I received a brochure in the mail advertising a retreat called “Building the Kingdom of God.” can you recommend this retreat? 

Yours sincerely,

Gill Ueble

I would sooner recommend a rash than a retreat titled  “Building the Kingdom”

The phrase “to build the Kingdom” appears nowhere in the New Testament. 

When I hear about building the Kingdom, it usually from some diocesan bureaucrat who is angling for a corner office at the chancery downtown.  Building the Kingdom usually involve meetings and committees.

Flee from Kingdom builders as fast as your little legs can carry you.

You can see the Kingdom, enter into the Kingdom take the Kingdom by force.  You can inherit the Kingdom, eat and drink in the Kingdom but you cannot build the Kingdom. 

Jesus said in Luke 12:32 that the Father is pleased to give us the Kingdom.

Shall we say, “No thanks, we’re building our own.”

The word Kingdom has lots of implications in Greek, one of them is royalty.  Jesus and John came preaching the good news of the Kingdom, that is the good news of God’s royal nature.  That means God is in control; no matter how bad things seem, and that the world may look at you as some poor nebbish, but God looks at you and sees a prince or a princess of His royal family.

You can’t build it, but you can accept it and live in it and preach it.  You’re supposed to build up the Church but you preach the Kingdom. 

The Church and the Kingdom are not separate realities, but only God can build the Kingdom.  If we do our part to build up the Church, the Body of Christ, God will fill her with the Spirit of His Kingdom.

Rev. Know-It-All