Religious Junk Mail

Don't you love junk mail?  I get junk mail like everyone else, but mine also has that religious, mean-spirited edge to it sometimes.  I received a strange and disturbing junk mail letter the other day that I opened because I thought it was something else.  

This letter comes from one Baptist group and denigrates another Baptist group and was a waste of 45 cents of postage and the cost of the paper it was printed on.  Here's the statement that disturbed me:  "[Group] is needed more than ever.  The [Other Group] is unrelenting in attempting to draw churches away from [Group] and restrict their freedom."  And you thought over-the-top scare tactics were for politicians and talk-show hosts.  Apparently, they're for preachers too.

Never mind the stupidity of the claim of restricting freedom and so forth.  What lies behind that is the paranoia and lack of perspective that comes with the Kingdom.  We are not called to be builders of organizations but seekers of the Kingdom.  

Jesus is the One who promised to build His church upon the rock of the faith-filled confession that He is Lord.  Focusing on the Kingdom frees us to celebrate when God moves in His people, no matter their denominational label or locale of church membership.

As a pastor, I want to always be focused on the Kingdom and seeing it come on the earth as it is in heaven.  I want that to be more than a line from a rote prayer, but instead a passionate cry from our heart that God would do in us and through us exactly what He wants and that His glory would fill the earth as the waters cover the seas.  

The Kingdom matters most.  It's what remains long after organizations have gone.  It's what comes in the lives of men and women and brings Jesus' transformational power.  It's what lasts when the world shakes because it cannot be shaken.  Seeking it means all the rest of the things we need will be added to us.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...