We continue our sermon series discovering our purpose in the overall mission of the church. Today, as we gather, our focus is on how the Church developed from the time it became legal (325AD) until the time of the Reformation. What became the focus of the Apostle’s ‘mission statement’? With the legalization of Christianity by the emperor Constantine in 320AD, the Church that was victorious over persecution through faith in Christ did not "Keep its eye on the ball;" it lost focus of the centrality of the mandate to GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES with the proclamation of Christ.  Instead, when the church emerged as a legal entity, a structure of leaders, servants and teachers of the Gospel became political and tempted by personal ambition, power and wealth.  the church was no longer the all the faithful that were called out of the world through faith, but just a select few: the bishops and all who had received the successive laying on of hands through the apostles.  For the next 1200 years, (300AD - 1517AD), the Church saved; not Christ.  The mission proclamation that was centered in the preaching of God's Word as the central power and authority, now became centered in the Bishop of Rome (the Pope).  It was his political authority that overrode the Gospel in a desire for power and wealth.  The Church became the Savior through obedience and membership; not through faith in Christ.  How did this happen during 300 years after Christ?  What does it say for us today?  Listen in...