Now that I have your attention, let me share a very real possibility of something that could lead you away from Jesus. It is the Bible!! Now before you throw a fit and have me arrested, just consider what I have to say.
More than anything else, Jesus wants us to have an intimate love relationship with Him. One hazard that we face is to substitute things in place of that love relationship. For example, the action I see in churches over and over again is that people act as though they love their church more than they love Jesus. (That is, people like the way they do church and insist on a lifestyle of church that ignores scriptural mandates to join God in His mission to reach the world for Christ. Their heart-focus has moved from Jesus to the church). In that case, people may substitute what they do in church for their love relationship with Jesus. People have chosen many things to substitute for the personal relationship that we were created for. If we are not careful, the Bible can be one of those substitutions that works against our relationship with God.
The Bible communicates one thing very well—it is a witness to us about Jesus, God’s Son. It points to the Savior. The theme that runs throughout the Bible is Jesus. But, the Bible and the knowledge of the Bible, doesn’t save you. Jesus does.
It appears to me that some (maybe many) have substituted their knowledge of the Bible in place of a love relationship with Jesus. Those that do are treading on dangerous ground. Look what Jesus says in John 5:39-40: “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life: and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life.” Eternal life is found through reading and studying the scriptures, eternal life is not found by knowing what the scriptures say. Many people know what is said in the Bible, but they do not have a personal, intimate relationship with the Lord. They have substituted knowledge for a personal love relationship with God.
Let me put my point another way. Knowledge of the Bible is a means to an end, it is not the end itself. We must know the scriptures and be able to understand what they say to us as followers of Jesus. We must know the scripture to know and have a relationship with Jesus because scripture reveals Jesus in a very perfect way. But, unless we act out the scriptures through a personal relationship with the Lord resulting in obedience to the commands of Christ, we are missing the focus of our spiritual walk with God.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Consulting God
One of the greatest sins that we Christians commit is a failure to consult God. We have gotten so very self-sufficient, so very wise in our own eyes, that we think only we know best. So, in church, we gather our committees and share our “great ideas”, argue who has the greatest idea, and finally decide what we will do. And we never consult God. We don’t even think about consulting God.
We set our goals and develop our plans. They are our plans, we boast. As we execute our plans, if they succeed, we get the results that we can get in our own power, results that man can do in man’s strength. We join forces with those we think will help us on our journey of self-reliance and self-direction. Other church leaders, sometimes another organization is sought for help. We never think to join with God. Maybe a little has been accomplished—but usually very little.
Isaiah 30:1-2 speaks to our problem, the same problem that the nation of Israel had over and over again as they experienced their sin cycle of life. “’Woe to the rebellious children’, declares the Lord, ‘Who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin; who proceed down to Egypt without consulting Me, to take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.’”
It is interesting what we see Jesus saying in John 5:19—that He never takes initiative on His own, but first consults the Father to see what He is doing, and then He does what the Father is doing. We simply need to look to Jesus to see what He is up to.
Our own plan of action requires no faith, except faith in ourselves, for we generally figure out how we will assemble the needed resources to get our job done. Our activity in our churches is not spiritual, but driven by our own fleshly ideas and skills. God is altogether left out. The height of folly occurs when we decide what we want to do and then expect God to bring it into fulfillment. We are on our own agenda and expect God to intervene. When it doesn’t happen, we scratch our heads and wonder why God doesn’t deliver.
We need to learn from Jesus—look to see what the Father is doing. Inquire of Him. Consult Him. Then when we see what He is up to, we launch out to do the same. When we watch Jesus, we see the Father and we understand what He is doing. When we do this, we are beginning to get off our own agenda; we are moving to God’s agenda, and wonderful things can occur when we get on God’s agenda. Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” That is what can happen when we work under His power and direction.
We set our goals and develop our plans. They are our plans, we boast. As we execute our plans, if they succeed, we get the results that we can get in our own power, results that man can do in man’s strength. We join forces with those we think will help us on our journey of self-reliance and self-direction. Other church leaders, sometimes another organization is sought for help. We never think to join with God. Maybe a little has been accomplished—but usually very little.
Isaiah 30:1-2 speaks to our problem, the same problem that the nation of Israel had over and over again as they experienced their sin cycle of life. “’Woe to the rebellious children’, declares the Lord, ‘Who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin; who proceed down to Egypt without consulting Me, to take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.’”
It is interesting what we see Jesus saying in John 5:19—that He never takes initiative on His own, but first consults the Father to see what He is doing, and then He does what the Father is doing. We simply need to look to Jesus to see what He is up to.
