08/18/20 JESUS’ SECOND MENTION OF CHURCH — Matthew 18:15-20 is the SECOND and FINAL time Jesus mentioned “Church.” Just after teaching the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus discussed His Four-Step Procedure for Maintaining Church Discipline. I can hear it now: “Oh, NO! Not church discipline! That’s terrible! We tried it once. It didn’t work!” I can’t count how many times I’ve heard that from longtime church members. I usually ask, “So, are you suggesting that Jesus Himself made a BIG MISTAKE when He prescribed for us how to deal with sin?”

Having been a computer geek my entire adult life, when I was in seminary I prepared a computer program style flowchart of this passage, which I entitled “JESUS’ FOOLPROOF FLOWCHART OF FORGIVENESS” (I MAY post it soon, even tomorrow). One Wednesday night I presented to the Youth at our church. A mini-revival broke out with teens confronting, confessing and forgiving one another, and praying together! It was a school night; some parents were dismayed when their kids were not ready to go home yet. Our college pastor heard about it; he asked me to present it to his crowd the next week. Same thing (except for the parents)! It was fantastic!

Church growth gurus tell us that the #1 characteristic of a successful mega-church pastor is FRIENDLINESS!? These days we are so consumed with growing numerically, that we have nearly abandoned the accountability, discipline, maturity and purity Jesus expected and commanded. And our profound lack of POWER and INFLUENCE is the inevitable result. Let’s return to the FORMULAS for a SUCCESSFUL CHURCH outlined by the Lord Himself. After all, it’s HIS Church and He WILL (continue to) build it, on His terms and His timetable! These were His “Famous Last Words” about Church! Let’s READ them and HEED them!