MAKING CHRIST SUPREME IN YOUR CHURCH

In 2001 an article appeared about a new church in the state of Maryland in The Washington Post. Using market research and focus groups, the denomination starting the new church designed weekly services that deliberately de-emphasize Jesus Christ. One of the founders of the church said, “The sad fact is the name of Jesus Christ has become for many people exclusionary.” Using Hindu and Zen, intermingled with a few verses from the Bible and recorded music by Willie Nelson, the leader of this group was quoted as saying, “We’re enabling people to discover God themselves, maybe through Jesus, maybe through Buddha, maybe through any number of ways.”

While those of us who have come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior would disagree with such an approach for church teaching, we do often function this way on a practical level. Instead of calling people to faith, repentance and submission to the supremacy of Christ, many tell people things such as Jesus wants to give them a happy marriage or a stress-free life.

While Jesus will certainly change our lives, our marriages, and our stress levels when we make him our Lord, we must not settle for “What Jesus can do for me” but for “Am I living in light of his lordship?” We don’t simply “add” Jesus to our lives; we adore him with our lives through our obedience.

Dwight L. Moody understood this and demonstrated it in his ministry. In 1893, when the World’s Fair was held in Chicago, Moody led a great evangelistic effort in Chicago. It was perhaps the greatest evangelistic work in his career. One of the features of the world’s fair was the “World Parliament of Religions” exhibit which many of Moody’s friends and associates wanted him to attack during the evangelistic effort. Moody, however, refused to attack the other religions. He said, "I am going to make Jesus Christ so attractive that men will turn to him."

That needs to be the spirit of the church. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, of all his New Testament writings, especially makes this clear. In a recent study of Colossians 1, I discovered three areas in which we should make Christ supreme or preeminent in the church.

(1) Christ is supreme in creation. In Colossians 1, Paul describes Christ as “the image of the invisible God.” He is the portrait of God, revealing the personal character of God to us. He is also the “firstborn over all creation.” This phrase is a difficult one to translate, but refers to Jesus’ existence before all creation and his priority over all creation. As a seminary professor of mine wrote, “It is Christ who makes the universe a cosmos instead of a chaos.” In the church, we dare not cave in to the pressure of our culture to water down creation to the philosophy of our culture that our world just evolved into existence. We must hold to the biblical teaching on creation and doing everything we can to care for the world God has given us.

(2) Christ is supreme in the church. Paul describes Jesus as existing “in the beginning,” a reference not just to being first in the order of things, but to being the source of the church and is therefore superior to it. He is “the firstborn among the dead.” Jesus’ resurrection is superior to all others. Without his resurrection we cannot be raised. Jesus is “supreme,” that is, he is superior to all else in life and in the church. We need to give Jesus superior status in the church. The church is not run by the pastor or elders or any other church leader. The church should be led by Jesus. We receive our marching orders from him. Our mission is not to run our church programs, but to carry out his mission.

(3) Christ is supreme through the cross. Paul says in Colossians 1 that Christ “reconciles all things to himself…through his blood shed on the cross.” The word reconcile could be translated “unite.” He unites all things to himself. That is, the very act that brings harmony and peace to all the universe is the act that brings redemption to the church – his death on the cross. The church should never apologize for the cross, but needs to hold it up as the one source of redemption for those we counsel and teach.

So, make Christ supreme in your church. Check your attitude in everything you do in the church to b e sure that you are putting Christ before everything else and following his direction.