Are you a reformer?

My favorite definition of religion is this: man’s attempt to use God to get what he wants.

It has become normal to settle in a church that gives us what we seek. It’s the same mindset that people use when making most of the decisions in their lives.

What career will give me what I’m looking for? What movie should I see? Where should I go on vacation? Should I buy something now or wait for a sale?

Now, many decisions in life justify this type of analysis.

The way we participate as a church, however, is not one of them.

I like the way Bill Johnson talks about trains and the tracks they run on. We have become so used to choosing our own course, our own level of participation, our own pace. However, with a train, everyone is on board, no one can choose to linger on the track by going left or right. Everyone moves to the same rhythm. I love that! That is the call for reform in the church! We must set our own plans and move in unity with the rest of the body at the pace that God sets through the apostolic ‘engineers’! This is what happened in the Upper Room! One goal, one agenda, all together, all receptive. There were no other approaches to life that prevailed over the call to mission!

Which is more honorable: a soldier who enlisted in the military for the opportunity to advance his career, or a soldier who joined simply out of love for his country. And they are willing to pay a great price for that love.

The church has a mission and we should not jeopardize that mission by determining our level of involvement based on what it can give us.

I believe the weakening of the mission call in the church is a direct result of our human nature and Western culture of getting as much as we can for the least personal cost.

The problem is that the call to the church is a call to pay a high price for the fulfillment of the mission with little promise of personal gain.

I’d love to find a dusty warehouse somewhere, open the doors, spread the word, start praying with fire, and see who shows up.

No air conditioning, no chairs, no plethora of ministries…just a call to be in position, stay long, day after day, pray in unity, and fight together for the days, weeks, months, or years it takes for an event to occur. shedding.

So the question is this: are you the one who would answer? There will be several movements like this in the Detroit region, and Revival Church is one of them. IHOPE (ihopedetroit.org) is another.

I challenge you to drop your demands and desires for what you are looking for in a church and simply accept the exciting call to zealous prayer, passionate community, and picking up our crosses for a dramatic encounter with Jesus!