“Is the Church the ‘cause’ or the ‘effect’ of God’s plan?” 

     I am reminded that Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem by His blood His Church. This includes every one who calls upon Him to be their Savior. This large group of people we call Christians make up what we call the Church. There are two aspects of the Church. One is the above, which has been identified by many names. The other is a local body of believers who gather together.  

     But what about the church? Some would believe this is about the only place where one may meet God. This is a fallacy many preachers would like for you to believe. Others would suggest that if we are not building local churches, we are not really doing God’s work God’s way. Let’s probe into what the Bible says about this. If you read through the book of Acts, you find that most of Paul’s ministry took place in the market place, the Synagogue and house to house. In fact, we do not find anywhere in the New Testament where we are commanded to build a local church. Paul went to 39 cities in the book of Acts and in none of them did he start a church. He went to the synagogues and the market place to share the Gospel. 

     Let me ask, is the church the “cause” or the “effect”?  I frequently hear the statement that we are to go and build local churches. Do not misunderstand, we rejoice in the birth of every Bible believing church.  

     Some missionaries are told that they cannot go to the mission field unless they start a church. Their entire focus must be to build a local church. Does this not narrow their vision? Is this what Paul did? Paul went to Philippi. He won the Philippian jailer, Lydia and the demon possessed girl to Jesus and then left town. Nowhere did he go to build a church. Everywhere Paul went, churches sprung up. Why? He focused on the “cause"  the great commission. He went to the market place to win people to Jesus Christ,  the result (effect) a church. 

     When Jesus left for Heaven, he delegated to us the cause for the generations to come. We call it the “Great Commission” (Matt. 28:19-20). When we do what he has asked of us, the effect will be that churches will spring up all over the place. Your office, the hospital, your neighborhood, the golf course, and where ever you find yourself you will be there to work on the cause, winning people to Jesus Christ, and the effects will come later. To make the church the cause is to get the cart before the horse, as the old saying goes.  

     Why are we making this point? I believe there is a danger of putting the emphasis on the “effect” rather than the "cause". If we as believers catch the focus of the Apostle Paul, we will realize that winning the world to Christ will be done when we can comprehend that our “religion” is not restricted to four walls and a steeple. We are to take on the full armor of God (Eph. 6) and go to battle. We are not an army of occupation but rather an army of conquest. We cannot put God in a box. We must give witness to the fact that He is alive in each of us because “we are the temple of God."  It is good to take people to church, but it is great to take people to the Cross!  

     Too often we are focused on building the buildings and not the body of Christ. How many billions have we expended on buildings that today stand empty or are pastored by Satan ministers? This is not to say that we should not have local churches and facilities to meet in. However, when I look around I see elaborate buildings being used two or three hours a week, I believe in many of these cases the focus was turned from the “cause” to the “effect”. Religion focuses on the effect. They have no “Good News”. Christianity focuses on the “CAUSE”.  

     Again, I remind you that we are not opposed to the local church. We at BBN all attend good Bible believing churches. If you are a believer today, you will seek out Christian fellowship which is found in a local church. You need to be identified with a local church. However, I believe in perspective we often overemphasize the “effect” the church, rather than the “cause”  

     Is the effort of your life focused on the “cause” or the effect?

Lowell Davey
BBN Radio