Spiritual Change is our Goal is a post about what leaders and preachers should be focusing on in our churches. Making people into the image of Christ.
In the ministry of God’s work, the laborers need to have a clear head and a very narrow focus in order to please God. We do not have the liberty to do what we want to do per se, but rather we are servants of God to fulfill His work in His way and in His timing. The work of God is clearly defined in the Bible as the salvation of souls and their subsequent sanctification.
Contents
What should be our Focus
Our focus should start and repeat in seeing people saved. I have been a pastor for some 40 years now, and it amazes me how much we (ministers) presume that people who come to us and are interested in our work, our church, etc. are saved, and later I come to the conclusion that “saved person” has very serious problems and is not saved. With time, many things become clearer.
But what I have personally concluded is that I cannot presume that all the “saved people” in my church are really saved. Some are just being “dragged along by the current, by the tide”. Therefore, I preach salvation messages constantly, changing the presentation but keep the same gospel in the message.
See my Tract
- doct25 Jesus is our Moral Pattern This tract explains how Jesus is our moral example, and we should imitate God, Jesus, in our individual lives.
- salv08 Your Testimony: Impacting Others
The Key
The key in this is to see people understand salvation, embrace it, and live it successfully in their own lives. That is really the main goal of any minister or church. Within that broad key or goal, a lot of minor things has to be accomplished. Prayer, Bible study, witnessing, service, loving, etc. But in essence, all of these minor things are outgrowths of the main thing, that the person “knows God”. That he is saved.
Change is our Goal
Moral change is involved in all of this. As a minister of God, I am incapable of changing people. It is only God that can do that, and God does that through the power of God’s Word. Very much involved in this is the Word (John 1:1-2) Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But without the individual wanting to change, there is nothing going to be accomplished for God.
Moral change should be at the forefront of our ministries. Church should be a place of constant repentance, and that should be caused by 1) the good preaching of God’s Word, and 2) Prayer. We can add the influence of godly people in the church to effect change by their examples and their influence one on another.
The Pastoral Requirement
But to achieve moral change, the person who is teaching or preaching that change should also live those principles in their own lives. Only when the “student” sees the principle in live action within the life of the person teaching that principle can he truly grasp the principle and live it.
This places a huge burden on the preachers and teachers to be godly examples of what they are preaching and teaching. Moreover, it is a hit that kills the work of God when a minister has a spiritual problem, and he refuses to preach on it. I have seen haughty and proud preachers that never once preach against that fault. I have seen many pastors who know that their financial wellbeing as a church hinges on the financial sacrifices of their people, and this works much easier with rich people, so they never preach on greed or similar money issues which are problems not limited to the rich, but very common among all of us.
Spiritual Change is our Goal