What one thing does the church lack in order to be effective and what does it look like with "skin" on?

So, this was the question I sent out to a few folks just days into the new year.  And I have gotten some great responses, especially since my friend in Texas forwarded it on to a few folks.  It's been varied but everyone has given some thoughtful responses.
Here are some of the responses I received...and you are invited to join the conversation!

Love in the form of service....discovering needs (hunger, education, whatever), going where they are, doing what needs to be done. ~ Candy Reid

The key thing we are lacking is intentional, concerted prayer for growth of the  body and the kingdom.  Every great man of God and movement of God has been fueled with persistent, individual, and corporate prayer. ~ Bryan Haynes

I think in my church experience it would be true discipleship of the  believer- making the Word (both Christ and the Bible) relevant and the defining plum line truly in a believer's life.  So many walk around without their minute to minute life really impacted by their "church" life.  Instead we have a list of dos and donts that we check off.  I think that would be one.  Most of the women I interact with don't know/consider how to do this so Christ isn't their all in all, their passion. ~ Bethany Kimsey

Not making true disciples of Christ because most church member do not understand or  live out the truth that “All that Christ is ,He is in us and all that He is in us He desires to be through Us” Believing this would cause Christians to live by faith that they can do all things through Christ. It is what God does through us that causes the unsaved to be thirsty for Christ. – TD Hall

I would say .... Living in daily Christian community with each other. And bringing the lost into that community. – Marybeth Treece

A lack of applicatory preaching that creates genuine Christian community. – Pastor Doug Wilson

I would say, living in close community, valuing the sacraments, and the teaching of scripture with a reformed hermeneutic. – Garrett Treece

I think the church lacks purpose. We have become consumers who partake in a self-centered Christianity. Once we are saved we sit back and think to ourselves, "Great, what else can God do for me?" In reality we should be "a family of gospel centered missionary servants who make disciples that make disciples." But we are not a family, meaning we do not live in community or have any unity. We are not living gospel centered lives, meaning that we do not live out practical theology; we have a dualistic theology of "sacred" and "secular". We are not missionaries, meaning we do not live all of life as if we were sent out by God, even though the truth is that we have been sent by God, everywhere we go, even to the post office. We are not servants, we seek to gain from God and from others rather than follow Christ's example, "the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve," we should be serving so as to make the rule and reign of Christ tangibly known in the world around us. And finally we are not making disciples, meaning that most church growth is "sheep swapping" from one church to another. We are not doing the hard work of converting the lost and growing them into Christ like people, and in turn they don't go and make disciples either. The Church is better at squashing Godly ambition than harnessing it for God's glory and the growth of the kingdom.  I think from scripture these should be the purposes of the church, for God's glory, and the truth is that we have a difficult time showing up on time once a week. – Nicholas Rozier

A lack of intimacy with Christ himself, that's the thing that's lacking in the church today.  With skin on we would look like Christ.  Making time with Him needs to be a priority.~ Rose Daniel

 

 

What's lacking in the church today is Jesus. I suppose I should explain in terms of the church taking action, even though I don't think the church needs to take any more action than it already does. All of the answers I read in your blog are true, but none of them go to the root of the problem, which is that we don't have Jesus in our lives in the Church. If we had Jesus, we would have purpose. We would have evangelism. We would have passion. We would have service. We would have love. We would have direction and vision. We would have faith and hope. We would have power. Everything that we think we need or want as members of the church originates in the person of Jesus. As we seek first Jesus Himself, everything else is added to us. All these other things are merely fruit that He causes to grow, but for these fruit to grow the branch has to be attached to the vine. That is, we must be in Him and His Word must be in us. As this is the case we become more like Him, and are able to do everything He has called us to do. ~ Josiah Brewster

TO BE CONTINUED......