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.

It is Christmas Eve as I write this post. I am hoping that all who subscribe to Attempts at Honesty are well in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

While I suspect that the crisis has been sensationalized by news outlets, it is a very real problem that has changed all of our lives. How permanent those changes will be remains to be seen.

But, one of the troubling aspects of the response to COVID-19 is the assumption that those who govern are responsible to fix the problem. We have given up personal freedoms on the promise that if we surrender complete, or nearly complete, control to the governing authorities, we will be safe and much good will result.

Certainly, I believe that government has a role to play in keeping us safe, but I also think that there needs to be caution in placing too much trust in the ability of governing authorities to solve such a massive problem.

The psalmist reminds us:

“Do not trust in nobles, in a son of man, who cannot save.”

Psalm 146:3 (CSB)

During this Christmas season, we celebrate the arrival of Emmanuel, God with us. On that first Christmas, the glory of God broke into our world in the form of a baby in a feeding trough.

That baby grew up to be a man who made the claim to be truly God with us. That claim, if true, should cause us to look to him, not to our government, not to a vaccine, for our ultimate support in this crisis.

In this Christmas season, disrupted as it is due to COVID-19, I hope that there will be a fresh infusion of the understanding of the glory of that baby in the manger.

A crisis such as we are experiencing strips away the illusion that we have everything under control and should cause us to look to the one that actually has that control.

It turns out that surrender, not to a human government, but to Emmanuel, God with us, is actually the best solution. That is my wish for myself, my family, my community, my country and my world.

Merry Christmas!

Politicians are famous for telling us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. Few politicians get elected on a platform promising austerity and hardship. We want the best things and we want them for free.

But we all know that there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay.

Unfortunately, the church is not immune to the same type of inflated promises. We have entire church organizations that make similar promises. They claim that those who follow Jesus will never endure hardship; they promise that with enough faith, disease will stay away.

Yesterday I read these words in Zechariah:

“For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.”

Zechariah 10:2, ESV

I have been in churches that are infected with those who are self-proclaimed prophets. Like the diviners mentioned by Zechariah, they tell of false dreams of ascending into heaven and make false claims of being able to speak prophecy concerning what is best for the people around them. Rather than comfort, they bring confusion at best and destruction at worst.

Also rampant in such “ministries” are claims that those who adhere to their interpretation of scripture will certainly be healed of their sicknesses.

Certainly, I do believe that God can heal. I have known stories of healings that defy normal explanation. I am not arguing that miracles cannot happen.

What I am arguing is that we have no Scriptural basis for any claims that God will automatically heal those who have faith that He can do so. To make such a claim is an empty consolation. As C. S. Lewis pointed out, statistics show that one out of one of us dies of something.

Jesus himself told us:

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33, ESV

I have believing friends that are going through serious hardship right now. One friend is struggling with a recent cancer diagnosis. Another friend was informed yesterday of a tragic death in the family. Others have difficulties with family relationships. And we all are struggling with how to cope in the midst of a pandemic and all the changes that result from it.

There is no guarantee that the cancer will be removed, even though I believe God can do it and I pray for such a healing. There is no guarantee that the tragic death will result in some ostensible good, even though I believe God can use an unexpected death for his Glory.

The only guarantee is that Jesus promises to be with us no matter the outcome in this life. The one who conquered death promises to know and to care about what we are experiencing. We can have comfort and joy in the midst of difficulty because Jesus is with us.

In this Christmas season, we celebrate Emmanuel, God with Us, who came to earth to make that comfort and joy possible. But we should also keep in mind that the baby in the manger came knowing that he would also be the God on a Cross as the means of producing that joy.

Any real hope that we offer people has to consider that in a fallen world, suffering is a real thing and does not exclude those who are followers of Jesus.

But we can offer very real hope that suffering does not get the last word.

I probably sound a bit like a scratched record that skips and gets stuck in the middle of a song. But I keep running across passages in Scripture that challenge the way that I have experienced church in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

The woke church, socially acceptable church, seeker-sensitive church, and just about every other church growth model may have produced larger attendance figures, but I have not seen that they produced better disciples.

The most recent example of such a passage is in 2 Corinthians 2:15-17 where Paul writes:

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”

2 Corinthians 2:15–17, ESV

Two things jump out at me from this passage.

The first is that if we are faithful to Jesus Christ and proclaim His gospel, not everyone will respond positively. Paul clearly says that the aroma of Christ will smell like death to some and life to others. Some will reject, and some will accept the message that we are called to proclaim.

From this, I infer that the drive to proclaim a message that all will accept is misguided and will do more harm than good. It is one thing to use care in presenting the Gospel in terms that newcomers can understand. It is another thing entirely to banish any speech that would cause people to be troubled.

Jesus didn’t have any issues with getting to the heart of the matter and forcing people to make a choice. Once when addressed as Good Teacher, Jesus asked the man, “why do you call me good?” When Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus was candid and basically told Nicodemus that he was missing the point entirely. Jesus showed little care about whether people were offended by the message.

But, Jesus did love with supernatural love, and that love was a draw even to those who struggled to believe what Jesus was saying. Perhaps we, as church leaders, should put more emphasis on loving those in our care and burn fewer calories over how well accepted we are. We should speak the truth in love, no matter what the outcome might be.

The second thing that jumps out at me from this passage is that some are in ministry for the wrong reasons. Paul clearly states that some are “peddlers of God’s word.” In other words, they are providing God’s word to the people, but doing so to make money; they have an impure motive for their ministry.

The word that Paul uses to speak of peddlers, is a curious one and it is found only here in the New Testament. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says this of this word:

“This word means “to engage in retail trade” and carries a nuance of trickery and avarice. In philosophy, it denotes the selling of teaching for money.”

My question to every pastor is, what is driving the desire to have a large church? Is it really because you are concerned about the spiritual well-being of the members?

My experience is that as churches see numerical growth in attendance and giving, the emphasis shifts from growing people deeper in their relationship with Jesus to growing the numbers and the budget. This shift occurs because the leadership gets distracted by the perceived need to overcome the increased costs associated with a bigger staff and a larger campus.

We are all in danger of believing better of ourselves than in warranted. A healthy amount of self distrust and having an elder board empowered to keep things in check are crucial to staying the course to hear “well done good and faithful servant.”

I don’t think that in the day of judgment the attendance figures, church budget or staff headcount will cause any impression on a judge who only cares about the quality of the disciples we produced. After all, that is the mission he gave us in what is commonly known as the Great Commission.

We should seek to be the aroma of Christ to a world that desperately needs Him but in many cases doesn’t yet know it.