject was this in Christ’s prayer in John 17.
He prays for one thing only — That we be One, just as He and the Father are One.
When was the last time you had an opportunity to be an answer to prayer to what Jesus Himself is praying for?
Let’s build the church His way shall we? Not because it is expedient, strategic or what the people of this generation are demanding, but simply because Christ is the Head, and we are THE Body.
