Straight to the Heart

Life is short. Far too short to waste it on anything less than the breathtaking, grace-giving, love-abounding Church which Jesus Christ is building.

Sadly, many Christians do. A few fail to join a local church altogether, but perhaps a majority fall for a Church which is something far less than Jesus wants her to be. They give their lives to a church which has lost the dangerous, radical edge which Christ intended. That’s why I’m posting these two items here today, in order to ask you what kind of Church are you giving your life to? 

If you are part of Queens Road Church, then treat these items as a manifesto of the kind of church which we are looking to be. This is the heartbeat which made me move to south-west London, and which probably attracted you to invite me in the first place.

If you are part of another local church, then let these items challenge you to consider afresh whether you are truly working for the kind of Church that Jesus is building. If not, then stay in the Church where he has called you, but get on your knees to pray that God will break your heart and the hearts of those around you to respond to the message that they bring. These two items state the same principle first negatively, then positively, and I encourage you to take ten minutes today to ponder them and pray. 

You have only got one life to live, and you must not sell it cheaply. Let me commend to you the Church which Jesus says is worth living and dying for:

1. STATED NEGATIVELY

The kind of Church which does not deserve your life is the one which Philip Yancey describes at the beginning of his book “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” When I read these words a few weeks before I received the invitation to move to Queens Road, I cried. Looking back, they were one of the reasons I said yes. This negative picture reminds me what kind of Church should truly be the focus of our lives. 

“A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter - two years old! - to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story…

At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. ‘Church!’ she cried. ‘Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

2. STATED POSITIVELY

Enough of the kind of Church which does not deserve our lives. What about the Church which Jesus truly wants to build? What about the captivating, sin-defying, love-displaying, Gospel-preaching Church which set the Roman Empire ablaze for Jesus Christ and which still advances his Kingdom, wherever she may be?

Take a few minutes to watch this short clip of Tony Campolo, speaking about what happened when he showed love to a prostitute in a diner in the early hours of the morning. Watch to the end to hear the final verdict from the owner of the diner - a line which still echoes in my soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=kWlMV-UmueM

Now that is the kind of Church which Jesus founded. Frankly, life is too short to waste on anything less glorious.

If you are part of Queens Road Church, then let me state up front that this is the destination we are fixing to the front of our bus. This is where we’re heading, and by God’s grace we’re going to get there.

If you are part of another church, then praise God for where he’s placed you. Let’s build many great churches which all go to this same destination together. And let’s do it for the glory of that radical, uncomfortable, magnificent friend of sinners, Jesus Christ!