The pastor is the CEO. The clergy and/or staff is upper management. Evangelism is sales and marketing. The congregation is the clientele. And there is competition with other corporations (“churches”) in the same town.

But the corporation metaphor has a major problem. Not only is it glaringly absent from the New Testament, it does violence to the spirit of Christianity. Because from God’s standpoint, the church is primarily a family. His family, in fact.

How can the church be defined so it doesn’t use a corporate definition to define its structure?

When I was at a conference a couple of months ago, I used this church as a case study on how Seventh-day Adventist churches can use social media to engage people.

One man in the audience didn’t like what I was saying. Because it was a small audience, he interrupted me, saying:

I think that’s ridiculous. Using that thing would distract the church goers and I can’t possibly see how it can help.

I replied by saying that I’m not here to convince him to do anything. All I’m doing is opening the mind on how churches can stay relevant in a busy marketplace.

How do you feel about churches using tools such as Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools as a way to evangelize in today’s world?

As we were talking, he addressed with me his concern over my foundation. As I probed into his statement, he accurately assessed that I was beginning to rapidly put together a structure, but my foundation was not set. He further elaborated that I may even need to pull back the reigns on the ministry, because the monthly provisions for my family were not fully in place.

There was great wisdom in those words. A structure is only as good as the foundation it is built upon. The foundation determines to what degree and at what pace the structure can be erected. It also determines the longevity of what is built, and the types of adversity the structure can withstand.

This conversation has had me thinking about the following passage of Scripture:

Luke 6:47-49 (NASB)

47 “Everyone who comes to Me, and hears My words, and acts upon them, I will show you whom he is like:

48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood rose, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

49 “But the one who has heard, and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house upon the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

The greatest detriment to the lives we are building is the poor foundation work, we all too often settle for. We may hear the words of God, but how often do we fail to implement those very things into our lives. We know we are cutting corners, but we don’t think anyone will ever notice the shortcuts.

Unfortunately turmoil has a way of exposing our frailties, shortcuts and shortcomings. The places we chose to hear, but not obey become glaringly obvious as we watch the structures of our lives come crashing down on the shifting foundations upon which they were built.

Today, I encourage you to evaluate your foundation. Have you taken the time to dig deep and lay your foundation on the bedrock principles of God? If you have, the storms may be fierce, but they will not topple the things God has directed you to build. In the end the structure will stand, unmoved by the tempest, because the foundation never shifted.

Author Resource: Carl Willis is the Lead Pastor/Strategist for Simplicity Church Network and owns the ecommerce site www.healthmartxpress.com

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A man in his 40s, of Muslim descent, who will deceive the nation with persuasive language and have a massive Christ-like appeal. The prophesy says that people will flock to him and he will promise them false hope and world peace and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.

According to snopes.com, Revelation 13 has been badly misinterpreted and that it speaks of the appearance of beasts, not of the Anti-Christ. Thus, Obama is not the Anti-Christ.

What do you believe? Leave your comments in the section below.

It’s open to all Kanisa people, their friends, family members, co-workers or anyone who needs a certification.  Anyone that doesn’t confidently know how to save the life of a parent or loved one who just had a heart attack or an infant who is choking MUST TAKE THIS COURSE.

The cost is $50.00 for certification and $25.00 for recertification. Kanisa Health Ministries will pay 50% of the cost for the 1st 20 Kanisa members who sign up.  Please put a check or cash in a tithe envelope and give it to Paulette Higgins-Gray at pahdc@sympatico.ca or Nadine Knight at nknight80@hotmail.com.