I have been frequently hearing statements such as "my church", "my members", "our church" and other related terms. My question then is, 'Do pastors really have a church of their own?'
This is becoming a common trend in many of today's churches and I'm no longer liking it. I hear it so often and I wonder if that's how it should be. I searched through the scriptures and I could only find a place where someone showed possession of the church by saying "my church" - Matthew 16:18, that being Jesus Christ. It is in this wise, in my little understanding, that I think no authority is right in claiming a gathering of people as his/her own; that seems to me as a misplace of priority.
Even from the ancient testament, through Moses, a leader with an enviable leadership skill, though the shepherd of God's flock, couldn't claim they were his people even after God fully committed the people to him... Exodus 32 : 11 "But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?" [Also see Exo. 34:10] This is true understanding of what is called Spiritual Leadership - knowing you have no people of your own but of God though you are called to be the overseer.
Across the scripture, every other references to the church by God's own people are noted as "the church" and this continued to the time of the generals of our time whom the Lord used to propagate His church reflecting in the different names of the church such as CHERUBIM & SERAPHIM CHURCH OF GOD; CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH; CELESTIAL CHURCH OF CHRIST, THE REDEEMED CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF GOD and many others. Why then should ministers of these same church claim ownership of the people and preach it? Are the people God's people or your people?
If we all truly belong to the same church of the Lord, let us only propagate His church and not "our church"...
ONE FOLD, ONE SHEPHERD!
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