Jesus or Church? Part 2
Pastors’ Blog
February 23, 2010

Dear [FIRSTNAME],

Matthew 11:28-29 Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me.

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

I have often said something to this effect: We are trying to connect people to Jesus, not the church. That is, the goal is not to get people to church. The goal is to introduce people to Jesus.

I say this as a reaction to the thought that inviting someone to worship is evangelism (that is, speaking the Good News).

The danger of my statement, of course, is that someone may interpret me to mean that church is not necessary; that you can know Jesus without God’s church.

So, let me try to be clear. A baby duck imprints on his mother. He does what she does and learns to be a duck. Likewise, disciples are to imprint on Jesus. We learn from Him alone how to be Christians. We look to Him, learn from Him, and imitate Him, and learn to be like Him.

If we imprint on other Christians or on the church, we will not be Christians.

But a Christian cannot be a Christian apart from the church. But “church” is neither worship nor a building. The church is God’s people gathered around God’s Word and Sacraments. The church is sheep who hear the Good Shepherd’s voice (John 10).

So, our goal is to connect people to Jesus. The result is that people who are connected to Jesus will then connect with each other. We will gather for worship around God’s Word and the Lord’s Supper. We will gather in small groups to speak God’s Word to one another. We will also be in a small group with God, each reading or hearing His Word daily and letting Him shape us into Christ’s character.

In Christ,
Pastor Steve

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