It was Mark Sayers who I first heard talk about this concept. He talked about how our world wanted the fruits of the kingdom; love, peace, joy, patience, kindness etc. but we didn’t want the source of that fruit – Jesus.

Of course as we all know its impossible to have fruit without the root. Unless there is a source to that fruit it will never sustain and will never satisfy.

In the last couple of days I have seen this highlighted more and more. Whether its friends who don’t know Jesus, people attending a church service for the first time in a long time, or stories from the workplace, I hear the same theme coming up. Phrases like;

“l love most of this (church), but I’m not so sure of the Jesus bit”

Its a bizarre situation. When the world wants to do the works of the kingdom without the words of the king. So what does this mean for the church?

Depending how we’ve been operating as the church it could mean a lot. I do think we will need to think about who we are and how we do what we have been called to do. Our communities will applaud us for looking after those who need it but they are likely to want it on their terms and not on ours. The church will come under increased pressure to do the things of the kingdom but not talk about the king. The temptation will be to do that exact thing. The problem is if we fall into this pattern we will simply blend into a world where we aren’t the light of the world, but simply another nice organisation doing nice things.

Moving forward we must think carefully and ask for the Lords wisdom as me proceed. We must remember that we serve the king and His Kingdom.