Fishing or Keeping the Aquarium.

Sometimes I am still surprised at how easily we accept the status quo. Take evangelistic desire for example. When a new church movement is formed, there is great excitement and energy. People want to be part of this new movement that is reaching people all over. But inevitably, over time, that church movement will begin to solidify, and the people involved turn from fishers of men into keepers of the aquarium. Take, for example, the Methodists. Back in the early years of this country, Methodism was one of the fastest growing church movements, with hundreds of converts each year. Now fast forward to today, and the Methodist church has solidified and decayed to the point that people are leaving at rates of up to 1000 a year. What happened? While there are still many, many wonderful Christians in the Methodist church, the goals of the church changed from evangelism and changing lives to maintenance and the parish church model. Soon, the goal was to simply survive, rather than thrive.

Mark 12:1-12
“He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. 6 "He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  7 "But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 "What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Haven't you read this scripture: "'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; 11 the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"  12 Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.” 

The chiefs priests and teachers of the law had become keepers of the aquarium, more interested in maintaining the status quo and their own places of authority than changing lives for God. God sent his prophets and preachers, but they continued their hold, until God sent his son Jesus, and they killed him.

In order to continue to be effective for the Kingdom, the purposes of the Kingdom must remain the top priorities for the church. We must change lives for God. If we are not reaching out and drawing in, we are no better than the chief priests. As the saying goes, “if the business of the Church is bringing people to Jesus, how’s business?”