Thots On the State of the Church

I went to a Sunday School Training Conference yesterday in Houston, MO.  It was well organized, and well-done.  I was given some great ideas about how to re-vitalize the Sunday School at my church (FBC, Bakersfield).  Our church’s youth director went, too, and she said she got some great ideas as well.

This morning, I read the news – especially Baptist Press, but the others as well – on the internet.  Some of the news was about the political races in America; some was about the moral decline and liberal assault on freedom of expression of religion in the public square; some was about the “great successes” of churches to impact their community.  It was then that I began to ask a question:

If the churches of America are so successful, then why are fewer and fewer being changed by a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ?

I mean, if Jesus was allowed to change lives, I know He will – He has for me and many I know.  But churches are not sharing the gospel of Christ – they’re sharing a gospel of culture.  Culture does not change people, especially at the deepest levels – the sin of their hearts.  There is little conversion happening – reformation, maybe – but conversion, no.

If Jesus were changing lives by the numbers some churches claim, then why isn’t the morality of that community getting better?  It is because the churches are simply making church a club, and not a community of truly regenerated believers.  Many are light on truth and heavy on feel-good teaching.  Take the feel-good example of the largest church in America – Lakewood Church.  It meets in the former Compaq Center, and is pastured by Joel Osteen.  Joel has set a policy of not sounding too “religious” so they use the name of Jesus very rarely – and display no crosses or religious symbols.  Reformation and personal gain is emphasized rather than repentance of sin and self-sacrifice.  His book title tells it all and it’s selling like hotcakes – “How to Live the Good Life Now!”

Bottom line – I think that the churches, pastors included, have lost the passion for the pure gospel, and have gotten complacent and even comfortable trying to make church something other than what it should be – a place where the believers worship with broken and contrite hearts, the lost are convicted of sin and repent, and where everyone leaves knowing that they have truly been in the presence of God and the Living Savior.  If Jesus really showed up, people would talk about it like nothing else.  No one who meets Jesus walks away unchanged by the experience.

Let’s get back to preaching the gospel; calling sinners to repent and be saved, calling believers to repent and get back to basics, and calling everyone to share the good news that God is real, alive, and we can all have a relationship with Him that is fulfilling and delightful.