When we mistake what we do for why we exist.

The church universal and the local congregation may do a great many things, all of which may be appropriate in their place.  But these things are not the purpose of why the church exists.  We often times become so focused on what we do that the “doing” becomes the reason for our existence.   We might see this in churches that are chronically busy.  We can see this in churches that are solely focused on some aspect of the Gospel’s social implication.  It appears when churches are driven by one special segment of Biblical morality.  We see it in full calendars, full fellowship dinners, full committee meetings and full bank accounts.  None of these are specifically evil, but none of these are why we exist. 

I once worked with a congregation that might be described as “neat hoarders”.  In the church building itself, they had three rooms dedicated to storage and beyond that they had two, fairly large, additional buildings also dedicated to storage.  Part of the youth building (once upon a time it was a parsonage) was used for storage and they were contemplating building another building to meet the challenge of having enough space.  They were not storing food for the hungry or clothes to be shared.  It was remnants of past events, old VBS banners, decorations and signs, an old PA system, trophies from softball seasons no one could remember.  They preserved their stuff like it was a time capsule for a great civilization.   At times, it felt like they existed to store the remnants of their past and they stored remnants of their past so they would continue to exist.  If the past was not curated they might not have a past or even exist. 

Another church I attempted to work with was so completely focused on protecting, preserving and promoting their remarkable heritage that their history appeared to be the reason they existed.  It found its way into every conversation, every motive, and flooded their website.  On their website I counted and found they mentioned their founding patron three times for each time they mentioned Christ, not counting the link to an outside webpage that was fully dedicated to her life.

We could go on endlessly, but it would only be cursing the darkness.  What is the candle that we need to light?  The great battle in the life of the church is to discover, “Why on Earth are we here?”  If Paul was right, and he was, in Acts 17:26-27 God put people in specific places at specific times so they would seek Him.  In other words, the answer to the question of “Why on Earth are we here?” is so that we can be disciples.  And the fulfillment of being a disciple is to replicate our faith, to make other disciples. 

We do not exist to worship, fellowship, shape culture, direct history, alleviate suffering, or have a great time being busy in really good deeds.  All of these things will happen as a by-product of why we exist.  In the great commission Jesus tells us to go and make disciples.  Part of being a disciple is worship and sharing life with other believers.  As we make more and more disciples we will shape the culture at a fundamental level and will redirect history, but that is only a happy by-product.  As we make disciples, our lives will be filled with joy (not the same thing as happiness). We will have a great time because we will love being, seeing and making disciples, and we will be busy (in the best sense of the word) doing not just good, but the best deeds.  But it all flows out of what Jesus said in the great commission-why we exist- “Go and make disciples”.

But as long as we mistake what we do for why we exist we will forever be frustrated.