Paradigm: the general accepted perspective of a particular discipline at any given time.
The challenge to the church: the gospel must be the background to all that believers are and do.
We must be actively looking to share this Good News in ways it will be genuinely heard for the eternal good of the hearer. It is so easy to get caught up in “doing church” that Christians can neglect the church’s true propose—to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15) and make disciples (Matthew 28:19, 20).
Churches can utilize all the successful business models, vocabulary, and marketing tools available. And it may seem they are successful, but that is not what Jesus did. Jesus wasn’t necessarily worried about quantity (though His desire is for all to be saved) but quality—genuine converts who continually hunger after Him.
“Jesus never tried to capitalize upon His ministry successes. He never tried to use one success to build a larger success. Take the feeding of the five thousand, for example. Now there’s something worth milking. If I had been Jesus’ promotional manager, by the next week I would have had twenty thousand people out. Can’t you just imagine how the ads could read? ‘Five thousand fed with five loaves and two fish!’ ‘Watch the Master break bread! Free meal for all observers.’ ‘Hungry? Come to the revival meeting!’ You can start a magazine with this kind of stuff, Jesus. Come on, Lord, at least launch a monthly newsletter.
“Watch what Jesus did. You can follow it in the record of John’s Gospel. He used the multiplication of the bread as an object lesson to bring a new revelation of Himself, saying, ‘I am the bread of life.’ He went on to say, ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.’ At this, the circuits of the Jews began to overload and blow. They said, ‘We can’t deal with this, this is a hard teaching.’ And so, many of His disciples stopped following Him (John 6:66). Jesus took the feeding of the five thousand, turned it around, and used it as the vehicle to cause many of His followers to fall away” (Bob Sorge, In His Face, pages 79, 80).
Note again that last sentence: “Jesus took the feeding of the five thousand, turned it around, and used it as the vehicle to cause many of His followers to fall away.”
I don’t believe one would read that in very many of the “How to build a Bigger Church” books!