Our own plan of action requires no faith, except faith in ourselves, for we generally figure out how we will assemble the needed resources to get our job done. Our activity in our churches is not spiritual, but driven by our own fleshly ideas and skills. God is altogether left out. The height of folly occurs when we decide what we want to do and then expect God to bring it into fulfillment. We are on our own agenda and expect God to intervene. When it doesn’t happen, we scratch our heads and wonder why God doesn’t deliver.
We need to learn from Jesus—look to see what the Father is doing. Inquire of Him. Consult Him. Then when we see what He is up to, we launch out to do the same. When we watch Jesus, we see the Father and we understand what He is doing. When we do this, we are beginning to get off our own agenda; we are moving to God’s agenda, and wonderful things can occur when we get on God’s agenda. Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” That is what can happen when we work under His power and direction.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Most Important Conversation
We talk about a lot of things in Baptist life. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, SS class, the national convention, giving; we evaluate today’s preaching, temperature of the auditorium, usefulness of committees, the pastor’s family, youth trips, deacons, budgets, and even the local football game last Friday evening. Etc…..
I have observed that few churches talk about the most important, the most critical aspect of church health and church life. The most important conversation (and I should say on-going conversation) that a church can have is this: Discuss the answer to this question: “Where is God working?” That question alone IS the most significant piece of information your church can possess.
Consider John 5:19. “Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’” NAS
If Jesus looked to the Father to see what was important and going on, why shouldn’t we do the same? Jesus has set the example. We ought to be obedient to follow. The issue is clear. Whatever the Father does is the most important thing the church can understand. That activity gives huge clues to what God’s vision is for the church. It gives direction for every organization in the church to engage in the same activity that God is doing. If we miss that activity, we are operating out of our own agenda and our own power. If we are obedient to join God in what He is doing, we can expect, through our faith, that He will provide abundantly to get the job done. We don’t even have to pray to ask Him to bless the activity! His involvement automatically will bless the activity and prove to be fruitful for the building of the Kingdom.
What is God doing in your church? Can others see the same activity?
I have observed that few churches talk about the most important, the most critical aspect of church health and church life. The most important conversation (and I should say on-going conversation) that a church can have is this: Discuss the answer to this question: “Where is God working?” That question alone IS the most significant piece of information your church can possess.
Consider John 5:19. “Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’” NAS
If Jesus looked to the Father to see what was important and going on, why shouldn’t we do the same? Jesus has set the example. We ought to be obedient to follow. The issue is clear. Whatever the Father does is the most important thing the church can understand. That activity gives huge clues to what God’s vision is for the church. It gives direction for every organization in the church to engage in the same activity that God is doing. If we miss that activity, we are operating out of our own agenda and our own power. If we are obedient to join God in what He is doing, we can expect, through our faith, that He will provide abundantly to get the job done. We don’t even have to pray to ask Him to bless the activity! His involvement automatically will bless the activity and prove to be fruitful for the building of the Kingdom.
What is God doing in your church? Can others see the same activity?
Do You Believe?
In Old Testament times, “to believe” meant “to do”. If you believed you should take care of orphans, then in your life activities, you took care of orphans. Today, “to believe” means “to understand”. We have intellectualized the word “believe” and have removed a necessary element of behavior that I believe the Lord expects. For example, we say we believe the Bible. The Bible teaches tithing. So, if we don’t tithe, do we really believe?
If we ask someone today if they believe in Jesus and they say “yes”, what do they really mean? Do they mean that they understand that Jesus is God’s Son and understand the role He played in salvation? Is that the extent of their belief, or, have they demonstrated their belief by action? If we say we believe in Jesus and want to “follow Him”, according to the Scriptures, we are immediately faced with decisions to change our behavior to live like Him and carry out the work He saved us to do. If we fail to make changes in our lives, do we really believe? I sometimes think that we have encouraged a cheap grace with little expectation of people to live differently.
If you read the gospel of John and study the verb “to believe” I think you will come to the understanding that there are several levels of believing. For example, the scripture says that the demons believed in Jesus, but obviously they didn’t follow Him. Read John 2: 23-25. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus said that He would not entrust Himself to those who just “believed”, because He knew what was in their hearts? Could it be that these “believers” had an intellectual belief that did not result in salvation, as with the demons?
Consider the two churches in the other article in this issue. Could it be that the Hispanic people believed in Jesus to the extent that their lives gave proof of their devotion to Him? Could it be that some in the sponsoring church might have just believed intellectually, but did not really have a salvation experience?
It is commonly known from research that 20% of church members give 80% of the church income and the other 80 % of members give the remaining 20% of income. I wonder if the 20% that give the most give out of a personal relationship with Jesus and the other 80% give out of an intellectual understanding of Him?
Recent statistics indicate that only 1% of churches in the USA are growing by conversion growth (people really being saved). Only 4% of Baptist churches support church planting. Surely not, but could it be that many of us have only an intellectual belief in Jesus and have not really had a true conversion experience as evidenced by the action of our lives?
