The Problem with the Church, Continued...

If you read my last post you probably think I hate the Church. Not true. In fact it is the one thing in life I am most passionate about. I long for the Church to be what it is supposed to be: the hands and feet of Christ, the Light of the world, the city set on a hill that cannot be hidden, the bride of Christ, the heirs of salvation, the body of Christ. The Church should be the embodiment of Christ on the Earth. We should be about His business of seeking to save that which was lost. But what I see in the American Church is an organization over run with the culture of its surroundings. We have replaced the life of Christ with the American Dream where we are all happy, rich, and healthy. We have many people professing to be propagators of the gospel who are peddling to the masses the ear ticking message that God is your genie and He is here to make you rich, healthy, and powerful.

What can we do to turn the tide of this false gospel? It starts with me. The Church, like the illustration given in 1 Corinthians 12, is truly like a body. It is a collection of parts made up of individual parts. If one part fails or does not do what it is designed to do the rest suffers. Ever had an injury of any kind? The rest of the body must work harder to make up for the part that isn't working. They must bear the weight of things they weren't designed to do, and you can no longer do what you could do normally. You are hindered in your capabilities. The Church is no different. If we do not teach the Truth, then the actions of the Body suffer. In other words, if we teach that God is here to serve you and make you rich and wealthy, then why would we expect the Church as a body to reach out to those who are poor and needy? If we teach that ALL you have to do is believe in Christ and you will go to Heaven but fail to define what belief means, do people really believe? Will they really go to Heaven? Therefore, it is imperative that I, as a believer, teach the Truth to my family, friends, fellow believers, and to the World at large.

Some of you may say that this sounds dogmatic and rigid. It is. However, I believe that right teaching leads to right belief which leads to right action. This is the bottom line. Any teaching that does not lead to action that is consistent with the Jesus found in the Gospels is wrong. So we are left with the question of how to know what is right behavior? This goes back to my former post. We spend time reading books from people who would be considered personalities/celebrities in the Christian world. They lead large churches, they have financial/academic/professional success and we automatically assume that they are spiritually superior to those we come into contact with each week in our churches. We feel as though they have harnessed some secret to success that we do not have. Herein lies the issue. Rather than living a life bent on being faithful to Christ, we desire a life that leads to what the world considers success. Is this a by-product of wrong teaching?

What then can I do as one person seeking to follow Christ to turn this tide? Nothing but what I am doing already: seeking to follow Christ daily, faithfully. If I do that, then I have done my part. What Christ chooses to do with my faithfulness or lack thereof is His prerogative. This is exemplified in the last chapter of John's gospel. John 21:19-22, "Jesus said this to tell how Peter would die and bring honor to God. Then he said to Peter, 'Follow me!' Peter turned and saw Jesus' favorite disciple following them. He was the same one who had sat next to Jesus at the meal and had asked, 'Lord, who is going to betray you?' When Peter saw that disciple, he asked Jesus, 'Lord, what about him?' Jesus answered, 'What is it to you, if I want him to live until I return? You must follow me.'" Herein is our imperative, our command: Follow Christ.

The Problem with the Church

How do I start this blog post? I try to be entertaining or elegant in using writing strategies to get the reader hooked, but this time I feel that bluntness is the best option. I believe the problem with the Church at large is that we have traded a living, vibrant relationship with God for a cookie cutter love affair with Christian celebrities and worship of them. What do I mean?


Simply this, the churches I have been in rarely interact with the Word of God. Our Sunday school lessons are based on books written about topics found in the Bible from popular, well-known, christian authors/pastors/singers. I heard a radio advertisement for a women's conference with Tim Tebow's mom. Really?? Her only reason for being there is that she is the mother of an infamous football player known as much for his religious posture than his football acumen. We worship Christian music artists in the same way the world worships their singers. We see a church that has a large number in attendance and we try to copy what they do. Why? Because we measure and value success in the same way the world does. This is fundamentally flawed and just plain wrong.
 
Christians are lazy in their love relationship with God, and when we see a church or person have 'success,' we want to copy what they did thinking that is the way to 'success.' Success only comes in having a living relationship with God. Spending time in His Word and with Him in prayer. Whether you get up at 5:30 every morning to pray or spend your whole day talking with Him and looking for opportunities to serve, either way you spend time with Him. Responding to His invitation to work with Him is also a way of getting to know Him. God is always working around us and when we see His work, that is his invitation to join Him. When we respond in faith, we get to know Him better as well as getting to know ourselves and His will for our lives.
 

In essence it isn't that much different at it's core than any other relationship we have. We spend time with those we love and we respond to their invitations to be with them. The one thing we can't get back in life is necessary to learn about Him and to get to know Him, and that one thing is time. Marriage is a great example and is used in the Bible as an illustration of our relationship with God. What do we pledge at a wedding? Many things are pledged but mainly time. It is a promise to live faithfully with another person for the rest of your life. You pledge to them the time remaining in your life. That is what is necessary to get to know God. He demands the first place in our lives. All other relationships come in a far distant second place when compared to our relationship with Him. Our relationship with Jesus Christ should be the priority in our lives.

This is where the difficulty comes into the Church. The fact that we have replaced the study of His Word with the words of another is a symptom that He no longer carries priority in the life of many churches. Success carries the priority and it shows in how the Church treats those outside of it's walls. There are billions of hurting, hungry, lost people in this world and we spend little time, effort, or resources on them. We send people hundreds or thousands of miles away to serve people far away, but seem to refuse to walk across the street and greet our neighbors.

This blog could take a very long time, and may continue, but for now let me say this: To be clear, I want to say I have no problem with Christian books. I have a problem with the study of the Bible being substituted with study of Christian author's books. I have to restrain from laughing in church at times because I sit there and think, "If we would just read the Bible we could see all that this author is telling us for ourselves." We trust the pastor of a mega-church hundreds of miles away but not our friends who see us each and every week at church. This needs to change.