I just came across this exhortation on City Bible’s “Business with a Purpose” website. Its a message written by Pastor Frank and directed to the Business leaders of City Bible. Its almost inspiring:

Please hear the encouragement and respect I have for the businessperson. You are called. You are special. You are vitally important. You are standing in the gap. You are a key to city transformation. You are anointed for this ministry. You are a marketplace missionary. You are a marketplace pastor. You are a marketplace evangelist. You are a marketplace prophet. You are standing in the right place, at the right time, to do the right thing.

A “marketplace missionary”… I like it. I really do. This little message makes me think that deep down inside, Pastor Frank genuinely admires and appreciates business leaders. It makes me think that Pastor Frank’s intentions are essentially good. His repeated messages on prosperity are born out of a profound respect for the businessperson, and not a desire to get rich.

So what went wrong? How did he go from a genuine admiration of business to “Forward Together”. Somehow Frank let his desire to support business leaders transform into a worship of the business leader. He’s off track.

My take: City Bible Church needs to take the focus off being successful in business and put the focus back on Jesus.

“Out of the heart, so the mouth speaketh.”

I think PF has let his envy of the business leader corrupt the message of the church. And instead of focusing his messages on the grace and compassion of Christ, his messages focus primarily on giving and prosperity. His focus is misdirected. Change your focus PF, and your church will begin to grow again.

(Anyway, I hope this post makes the Reformed Pope happy. He has informed me that I have to provide a minimum of two blogs a week, or else he’s kicking me off the blog. He got the idea from a certain church, where if you work for them and don’t tithe, they threaten to fire you.)

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