Growing up in church in my younger days, I knew without any
doubt that the church was a one day affair that I had to do as a religious rite
and ritual to ease my conscience, break the week’s monotony and socialize as
well. Like many, I relegated the role of the church to the center for purging
sins and really nothing else. Lately I have greatly questioned that mindset and
with recent years of gradual albeit absolute break of religion and ‘churchiness
(playing church)’, I have come to the simple conclusion that we were not
redeemed (saved) to showcase our flamboyance on the front row seats while our
lives reek with hypocrisy and poverty for the two in my opinion are bosom
buddies.
In my humble opinion, there’s a bigger reason why we are
redeemed and placed within a church;
The Church is a social institution, a learning center where
we unlearn the old paradigms and embrace new principles; we shift mindsets to
align with the kingdom principles. If a believer is to leave an impact in this
generation, then a radical mind shift is paramount.
Today’s church cannot run away from the fact that in
reaching out to the masses and winning souls to the kingdom, then the gospel of
hell fire and ‘get saved God will meet your needs’ will and cannot with all due
respect carry the day. What mankind is looking for in this day and age are
solutions based on practical principles. Jesus, during his time on earth taught
about the principles of the kingdom, he used parables to create a mental
picture of what the kingdom of God was like. He appealed to the people’s minds
and not their emotional or social needs as today’s church has sadly capitalized
on and he correctly told his followers..’seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all this things shall be added to you’ (Matt 6:33) now
Paul goes ahead to explain what the kingdom of God is and he states that
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost is in fact the kingdom of God. Righteousness
encompasses right thinking, right communication, and right action among many
others. Understanding that every word and action is preceded by a thought then
means that the kingdom of God is founded on accurate mental paradigms. I
strongly believe that the 21st century church will have greater
effect by raising thought leaders.
Thought leadership is solution based. I strongly believe
that Jesus Christ was a thought leader who raised 12 leaders to affect the
entire humanity. He spent time with his disciples seeking to change their world
view, breaking religious dogmas that limited their potential and greatly
curtailed their ability to influence. We see God visiting the great apostle
peter in a vision and rebuking him for isolating people on the basis of their
creed and might I add religious belief. In essence, the Lord made it clear that
his love for mankind is unequivocal and it traverses color, creed and culture.
If the believer today is to influence our society we must be willing to
penetrate through societal barriers and cut through all seven nations with
principles laced with godliness and virtue that will be the solution to our
fallen social and administrative justice system.
The believer needs to be agent of change in the society by taking an active and leading role in decision making bodies. We need a rise of thought leaders that will penetrate the social strata with timely solutions in the boardroom, the senate/parliament, policy making bodies and the church of course. My experience in the corporate world has taught me that people don’t listen to prayers in the board room, they listen to solutions and it doesn’t matter who gives the solutions. For the believer to affect the marketplace then solution based leadership (thought leadership) is the way to go.
