As someone who has been involved in teaching and implementing principles of the kingdom of God since the mid-1990s, I have observed many ways Christian leaders fail to expand the kingdom. The following are the most common ways we work without kingdom effectiveness.
1. Mere political victories. The Christian Right made the mistake of focusing only on politics. Many in this camp were ecstatic when George W. Bush was elected U.S. president in 2000, and the same happened when Trump was elected president in 2016.
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However, elections come and go. Thus, it is a massive error for the church to focus only on politics. We have learned that it is possible to win elections and continue to lose the culture since politics is only one of several major cultural spheres. We need to reach all the spheres if we wish to genuinely see a biblical reformation that reflects kingdom values.
2. Transfer growth between churches. Many churches market themselves and their ministries via Christian media. This means their target audience is primarily other Christians.
Some new church plants have initial services on Sunday evenings when most other churches don’t meet so they can attract other church members with their special events. The result is that several churches have grown at an astonishing rate. But when you examine their demographic, you find that most of their people come from other churches. This does not expand the kingdom of God; it simply expands the roles of that particular church.
3. Megachurch crowds. Some pastors are glorified event planners who know how to draw and keep a crowd. The test of a church’s effectiveness is not how many attend on Sunday but how many are committed Christ-followers on Monday.
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