And We Called It Ministry

A packed house and a Spirit-filled church are not the same thing. We've spent so long confusing the two that nobody bothers to ask which one we're building.

Count the seats. Fill the seats. Add more seats. And we called it ministry.

The only thing separating some Sunday morning services from a concert venue is the song selection.

But the Lord never told us to fill buildings. He told us to make disciples.

You can pack a room with people who have never been broken before God. You can draw a crowd without ever building a church. You can grow a ministry while the people inside it quietly starve. It happens every week.

Paul didn't write to the Colossians about any of that. He wrote, "that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Colossians 1:9). Not a building full of people — but people full of God.

A church full of the Spirit doesn't look like the world, think like the world, or want what the world wants. You can't build that with a program. You can't sell it.

A full Christian is the man who opens his Bible on Tuesday. She's the woman who disciplines her children without flinching because she fears God more than she fears being judged. They're the family that turned down the promotion to stay planted where the Word is preached without apology.

That won't trend. But a hundred years from now, somebody's grandchildren will still be walking with God because of it.

"I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." — Matthew 16:18

He said He'd build it. We just need to preach the Word and get out of the way.