I’ve been involved in the church my entire life. I grew up going to the Pentecostal churches that my Dad pastored all over the country. I’ve been a part of services that were life altering…the power of God was present in such a way that there is no way you could be in the room and not be deeply affected. But over the past 10 years, I have begun to notice a disturbing trend. People would come to the church, feel the power of God, make a decision to invite “Jesus into their hearts”, become a member, join a small group and become part of the church body. But, over time, a large portion of these people would slowly go from the front row, to the middle row to the back row and then right out the back door, usually never to return. Being a pastors son, I always took this very personally because they would usually blame it on my Dad or some other lame excuse that was a cop out for their disloyalty (that was my opinion at the time). But, as I became a part of other churches, I found that the same exact thing was happening there. It didn’t matter how exciting the service was or how nice were were to them or how much we did for them, after a while, a good majority would fade away or hop to another church, looking for another high.
But something else strage was going on. When I looked into the eyes of the “veterans”, the people that had been in church all their lives and would rather die than miss a Sunday morning service, I didn’t see excitement or passion or hope. When they came in on Sunday morning, I usually saw fake excitement or drudgery or obligation. I rarely saw that “joy unspeakable and full of glory” or the abundant life that Jesus talked about. And this really, really confused me!
It confused me because when I read the book of Acts, I saw a church where God was striking people dead, but they were still adding to their number daily! I saw people that were so in love with Jesus Christ that they sung songs of praise as they were led to their death at the hands of evil Caesar’s and lions in the Roman arena. I saw people that were so in love with each other that they were willing to sell everything they had to make sure none of their brothers or sisters went hungry or homeless. The New Testament church was a group of people that were passionate, compassionate, hungry for God, holy unto God and ready to die for their faith. And I kept asking myself “do I know 1 Christian that is like that?” And my answer was a resounding NO! (I include myself in that group)
So what’s the deal? Why did the 1st church have to beat them away with sticks but we have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing to get 1 conversion? Why did the 1st church turn the world upside for Christ without but most of our churches are completely unknown in their communities? Why was the 1st church willing to literally die for Christ but most Christians today are not willing to truly live for Him?
I’m going to talk about this more during my next post, but I think the answer starts with this: we are asking the wrong questions! What are most pastor’s and churches consumed with? How can we grow the church/should we use postcards or door hangers to advertise/should we call ourselves post-modern or missional/what is the best way to make new members/how can we plug more people into small groups??? Those questions may be good and vital if your goal is to build a big church of people that love to come to church, but is this approach really working? Seriously? Are all the conferences and books and podcasts from all the megachurch pastors really helping us reach the harvest? I would have to say the answer is a resounding NO! I work in a call center of about 200 people and from my conversations, there are probably 2 to 3 people that go to church on a regular basis. So, for all the thousands of dollars and man hours we’re wasting on getting people to come to church, we are not even touching the unchurched population. We are only recycling other church people who are bored with their own churches and want to experience the flavor of the week.
The question my generation needs answered is how can I become involved in something that is bigger than me? Is there more to life than this? What is the purpose to my life? Every single person that I have spoken to under the age of 35 is desperately searching for something that is bigger than them…something they can devote their lives to. I mean, for crying out loud, Barack Obama won on a slogan “Yes We Can” and half the people who voted for him had no clue as to what we can actually do! They are just looking for hope and they have resorted to a politician for that hope when we have the embodiment of hope living inside of us!! The answer to bringing life and vitality back to the church in America is not marketing or better small groups or more relevant preaching…it is getting back to Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the HOPE for all mankind! That’s it, pure and simple. Proclaim Jesus, live Jesus, breathe Jesus, show Jesus in every footstep, with every heart beat, with every word.
But I don’t believe that this can just be done within the confines of the church walls…this LOVE must be let out! We must fulfill the other half of what it means to be a follower of Christ. We’ve ‘attracted’ them to the church, but it’s not working. So, now what?
