Is it about Jesus or the church?

I have been noticing an interesting phenomena (It's probably been there all along, it's just that I haven't noticed it before.) It seems as if we are more focused on church than we are on Jesus. Let me give an illustration of this. Bev and I have friends that recently moved to another community. As they have been interacting with their new neighbors, a common thread has emerged. They regularly get invited to church and church functions. Yet no one has asked them about their life journey, nobody has talked about following Jesus. The invitation is always "come to church". People talk about the events at "our church".

I see a danger in the church focus. We become numb to the radical, prophetic lifestyle that following Jesus requires when our focus is church and its activities. We invite people to a place, to an activity assuming that the church activities are synonymous with following Jesus. It becomes easy to busy ourselves, engaging in numerous activities that may or may not have anything to do with Jesus.

For the past several years, I have been pursuing Jesus in an intentional way. The interesting thing is that as I have engaged in this pursuit, I have discovered deep heart relationships with other fellow pursuers! As we travel together, we have discovered church life at a deeper level than ever before.

I would encourage each of us to not simply invite people to church hoping that the "professionals" (pastor, worship leader, greeters etc) minister to them, Instead do something more radical - invite people along with us on our own journey with Jesus.