Skip to main content

Is the church a cafe? Did you go to be served or to serve?

By
I had a dream this morning where I saw that I was working in a cafe.  It was busy, there were people coming and going and we didn’t have everything we needed, we still needed a barista, some customers were helping cook the steak for the hamburgers that Jim was cooking as Jim was rushed off his feet. We needed people to serve the people coming in as I was dealing with all the different ones coming and going.  I saw that people were sitting down in a seat but actually weren’t there to get food, they were just using the seats even though they were not using the cafe.   I saw a council officer come in to inspect things and she saw we still needed a barista and she knew people and was going to help us to find one. There was an older man there who was smoking a cigar and I was keen to have a drag off his cigar. People were wandering through our private home at the back of the cafe.  The cafe remained open because people kept coming.  But I was shown that if I didn’t put time limits on the cafe on I would slip over (being rushed off my feet) and the watermelon juice I was carrying would slip down the drain spilling over people.

I pondered this as I asked the Lord a question if running a church was like a business and He said ‘No’ but, “he was about the Fathers business.”  And that business he was about was teaching in the synagogues (churches of that day - Mark 14:49) and preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every sickness and disease. Mark 4:23

I believe many people are treating churches like a cafe where they come in and get served and when they don’t get want what they want they leave the cafe never to return, leaving a bad smell like that of the cigar I saw.   But in actual fact Jesus said in Matt 20:25 “the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”.   
So no, we are not in a business but there are aspects of the church that can be seen like a business and there are warnings we can heed in which we will see the things in which the Lord has called us to do, to remain.  We have come to do the Fathers business which is to serve, teach and preach the good news, to heal sickness and disease. 

There were many warnings in this dream for me and I share this because I believe there is relevance for others here as well.
  1. To put boundaries on your time and not to be ‘open’ day and night.  We need to be a people that take time for ourselves to be refreshed in the Lord.  Even Jesus went off from the crowds to be alone.  To not be so rushed off our feet as to not be aware of things that may slip into our lives  through being so busy.
  2. That God is the one who makes divine appointments (council lady) who will give us what we need.  Expect the unexpected in areas of provision.
  3. When someone takes offence, be careful not to come alongside that offence and join in. (The man smoking the cigar that I wanted to take a drag off.)
  4. Don’t go into churches with an attitude of being served but rather what can I do to help?  Eph 6:7  “Serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord not man, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever he does, whether he is slave or free.”
For me, part of my job if you like, is to ‘prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph 4:12)
A call and a passion on my life is to see the unity of the brethren and that is about seeing a body of believers growing up into maturity where we are all serving one another in love, ‘submitting to one another of our reverence for Christ’ Eph 5:21 and in that place we will attain the ‘whole measure of the fullness of Christ’ and that excites me as to what that would look like.  People healed, delivered, set free, the kingdom of heaven on earth as it is in heaven.  That is what I live for.



Popular posts from this blog

What do Kingdom finances look like?

By
I was asked by someone the other day what Kingdom finances looked like and I realised that this is an area that needs some discussion. This is my opinion of what Kingdom finances look like according to what the Lord has taught me over the years and to scriptures I have been shown, but I am not the be all and end all to thinking, so it is something you might want to check out for yourselves. The way of the world is to store up riches, to save for a rainy day, to have enough to protect themselves should something happen, that I have earned this and it is mine and therefore I can do what I want with it. The way of the Kingdom is a way of giving to the poor, giving to God's people in need and practicing hospitality, of not worrying about tomorrow, of trusting God for the future and His provision in that time of need when it arises, of everything is His (God's). I believe that if you see a need in front of you and you have something in which can help with that need, whatever it is,...
Read more

The baby's been handed over

By
Several weeks ago the Lord shifted us out of the 'home office' into the 'market place' and in the process a spiritual shift happened - one of letting the 'baby' go, a releasing and handing over the batten, so to speak to others. In this process the nests that WE ALL have been in have been stirred up, shaken about, and pushed out, to fly in ways that perhaps we were too afraid to do previously. The amazing thing with God is that He knows the timing of all of this and where each one of us is at and what we can handle.  Yes there has been a fluttering of wings in panic.  Yes, we have had a few weeks of challenge as authority and structures get changed and challenged, frustrations coming to the fore, but love helps us overcome,  love helps us to forgive,  love helps us to see the good and not the dirt, love helps us remember our own failings and yet forgiveness and grace that the Lord has for me, that I can give to others, remembering it's the glory of G...
Read more

GRM Call to prayer - "Who will weep for the Bride?"

By
Something I realised in my recent trip away to the Canterbury region is again the confirmation and call of my heart to see the bride raised up to be who she is called to be. A pure spotless bride who is ready for her beloved and walking in everything He has promised us as His authority here on the earth.  I realised afresh as I listen to different people, hear and see different reasons as to why people aren't going to church, or perhaps have recently moved churches for some reason, basically peoples hurts and frustrations regarding 'Church', that there is a disconnect in how people see things and how the word of the Lord the bible teaches us in how we ought to love one another and forgive one another.  Hence why we are seeing a 'powerless' church.  The word says that if we bite and devour one another we will be destroyed (Gal 5:15) All of us have a heart and passion, yours might be for the lost, it might be for the single parents, or the sick, etc. but the Lord...
Read more

Will you play the piano - will you spit and touch a man's toungue?

By
We had our worship group the other night and to begin with I saw someone playing the playing so I asked if anyone could and would play the piano because that is what I saw happening in the spirit.  I may have been wrong in the what I saw but I stepped out in faith but alas no one stepped forward to play the piano so Jim played it and I believe in this the Lord was teaching us some valuable lessons.  Jim cannot play the piano at all but he was willing to be used. This morning I was reading in Mark 7:32-35  "There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man...    Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears.  Then he spit and touched the man's tongue.  He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!).  At this the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. I was reminded of the other night ...
Read more

Latest Prayer Update

By
Since writing last – We continue to pray about the tent meeting but the Lord seems to continue to have that on hold as I believe he has another way of doing the same thing but in a new way where the whole body will be used and so we wait until all the pieces come together.   Please be patient with us in this. Africa – We continue to have words given to us about Africa and so the Lord is definitely talking about Africa but he seems to be widening the vision with it all, not just Malawi.   It seems more like at this stage visiting a number of African Countries wherever the Lord leads, empowering people – a bit like the last China trip but for longer and more countries and so too we wait for all the pieces to fit together. He has said to have our bags packed ready to go at a moments notice and so we have done that by faith, there are just a few other things that need to come together to make this possible.    Picton – We were blessed to be part of a team that we...
Read more
By
I shared last night about 1 Cor 15:36 "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body..." I was preaching on it last night and it will come up in video form later in the week on the GRM sight, mainly reflecting on we can sow things one way, but God raises it up as HE determines how it should look. But this morning I got more revelation which will be quite obvious to some, but to me it struck me afresh. When we sow something it get's buried, it cannot be pulled back up. It no longer has 'connection' with 'me' if you like. It gets 'covered over' unable to be pulled up. And yet I recognise in my own life how we can sow something but there are still 'strings attached' as such as we often are still determining or expecting it be rai...
Read more