There’s something within the American church that wars against the Kingdom of God. It’s the desire of wayward men to place the advancement of God’s kingdom second to the advancement of their own kingdoms. Unfortunately we see this in churches all the time don’t we. We see it on roadside billboards advertising that their church is better than other churches in the area. We see it on giant banners promoting a man and his ministry over the ministry of God. We see it in sermons promoting health, wealth, and prosperity over the blessings of transformation and suffering. We see it when a man who claims to be a pastor gets on television and preaches self help motivational God is love sermons but forgets to mention sin and repentance. And we see it on every street that has one, two, even three churches within walking distance to one another and yet rather than combining their efforts to share the love of Christ with their community they are in competition with one another. Instead of the pastors praying together and loving on one another, they gossip about one another and run one another down. Their main pursuit has become gaining more marketshare. They want to see their “churches” become great so that their name becomes great and all the while the world sees us acting like spoiled brats running Jesus’ name through the mud! It’s disgusting!
We haven’t been called to build the kingdom of Stone Creek Church, or the kingdom of Shevi Sloane… how dare we. We’ve been called to build the kingdom of God!