Call me simplistic, but I think that when we talk about church culture, we seem to have gotten off track somehow.

For me it boils down to two choices. Either we have a church culture centered on the gospel or we have something else that looks like the church but is not.

The gospel tells us that we are saved by the grace of God and by His grace alone. In response to that salvation, we are called to fulfill two great commands. We are called to love God with everything we have and we are called to love our neighbor as good or better than we love ourselves.

I say that the commands are in response to the gospel because the Apostle John tells us that we love because God first loved us.

We don’t need a “woke” culture. We don’t need a social justice culture. We don’t need to gin up friendliness to visitors. We don’t need spectacular worship performers. The list of things we don’t need is endless.

What we do need is leaders and people who recognize their need of a savior and grateful that Jesus came to be that savior.

Certainly how we live out the gospel is many-faceted. Also, in each location living out the gospel will likely look a bit different because the people to whom we are called to minister are different and have different needs.

But, if we lose sight of our central purpose (individually and corporately) we will get sidetracked into all sorts of nonsense.

Focus on the gospel. Get that right and I have a feeling that everything else will fall into place as we seek God for how to proceed.

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I read in Proverbs:

“for the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.”

Proverbs 3:32, ESV

When churches experience division in the leadership, I have observed that one significant cause is one or more parties practicing backroom politicking to push their agenda forward.

This is a behavior that should have no place in the church. If there is division in the leadership over a particular issue, they should pray and examine what Scripture says about the issue. They should not move forward until the Holy Spirit brings unity on the issue.

But alas, the church is not immune to hiring devious people. Ordination vows have been broken, sometimes by well-meaning, but misguided leaders. Other times those vows have been broken by those who intentionally undermine the structure within which they vowed to operate.

Men may think that they have gotten away with it, but God says otherwise.

Men may seem to be getting away with it, but the writer of Proverbs warns us that such deception does not go unnoticed by God.

Deception is, and always be, an abomination to The LORD.

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As you might guess from my previous post, I have been in need of some encouragement. While some aspects of my life have gone very well, and I am grateful for God’s blessing on me and my family through the COVID-19 crisis, God has allowed me to experience frustration with regard to churches in the area where I live.

This morning, I read this verse in Deuteronomy:

He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 8:3 (CSB)

As I read these words this morning, I am encouraged by them.

First, I am challenged that the hunger I have felt for a healthy church fellowship should teach me humility. Rather than grumbling to God about my lack, I should realize that God has promised to sustain me until the end. And, I as I learn humility, I also learn that not all my ideas of how church should happen are correct. Perhaps some of my ideas are unrealistic and need to be abandoned.

Hunger teaches us that most of life is beyond our control. Realization that this is so should teach us humility. The fact that there is any church at all is a work of God’s grace. The church is the manna that God provides for our hunger for fellowship and encouragement.

Secondly, in Scripture, I have the very words of God that have been given to teach us the way to go. Also, the Apostle John teaches us that Jesus himself is the very Word of God. I have Scripture and I have Jesus.

As recorded in John 6, Jesus claimed to be the bread of life, thus indicating that the mana that the Israelites ate in the desert was a picture. Manna is to our physical hunger what the Word of God is to our spiritual hunger. Jesus and the recorded words of God in Scripture are sufficient for our spiritual nourishment.

I am encouraged that when I look to Jesus (and take my eyes off the train wreck around me), I have enough.

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Ideas always have consequences.

Bad ideas always have negative consequence.

The bad idea I have in mind this morning is the thought that it is up to us to reinvent the church to make it more relevant to current cutlure.

I am reminded of a paragraph I read a while ago by Os Guinness:

But where in all this movement is the prayer to match the punditry? Is the church ours to reinvent, or is it God’s? Does the head of the church have anything to say, or do the consultants have the last word? Shouldn’t ‘doing church’ follow from what we believe is the church’s being? Was the church first invented by a previous generation, so that it is our job to do it again, or is the church’s real need for the revival and reformation that can only come from God?

Os Guinness in Prophetic Untimeliness

The root of many church problems is that leaders feel that it is their responsibility to build the church. Christ himself told us that it is His responsibility and His alone. We are not in the driver’s seat. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus plainly told us, “I will build my church.”

We are called to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus put it succinctly in the Great Commission:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Matthew 28:18–20a, ESV

We are not called to tweak the gospel to make it align with current social justice theory. We are not called to downplay the message that we are sinful and in need of a savior. We are not called to adjust our message to make it more palatable to our generation.

But too often leaders have redefined the success of the church in terms of budget numbers and attendance. When the focus is transferred to attendance or giving, there is a not-so-subtle pressure to change the message for fear of offending those who attend which would result in a reduction in giving. In response to this pressure, too often the church substitutes glitz for substance.

What prompted this post is the pain that has been caused by a church in my area that formerly was healthy but has fallen into this trap. Ongoing conversations have revealed that too many families (my own included) have been hurt because that church has ceased offering spiritual nourishment in an effort to conform to the ideas of current church growth “experts.”

It is my hope that in 2021, we will see a renewed desire in believers for being taught the full counsel of God in the Scriptures and that we will have a reduced tolerance for churches that focus on numbers rather than on true spiritual growth.

We need to put away the spiritual Twinkies and hunger after a healthy spiritual diet.

Maybe we should pass on the large auditorium and open our Bibles in our living rooms instead.

If you are encouraged by this post or would like to make a comment, please use the comment form below to offer your feedback. I enjoy hearing from you.