Reachout Trust recently had a stand at the New Wine Leaders’ Conference (NWLC) in Harrogate, UK, and I was amazed at the number of organisations represented on other stands, all working to promote Jesus and His Father to the world.
There were some 76 stands covering almost every niche of society
and its need for Christ. People providing worship needs for the elderly, for
the disabled, for families. Book shops providing a huge variety of literature on
almost every subject about Christianity from a wealth of different authors. Tearfund
was there, bringing physical support to impoverished peoples along with the
word of Christ into foreign lands. Church website experts, sound engineers, our
stand was bracketed by Christian solicitors on one side and a Christian
Insurance broker on the other. Then, of course, there was us, working with the
cults to help those lost sheep to find the Lord.
The leaders of the Watchtower organisation, their Governing
Body, claim that Jehovah has only one organisation on earth and that they are
it. They point to there being the one governing body for the first century
Christians, based in Jerusalem (from Acts 15) and, because Jehovah is not a God
of confusion (1 Corinthians 14 v 33), He must have an organisation.
It is easy to see the fallacy in these arguments and my
experience at NWLC is a clear indication that God is using many different organisations
to do His work. It seems that there is no aspect of the world that He doesn’t
want covered in His desire to bring all mankind to Himself (1 Timothy 2 v 4-6).
We are told that the good news of the gospel must be preached to all the
nations before the end is to come (Matthew 24 v 14) and so every part of every
nation will need to be touched.
I have also been to the Christian Vision for Men (CVM) men’s
conference in Swindon for many years, the Gathering (and cannot recommend it
enough for the fun, worship and evangelism there), and they too have a tent
full of stands. Many are sports based, Christians for football, Christinas in car
racing, bike racing and so on. It seems that whatever Christians consider important
in their lives they do it for Jesus and want you to do it too.
Going around the stands at NWLC and chatting with the people
manning them, there was one common theme, Jesus and His kingdom. Each wanted
people to come to know Him better in their own little niche, each one wanted to
show His love to those who needed Him, the old, the young, the sick, the
disabled, the illiterate, the poor, the hungry.
Wherever there was a need it seemed someone wanted to fill that need and
to do it in the way Jesus did when he was on earth, through meeting people
where they were and giving them what they needed.
Are we all wrong to want to have differing ‘organisations’
to promote the word of the Lord, to spread His gospel? Should we all bow to
one, overriding organisation and come under its jurisdiction? I believe the answer
to former is, no, but to the latter it is, yes, but that ‘organisation’
is not a man-made one, it’s a heavenly one, made up of the body of Christ with
its headquarters in heaven. Long may we all work towards one goal, the kingdom
of God on earth (Matthew 6 v 9) as one body under one Spirit. I’m thinking of
setting up Snowboarders for Jesus, anyone want to join?
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