7 Comments
January 24, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Troy,
Well said! This is one of those posts that I found to be positive and motivating. (Other than perhaps the title). I can’t stand reading posts that are extremely critical and negative toward the Body of Christ. It’s easy for “bloggers” to sit back and become critical of what other pastors and churches are doing. (I’m referring to another board that is frequented by other ministers).
I can tell you that what you have written here has resonated with me. Recently, the Lord has opened my eyes to some of the things that you are talking about. Since the first Sunday in January, I’ve been preaching a message called “Be Like Jesus.” It has consumed my everyday life. You could say that I am obsessed with it, more than I was with golf…if you can believe that. You and I have talked about how we are tired of the “consumer driven church” and then I heard a quote by John Maxwell that said, “if you don’t like what you are reaping…look at what you are sowing.” It took a while for that to sink in, but finally I think I got it.
You know me and you know that I don’t use these words loosely, but the Lord spoke to me at the end of 2008 through a series of events. (I’ll spare you the details for now). The only way to describe what I feel is to say that something on the inside of me has been awakened. I have spent over a month sitting down with different families in our church and sharing with them my “Be Like Jesus” vision. Before Tina and I would leave their homes they were chomping at the bit to get to work on it.
You talked about being a part of something that is bigger than you, we are starting to see this simple vision become a movement. The more people we share “Be Like Jesus” with, the more it grows. I have had no less than 15 volunteers a day show up at the church last week, during the day, just to do something to make the vision come to pass. Recently, God has connected us to local government officials, business owners, well diggers in Kenya and Haiti and others I just can’t think of right now. Right now we are getting ready to set up tents with heaters, cots and food for the homeless. We are looking into leasing a store front building in a strip mall to put in a clothing and food pantry so that we can give to those who are less fortunate than us. “Write the vision and make it plain so that he who reads it may run with it.” We are off and running. It’s all I can do to keep up with it.
Many other things are in the works. I’ll be writing about everything that we are doing and seeing on our new church web-site that we are launching February 1st. Also on February 1st, we will be launching an additional web-site for the “Be Like Jesus” movement so that other churches and community organizers can get involved.
By the way, Carter looks adorable. Talk to later bro. AND HEY…CALL ME SOME TIME.!!!!
January 24, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Jason,
Thanks for the comment. Despite the title, I definitely don’t hate church but without a doubt, I think our focus needs to change. And it sounds like yours definitely has (especially if you’re as obsessed with this as you were with golf!!!:) I think it’s really, really great what you guys are doing over there at RCC and I look forward to hearing more from you guys. Paige and I have been doing a lot of things behind the scenes in helping out in the community (homeless shelter/helping individuals/sponsoring orphans, etc) so it’s great to see churches getting involved.
Talk to you later
Troy
January 25, 2009 at 2:32 am
It sounds like you asked many of the same questions I asked. I came to the same answers you did. The bottom line is people aren’t going to come streaming throught the doors of any church no matter how good the pastor, how great the programs, how awesome the music, or anything else. Recent studies have shown that even growing churches aren’t really pulling in the lost. They are simply collecting people from churches that are dying.
If we as Christians want to ‘reach the world’ for Jesus we are going to have to quit making a modern day idol of the institution and start taking the message outside the walls of our churches.
January 25, 2009 at 7:44 am
Hi Troy,
I feel your pain. I’m excited about the questions you will be asking. One thing that really gets to me is how the family of God gathering together has turned into a business transaction or ticketed event. The event planners keep trying to attract customers. The customers look for a really cool event.
Jamie
April 9, 2009 at 11:17 pm
who cares? church people are hypocrites who should be killed with a blunt knife
May 3, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Hey there, when are you going to publish your follow up to this article? I’m keen to see what you have to say!
December 28, 2009 at 7:40 am
Wow! This is just what God has placed on my heart… that somewhere we (the church) have gotten off the path that leads us home!
I am so excited to see how God is moving in all of us!