Is Christ On The Forefront, Or Am I?

1 Thessalonians 1:6-8 (NIV)

"You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.  And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.  The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia - your faith in God has become known everwhere."

As I have mentioned in the past, our purpose as a church is to "Glorify God by Making Disciples."  And as I have also mentioned in the past, we as a church do not do a good job in making disciples.  And we are not too off base from the normal church in the western hemisphere.  What I mean by this statement is that the church tends to use the right language but not the coresponding action.  We use language like "disciples" or "outreach" or "loving our neighbor" but the reality is that we don't do much of those things because we don't know how to love our neighbor or to reach out to those who don't know Christ or how to be a disciple let alone make one.

I love the language Paul uses in 1 Thessalonians 1.  He tells the church in Thessalonica that he thanks God for their faith because they became "imitators" of Paul, Silas, and Timothy and of the Christ himself.  Not only did they do the work of Christ as Christ commands, but they also became "a model to all the believers" in the surrounding areas.  Their "faith in God [had] become known everywhere."  This church was no slouch and not only spoke the right language of believing in Christ, but lived it out to such a level that everyone in the surrounding regions knew about their faith.

That is my hope for First Baptist here in Emery, SD.  Not that our name would become a household name, but that the work we do in making disicples and glorifying God would be bring God to the forefront of the lips of the people around us.

I will take it even further.  I hope that my life brings Christ and his hope and plan for the people around me to be brought to the forefront of those who hear my name and see my work for God.  All too often I make myself great.  All too often we make ourselves great.  All too often we put Christ secondary to making ourselves great.  If we truly desire for the people of Emery and the surrounding communities to repent of their sins, come to Christ, and make Him great in their lives then we cannot put ourselves first.