As church leaders, too often we call the people in our churches to follow Jesus for the ‘benefits’ we might receive. We do this when we are inviting people into a relationship with Christ and even when we seek to recruit others to serve. Should it surprise us when people don’t get involved or even move from church to church, trying to find the one that best meets their needs? Even worse, should we be surprised when people walk away from this consumeristic version of Jesus altogether?
When we choose to follow Jesus for what He can give to us, we miss out on what He was actually inviting us to do! Jesus knew that if we lost our lives in serving others, through this journey we would truly find our life (Mt. 10:39).
I suppose we are all on a path towards either dictatorship or Billy Graham. We are torn between a life filled with selfishness and a life of selflessness. May we experience the beauty of a fully surrendered life with Jesus as our Leader while we invite others to do the same.
“The church isn’t here to meet our needs. We are the church, here to meet the needs of the world.” – Erwin McManus in An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind
Too often the Church has been seen as exclusive and judgmental instead of loving and authentic.
Too often we end up more like chaplains caring for our people rather than mobilizing our people to care for those around us.
Too often we may assume people are not interested when they are actually searching.
We have the opportunity to change this by serving, loving, and influencing our neighbors, family, and friends.
The God of the Universe continues to interact with His creation in His active pursuit of humanity. Motivated by His love, God continues to reach out in innovative ways. Created in His image and called to join Him on His mission of redeeming mankind, followers of Jesus need to follow God’s lead.
We are invited by God to follow His Spirit so that we see Jesus’ prayer answered more and more that “God’s Kingdom come His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)
The church is in the business of New Creation.
A helpful definition of the church comes from the Gospel Coalition says:
“The church is the new covenant people of God, rooted in the promises to Israel and inaugurated by the Holy Spirit, which refers both to all believers in Jesus Christ, both living and dead, and to local gatherings of believers.”
The beginning of the Scriptures reveal humanity in God’s presence in paradise – the Garden of Eden. The end of the Scriptures describes paradise restored. In John’s revelation, he saw “a new heaven and a new earth” and “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.” John heard a voice from the throne proclaim: “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4).
As biblical scholar N.T. Wright and co-host of our cohort in 2026 points out in his writings, lectures, and interviews. Too often the church either tries to rule the world or renounce the world and our main question we seem to ask is “how do we get to heaven?” instead of the more important question: “how does God come to live with us?”
In his book Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, Professor Wright points out that too many Christians have a Platonist view of heaven as opposed to the biblical understanding of a new heaven and new earth. He emphasizes that the biblical view is not about escaping to a distant, spiritual realm (the Platonist view), but rather about God’s plan to bring heaven’s reality to earth, ultimately resulting in a renewed creation where heaven and earth are united.He writes:
“Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”
– Dr. N.T. Wright
We innovate as we follow the Spirit’s lead knowing that God’s ways are higher than our ways. We innovate in order to be good stewards of creation and develop solutions that glorify Him and promote flourishing. We innovate to bring more beauty, more justice, and more goodness to our world so that others might join us in God’s Kingdom.
In another section, Wright reminds us:
“The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.”
– Dr. N.T. Wright
In other words, Tim Keller points out that “We are called to be both the hands and the voice of God in a broken world, actively working to bring about justice and alleviate suffering.”
When we live out our calling and vocation with the heart of Jesus, we will be surprised with who says “yes” to joining us on our mission.
