“and I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; . . .” Matthew 16:18

I – We need a new Bible, the Word of God according to evangelical interpreters. Of course, you might argue that we already have such a book. I had two men show up at my door this morning who wanted to share the “good news.” I think they were a little dismayed when I began to explain Scriptures to them in Hebrew terms. One man vociferously defended the fact that we are born sinners by consistently pointing to the verse in Romans – “as by one man sin entered into the world”- arguing that this means we all have a sinful nature. He refused to acknowledge that the verse doesn’t actually say this. It didn’t matter what the verse said. It only mattered what he believed it said.

Yeshua tells us something about the great commission in this verse in Matthew. He says that He will build His church. I don’t think we actually hear what He says. We think He says, “You will build My church by proselytizing, recruiting, programming, planting or otherwise making members.” Our great commission is church planting. Yeshua’s great commission is quite different – disciple! Yeshua is most concerned with pouring life into other lives so that others will experience first-hand the presence of God in their midst. Yeshua makes us responsible for attaching ourselves to others in life-to-life involvement. He rejects all of the disconnected, passive, hierarchical systems of the world. He pleads for unity.

But we build. We build organizations, programs, processes, campaigns, schools and missions. We construct edifices that absorb funds, time and people without creating community. We make the “Church” the head of the organization and we become its CEO’s. No wonder the “church” is a mess, emulating the behavior of the world, driven by the same systems and goals. This is a variation on an old, old theme – taking God’s goals into my hand so that I can control the outcome. Havvah tried it in Genesis 4:1. We are still attempting to make it work today. We call it “partnership” with the Lord (just as she did) but the truth is that we only want the Lord to assist us, not to run the show.

Today the “church” loves control. In spite of the rhetoric, it endorses a passive Body, a professional hierarchy and a financial model that spends but doesn’t produce. It seems to reflect one of those basic patterns of the world. Heaven forbid we actually empowered believers in the Body to do what God has equipped them to do. That would threaten the staff’s control. If we allowed (notice the word) such a thing, it would be His church, not ours.

The great commission isn’t about bringing in the un-churched. What kind of word is that? What does it imply about our focus? Most of us seem to attend the “church” started by Eve – a church that thinks it is the general partner is a joint venture. Maybe it’s time to stop trying to do God’s work for Him. “Disciples, wanted, not decisions.”

Topical Index: church, Eve, Havvah, Matthew 16:18