Yikes. Those are strong words. But I have started thinking about this. Have we, over time and with good intentions and pure motivation, turned our churches into vendors of religious good and services? In our desire to attract people to our churches, have we taught that church is where you come to learn about how God can help you fix your problems? Where you come to have others teach your children about God for you? Where you come for your weekly feeding in the Word of God? Where you come for quality programs to help you live life better and develop a social network? Where you come to experience high quality worship music?
If the church has become the place instead of the people on a mission, leaders only naturally start focusing their efforts on what people experience when they come to the place on Sundays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. In recent years, churches have added the words excellence and relevance to their value statements for the church. In doing so, have our churches naturally began to spend more time focusing on the quality of the music, sound system, and bulletins? As the church grows, the pressure to continue this focus increases and the problem escalates.
The bigger the church gets, the better the preaching needs to be with more dynamic presentations and better PowerPoint slides. The music needs to be more professional with better sound systems and lighting. The youth ministries need to be better to keep the teenagers happy and paying attention so their parents can sit in the larger gathering where religious goods and services are dispensed. Great intentions, but as a result the church can subtly lose sight of its identity and missional function, and people come to church to have their needs met by others, volunteering only if they have time to spare. We must be careful not to create a culture where people come to church; if so, people generally are content to remain spectators.
Remember, we don't go to church. We are the church.
pcraig
3 comments:
Hallelujah...Jesus...come on now pastor..tell them how it is!!! thats so true...speak that power,speak that truth..the only thing is people cant accept the truth,especially the government...you are a chosen one and keep doing what you do,with No sugarcoating on top,we serve a good just GOD,in he said no weapon formed against us shall prosper'' Am with you all the way brother...Its time to step up for Jesus and do what he puts on our hearts..WE DONT SERVE MAN..WE SERVE GOD IN HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON JESUS CHRIST'' WE ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD''HALLELUJAH
Very well said pc
That is so true! Sometimes the church focuses on things like that, instead of focusing on the mission before us. We are supposed to be people with a mission! Amen!
Post a Comment