Jesus Called, He wants His church Back by Ray Johnston

Why is it that in an age when we need God most, it seems less and less people are going to church? In "Jesus Called: He wants His church back" Ray Johnston takes an honest look at his job as a pastor, and makes it a goal to find out what he can do to reach more people for Christ.

He found that most people who say they're Christians, really have no intentions of actually living like a Christian or being more Christ-like which is the ultimate goal. People say they love God, but they hate church. Ray explains why these two ideas can not coincide together. The church is a representation of Christ. You can't go to a church to simply remain a spectator. Get involved! Lead, teach, grow in your own faith by serving.

You can't pick and choose things out of the Bible that you want to believe. Ray calls this Cafeteria Christianity. People end up mixing their ideas with Biblical truths and end up with their own kind of religion which doesn't actually represent Jesus at all.

One of the most important things Jesus taught on was to care for the least of these. Ray mentions one weekend where they shut down all of their church services to minister to the community by cleaning up playgrounds, building things, repairing things, and just reaching out in a way that most churches do not do. You can just see Jesus in these actions. How much different would our communities view Jesus if we did these things?

I was first drawn to this book because of the title. I mean, how could you not be? The author does an amazing job of doing his research. He is the founding pastor of Bayside Church, which is one of the largest churches in the United States. His book makes me want to do more. To serve more than we already do, and to learn what it truly means to give until it hurts. I would highly recommend this book to everyone I know. Christians and non-Christians. I think Pastors and church leaders could really benefit from it as well. It seems that churches just don't do outreach like this anymore. So many churches are more concerned with preaching on tithing (Don't get me wrong. This is super important too), than actually teaching on serving. Hospitality is not a thing of the past. I am now eager to read other books written by this author! I rate this book as 5 stars and would highly recommend it!

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