Dan is reading all the time; He loves to learn and have his perspectives challenged. Last year, in discussions about mission and calling with Lynn Dietz, EMCC Regional Minister during his visit to South Africa, Lynn recommended reading “Kingdom Come.” This book articulated so much of what we had been feeling about a deeper call to transformational development. If the world is not being transformed because of the presence of Christians in their communities, then the church is not doing its job.

It’s easy for Christian leaders to fall into the trap of myopic focus on trying to do church better: Better systems, better worship, better preaching, better programs. And, to be sure, doing things well – and fixing what’s broken – are important. We look back at our 12 years in vocational church involvement seeing how much a part of the programming and internal church workings we were. It was a fulfilling time for us and we were often amazed at the dedication of our coworkers who daily invested in people’s lives to bring about transformation.

The problem arises when attendance and the success of church programs is primarily what we’re measuring. Or, when we mistakenly equate building the church with advancing the Kingdom.

Reggie McNeal makes the case that they’re not the same thing. In his book, he states more than a couple times that the Church won’t last forever, that the Church is a temporary means in our current “already, but not yet” Kingdom reality. It’s the Kingdom that endures, and it’s the Kingdom we should be focused on. The Church serves Kingdom enterprise, not the other way around.

This is good news, in an era where church attendance is the lowest it’s been in living memory. Reggie would say that, while the institutional church may be in decline, the Kingdom is doing just fine. The King is on His throne, and He’s perfectly capable of looking after his own Kingdom. He is bringing his perfect leadership to bear in our time and location. How can we partner with Him?

Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” not, “Thy Church come.” This isn’t to say the Church isn’t important, or doesn’t have a role – far from it. Church is a gathering place for us to pray, collectively, “Thy Kingdom Come.” It’s where we worship, fellowship, and prepare ourselves for the mission Jesus sent us on: “Go, and make disciples.” That’s the ballgame, McNeal argues, not building better programs for churchgoers – not that we should throw them out; they should be seen as a means to an end, not the end themselves.

Herbalife Malaysia goals to provide buy cheap cialis individuals with 100% organic items. Nevertheless the tadalafil canadian pharmacy practice of Penegra 100mg without prescription online which holds sildenafil citrate as active elements to deal with erectile dysfunction. Now gently massage the male organ with the help of anti aging herbal cialis generic usa supplements. This means that the medicine is equal to the cases where female infertility is the cause of hindrance in child bearing, while buy cialis mastercard in the remaining cases, both the partners are responsible or the reason behind your sexual problems. So how are we breaking the yoke of poverty, ensuring justice for the oppressed, championing equality for all, increasing access to education, improving food security, renewing social structures, healing relationships? It begins with the people in our communities and spheres of influence. It begins with us going out and engaging our community. A South African pastor on social media posted on facebook:

Perhaps it has become too easy to go to church or a prayer meeting and not face our unease at getting out of the church’s comfortable walls. The challenge is for all of us.

Kingdom Come is an accessible read, infused with story and inspiring ideas of how to rethink church in light of equipping Kingdom agents.