Some churches are so incredibly lifeless that everyone in attendance appears to be on sedatives. Many of us have attended churches like that. The people seem to be sleep walking on their way in, and sleep walking as they leave. They boast about being “dignified” and “reverent”. But some of us see it as “dead”, “boring”, “stale”, "dry" and “old” religion.
Other churches are filled with hyperactive fanaticism! They find “demons under every bush". They have no sense of reverence at all. They have no form or fashion. They come off as “super-spiritual”, “facade”, and “superficial” in their worship.
Somewhere between an emotional frenzy that appears to be humanly motivated and spiritual rigor mortis, there is a church with spiritual vitality and health – a church filled with spiritual life & passion, as well as spiritual growth and maturity.
The Corinthian’s were in great need of vitality and church health. In Corinth, there were over one thousand prostitutes working the pagan temple of Aphrodite. They were in rebellion to the social elegance of the Corinthian women. They could care less about front-page coverage of the Corinthian Glamour magazine. This rebellious behavior undoubtedly infiltrated the church. And apparently, some women in the church decided to go unveiled to church. The Apostle Paul had his hands full as he addressed challenges and issues facing the early church. Can you imagine how the “church-folks” must have snubbed the newcomers?
Here’s the point: Paul would either prepare the church to become a dominant influence in its community & world, or he would allow the world to become a dominant influence in the early church! There was a balance between order and acceptance. In today’s church, we also need both. We need a climate where people are loved and accepted; but we also need a climate where people are passionate about becoming life-long followers of Christ. How we accomplish this is like walking a tight-rope!
Things to think about:
1) Do our people have a genuine love in their heart for the lost?
2) What process do we utilize to “make disciples”? What evidence is there that people are genuinely maturing?
3) How do we prepare someone in the church to embrace the newcomer without scaring them off with our rules and regulations; and at them same time, without ignoring the need for them to change?
4) What balance can we bring to our worship services, where the first-timer and the old-timer can benefit from our time together?
WOW. powerful thoughts that are so true and essential in the church today. There must be a good balance. At clc we attract alot of people that are far from God and that comes from the congregation having a true love for the lost. I personally feel that this love MUST begin with the leadership, you and I. If we are attracting the unconvinced to our churches that is great, but we must also have a good structure to see them past accepting Christ to mature into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
ReplyDeleteAt clc we immediately give them the opportunity the day they accept Christ to recieve a bible and plug them into a small group for new believers. This four week small group walks them thru the steps of beginning their walk with Christ that leads to baptism, serving, giving & getting plugged in to a small group that will provide care & nuture as a Christ follower.
As far as rules and regulations, we don't speak of those things accept through the message. If they are GOD RULES then we continue to preach the truth ALWAYS, without doubt. The problem is that many rules we have in churches today are man made rules that should be abolished. Does it really matter if people are not dressed up? Does it really make a difference if they have tattoos and their hair is differnt?? Does it really matter if they smoked a cigarette in the parking lot??? If it is SIN preach truth, if it is religious rules, we are just like the Pharisees. In the last 5 years as a church we have had multiple couples attend that live together. We have never told them they can't attend but we have continued to preach the truth of sexual purity. To date i have performed 10 weddings of those couples living together. We have had cross dressers, homosexuals, alcoholics, drug dealers and all other people with junk in their lives. LOVE THEM UNCONTROLABLY and PREACH TRUTH not rules.
Lastly, i feel the balance of baby believers and mature believers is the toughest nut to crack. For the most part as Pastors we have allowed the mature believers to become focused on themselves so therefore everything in the church has become about them. All of our activities and things we do are to please them, because you know they are the ones who really support the finances of the church. That is a load of you know what. The church exist to connect people far from God to him that they can grow into a disciple. the mature believer needs to be taught that their responsibility is to care & nuture the the baby believers. If we can get them to concentrate their time & efforts on this then they will be growing. The fact is that we have allowed the mature to think that we have to feed them every Sunday when the truth is that if they are mature they need to be feeding themselves daily and helping baby believers to learn how to do the same. This way both baby believer and mature believer benefit from our time together. Maybe we should tell the mature believers, get out of the high chair, quit pooping your pants, get the nipple out of your mouth and learn to FEED YOURSELF.
I don't think i ever remember a place or story where Jesus babied people around, burped them, changed their diaper and cuddled them to try to please them. Speak the TRUTH to both Unconvinced Sinners & Mature Believers.
Great post. Thanks for the provoking of our thoughts.
Great post. I really appreciate your post.
ReplyDelete