The Successful Church is a Christ-centered Church

What should a church (or individual Christian for that matter) do to ensure success in that role? I agree with the researcher who concluded “the main, significant factor over all else of why churches succeed is this one point: they were centered upon Christ as LORD! The researcher went on to say, those successful churches “were not centered on a personality, a vision, a denomination, an emerging paradigm, or a set of trends.” So the answer is that we should center all we do upon Jesus Christ as LORD.

This answer is obviously simple to state but more difficult to put into to practice and that is why so many churches are failing; they fail to practice the simple principal of keeping everything they do centered upon Jesus Christ as LORD.

Facing many uncertainties and adversities, Jesus began his ministry of establishing God’s kingdom in a hostile world filled with great need (Matthew 4:12-25). His ministry began by the Sea of Galilee and grew rapidly to include new followers in a ministry of meeting the needs of people according to God’s plan and vision. By God’s grace, people were able to identify with Jesus’ message, see his vision, and be moved along the right path in their lives.

Today, just as it was then, the church Jesus established is facing many difficulties in fulfilling its God-given mission to bring the world to a saving knowledge and work of Jesus Christ. And still today, by work of God’s Spirit through the Church, people can be moved by Jesus’ message along the right path toward his vision for God’s kingdom.

The success of Jesus’ early ministry can be attributed to his intentional process that we can follow in our ministries today. I pray we will all learn from and follow the example of Jesus so that our church and personal ministries will have the potential for success as he intended.

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