You Might ONLY Be Religious If...

by Josh Duncan

Here's my challenge to you... Are you a religious person or a disciple of Jesus? Do you wake up each day longing to KNOW Him and make Him known? This perspective is not merely a calling reserved for "pastors" or the most visible people in a church. This is the calling for every follower of Jesus, and as The Overflow, our desire is to help you become an authentic disciple... a follower of Jesus who listens to God, does what He says, and teaches others to do the same. After all, this is Jesus' definition of making disciples. Check it out here in Matthew 28:19-20.

People of various ages, backgrounds, and lengths of time spent with our church have been saying the culture of The Overflow is dramatically changing in good way. I'm so encouraged by this. We are making progress, but what exactly are we trying to do?

In everything we do as a church, we're trying to be intentional about making disciples. My prayer is that each person who encounters our church (the people, not just our Sunday gatherings) will realize our passion to BE the church and not just be a group of attendees. However, we're not a perfect church and never will be, so we will all undoubtedly fall short at times.

Nevertheless, I'm taking this change personally in every way I possibly can, and I hope you will too. Please know that everything I do, prepare for, and lead our church to do is being filtered through a commitment to make disciples. In other words, the way I develop people in our church, the way we plan Sunday gatherings, what I encourage other people to do, and the focus of my time and energy spent during the week are all going toward creating a culture focused on making disciples. I spend dramatically less time in sermon preparation and planning for the "service" on Sunday, yet the Spirit seems to be moving within our church (not just on Sundays) more than ever before. I'm saddened to say it's not always been this way, but I think I'm starting to get it now!

Again, what about you? How is God moving in your life? I believe that within each follower of Jesus is the potential and capability to spark a movement of making disciples. Will you give God a chance to accomplish His plans in and through you? It'll never happen if you're only seeking to be religious.

Take the religious test below. Give some thought to these statements. Then, take the necessary steps to further surrender to Jesus as His disciple. If you need help in this or want to discuss this with someone, email me, josh@overflowknoxville.com, and I'll do everything in my power to guide you to becoming an authentic disciple of Jesus.

You might ONLY be a religious person if you...

-Live as if God would rather you be seen at church on Sundays instead of living with integrity and faithfulness to Him throughout the week.

-Have "quiet times" with God on a regular basis yet you're still a hateful, defeated, bitter, judgmental, unhappy person.

-Raise your hands in "worship" at a service on Sunday, but you only raise your fist at people who don't yet know Jesus.

-Are annoyed by people who don't yet know Jesus and you seek to shut yourself off from "those sinful people."

-Think dressing a certain way for a worship service on Sunday makes you more holy than someone else.

-Give an offering on Sunday because you feel guilty or want someone to see you drop something in the plate/box/whatever.

-Are more satisfied with showing up on Sundays than you are with following Jesus 7 days a week.

-Have little to no desire to share with others what God is doing in your life.

-Expect the church to teach your family how to follow Jesus so you can avoid having to practice what you claim to believe in front of your family.

-Faithfully attend the church "every time the doors are open" but have never made an intentional effort to listen to God personally, do what HE (Jesus, not your pastor) leads you to do, and to show others how to do that as well.