Building the church is God’s great project on earth. In our church, every message and event is designed to build our church. The messages become the culture of our church. What we preach today is a seed that becomes a full-grown tree tomorrow. “Followership” and servanthood are high-priority messages (seeds we plant) because they build the culture of the kingdom of God.
This builds the church because the house of God is built on serving. When people join our church, we tell them they are now members of a house, not a hotel. Rather than expecting to be served as in a hotel, we expect them to accept a serving role to help grow, build, and maintain the house.
“You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.”
(Haggai 1:9)
If we neglect His house in favor of our own house, then our efforts will vaporize. When His house is our first priority, however, we bring favor to our own.
The greatest curse in the world today is self-centeredness. A New York phone company surveyed 500 telephone conversations. What was the most common word? “I”—it occurred 3,900 times in the five hundred calls.
…in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves….
(2 Tim. 3:1-2)
Looking up “troubled times” on the Internet, it seems that everything but self-centeredness is blamed for perilous times—guns, drugs, economic downturns, changes of governments, fanatics in the Middle East, terrorists, weather patterns, global warming, El Niño, business monopolies, illiteracy, poverty, family breakdowns, violence, lawless media, hard-line religious groups, insensitive governments, road rage, high medical fees, interest rates, floods, tsunamis, bank charges, dot.com failures, and of course, wild animals are blamed for all kinds of problems we face today.
However, the above scripture reveals that the real cause of perilous times is flawed character, not dire circumstances. The character flaws Paul lists in 2 Timothy 3:2-9 spring from self-centered living. The shocking reality concerning this dark list of flaws is that Paul states these people have a “form of godliness”—they go to church!
To claim to be Christian means we claim to live unselfish lives. Great character springs from unselfishness. We bless others at our own expense. For many people, their world is all about them. Everything is always about them and what they’re doing. But God created our universe to orbit around His Son, Jesus Christ, not ourselves:
…All things were created through Him and for Him.
(Col. 1:16)
Let’s not shout amen just yet though. Such a lifestyle calls for changes. This is not just theory. We actually have to change how we live life so that we are not first in our world, but rather Christ is. Here are a few practical ways to do this:
- Try getting through today without talking about yourself and what you’re doing. Instead, ask others about themselves and what they’re doing.
- Try listening to someone else’s story without talking about the same thing that happened to you (even though yours might be bigger, better, longer, nastier…).
- Once every day for the next week, help someone else get what he or she wants. And let it mean you’re not going to be able to do what you want.
- Go to church with a view of seeing what you can give rather than what you can get.
- Write your results in your journal. Changing from a self-centered life to a Christ-centered life is not difficult if we simply die to ourselves and accept the life of someone who lives for another.
…whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
(Mark 10:43-45)
In this lifestyle, we help others at our expense, when it is inconvenient to us. When we move from a life of comfort to life with discomfort, serving others even though it costs us time and money, we have embraced the kingdom of God.
Serve God and not serve people? Impossible! Serving people is serving God. If we’re unable to serve people, we can’t serve God.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Phil and Chris Pringle came to Sydney in 1980 from New Zealand to start a church with a passion for Jesus and a desire to see this world won for Christ. Just 12 people attended the very first service on Easter Sunday at Dee Why Surf Club. With that service, C3 Church and the C3 Global movement as we now know was birthed.
Numbers grew as the venue changed while connect groups blossomed through fun dinner parties and hangouts. Phil had a vision of creating a contemporary church, which included creating modern, relevant worship music and recorded sermons that truly resonated with a crowd of people that hadn't felt connected to church prior. Week by week, the altar call would be filled with people wanting to meet and experience Christ. The vision was growing.
Expanding to a Brookvale warehouse, Phil and Chris sent much loved friends and fellow church builders overseas to plant C3 Churches abroad, fighting for years to see a patch of paddocks transformed into the state-of-the-art venue that now exists at Oxford Falls. Today, C3 Oxford Falls has grown to a congregation of thousands and C3 Sydney has expanded to C3 Silverwater, C3 Rozelle and C3 Penrith, with further extension services at Avalon, Bankstown, Manly, Merrylands, Mosman and Wahroonga all continuing to move towards a local vision: Sydney, A City For Christ.
Phil is the President of C3 College, a ministry training college developing leaders and ministers for the church today with over 5000 graduates. Each week, C3TV broadcasts church services to thousands throughout the world, under Phil's leadership.
In his meetings, Phil has seen powerful moves of God, with the glory of God filling the atmosphere. As a result, many have been saved and lives totally changed. Chris is known for her responsiveness to the Holy Spirit, cheeky demeanor and life-giving messages.
Phil and Chris are parents to Rebekah (married to Matt), Dan (married to Leah) and Joe (married to Christine), and grandparents to Sonny, Finn, Rooney Bea and Goldie Jean.