Jesus said, in Matthew 28:18-20: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Where did He ever command us to plant churches? Where are the examples from Acts of church planting? He commanded us to make disciples, not plant churches.
Churches have become an end in themselves; they have more importance to people than making disciples. By their very nature they're inward focused, not outward focused. They say "come," not "go." The building itself has become the focus, at least most of the ones in the US that I know of.
People go to their churches to be be "fed," when they already had the gospel from day one. How much more grazing do we need before we're ready to break out of the walls and go do something? And by "something" I mean make disciples, not plant more churches.
So, some here have taken shots at you, even as they've done on other threads that you've started where you've asked legitimate questions or raised legitimate concerns.
I'll not join hands with them, but I do have a serious question for you:
Are you going out and seeking to make disciples for Jesus Christ yourself?
If you're not, then you really shouldn't be talking about others who aren't doing the same, either.
i heard an expression many years ago which has stuck with me until this day. I actually heard it stated during a Presidential debate.
The expression of which I'm speaking is this:
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
In other words, if we see others who are doing things that are wrong or even doing the right things in the wrong way, then rather than just sitting around while bad-mouthing them, we need to be doing what is right ourselves, and in the right manner, thereby setting an example for others to hopefully follow.
I got saved almost 34 years ago, and for the first 12 years, I was in church anywhere between 3 to 5 times a week for different services or functions. What I witnessed firsthand during those years was, in a word, horrific. Those horrors eventually compelled me and some friends of mine at that time to start preaching on the streets of New York and New Jersey (I lived in NJ at that time). That was work, and it wasn't always appreciated by our hearers, either. People called the police on us hundreds of times (literally), and some people went so far as to threaten us with bodily harm. My one friend got punched in the mouth, and another had a bottle broken over his head. I had firecrackers thrown at me, had people threaten to shoot me, and a Muslim man charged me while seeking to send me into never-never land, and he might have succeeded if a passer-by on the street hadn't grabbed him and restrained him before he pummeled me.
Anyhow, we did gain some true converts through our preaching, but that only resulted in even more work. In other words, a lot of people asked me to recommend a church to them, and in the sight of God, I honestly couldn't because all of the ones that I had ever stepped foot in were horrible.
What did I do?
Well, I started teaching Bible studies in order to hopefully turn these converts into true disciples of Jesus. In fact, many weekends, I drove from NJ to NY to pick up some recent converts, and then drove all the way to Pennsylvania for Bible studies with them and others that my friend and I knew from PA. Of course, after the studies, I had to drive everyone back to NY before driving home to NJ myself.
My point is this:
Making disciples is work.
If you're doing it yourself, then great.
If you're not, then you really shouldn't be criticizing others who aren't, either.