What about you? What about your church? Could it be…….?
I suggest we all get down on our knees and ask some tough questions: Why are our churches not growing? Why are churches having financial problems? Why are we unwilling to reach out to lost people who need Jesus? Why are we unwilling to change things to reach more people? Why aren’t more churches supporting church planting? Why? Are we the problem, because of our insufficient understanding of what it really means to believe?
If we are unable to deal with issues from a spiritual perspective because of our insufficient level of belief, then we are automatically dealing with issues from a fleshly (and self-centered) perspective. No wonder our churches aren’t growing.
I am praying for an outpouring of God’s Spirit on our churches that would shake us to the core and cause us to look at ourselves and see the sin and unbelief that is abundant among us.
What do you really believe? Does your life confirm that belief?
If we ask someone today if they believe in Jesus and they say “yes”, what do they really mean? Do they mean that they understand that Jesus is God’s Son and understand the role He played in salvation? Is that the extent of their belief, or, have they demonstrated their belief by action? If we say we believe in Jesus and want to “follow Him”, according to the Scriptures, we are immediately faced with decisions to change our behavior to live like Him and carry out the work He saved us to do. If we fail to make changes in our lives, do we really believe? I sometimes think that we have encouraged a cheap grace with little expectation of people to live differently.
If you read the gospel of John and study the verb “to believe” I think you will come to the understanding that there are several levels of believing. For example, the scripture says that the demons believed in Jesus, but obviously they didn’t follow Him. Read John 2: 23-25. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus said that He would not entrust Himself to those who just “believed”, because He knew what was in their hearts? Could it be that these “believers” had an intellectual belief that did not result in salvation, as with the demons?
Consider the two churches in the other article in this issue. Could it be that the Hispanic people believed in Jesus to the extent that their lives gave proof of their devotion to Him? Could it be that some in the sponsoring church might have just believed intellectually, but did not really have a salvation experience?
It is commonly known from research that 20% of church members give 80% of the church income and the other 80 % of members give the remaining 20% of income. I wonder if the 20% that give the most give out of a personal relationship with Jesus and the other 80% give out of an intellectual understanding of Him?
Recent statistics indicate that only 1% of churches in the USA are growing by conversion growth (people really being saved). Only 4% of Baptist churches support church planting. Surely not, but could it be that many of us have only an intellectual belief in Jesus and have not really had a true conversion experience as evidenced by the action of our lives?
What about you? What about your church? Could it be…….?
I suggest we all get down on our knees and ask some tough questions: Why are our churches not growing? Why are churches having financial problems? Why are we unwilling to reach out to lost people who need Jesus? Why are we unwilling to change things to reach more people? Why aren’t more churches supporting church planting? Why? Are we the problem, because of our insufficient understanding of what it really means to believe?
If we are unable to deal with issues from a spiritual perspective because of our insufficient level of belief, then we are automatically dealing with issues from a fleshly (and self-centered) perspective. No wonder our churches aren’t growing.
I am praying for an outpouring of God’s Spirit on our churches that would shake us to the core and cause us to look at ourselves and see the sin and unbelief that is abundant among us.
What do you really believe? Does your life confirm that belief?
Churches in Discipleship Crisis
OK. You think I am out of touch with that title for the article? Well, stop and think with me for a moment. I scratch my head daily and wonder, “How in the world can I be a catalyst for growth/change in our churches?” More than 80% of our SBC churches are on plateau or are declining. We are in big trouble. So I ask, “What is the cause?” “How did we get here?” And the more sobering question, “What did I do to help us get here?”
The local church is a huge system with all of its variables interrelated. Doing one thing to the system can have an impact on other parts of the system. And, it is often hard to anticipate the impact that changing one variable has on all other variables in the church. But system analysis (a good thing) helps us to evaluate what we are doing. If the offerings are down, there is a reason. It may be the economy is bad, but more likely, something has happened in the church to cause offerings to be down. The cause could be anything: the church spent some money foolishly (in the eyes of some members). The pastor started investing church money in the commodity market!! Spending is out of control. Attendance is down….. But, something is the cause of the decline in giving.
So, back to the issue: 80% of our churches are on plateau or are declining. What is the cause? I don’t think it is something that we did, I think it is something that we haven’t done well. Discipleship. Now, please understand, I am not talking about needing another “book study”. I am talking about training people how to live like Jesus, or if you prefer, I am talking about living like a missionary. I don’t know about churches in your association, but, I don’t have many churches that have a strong program that teaches believers what God expects of us as followers of Christ.
My wife, Sandra, and I were talking about this the other night and she made the observation that when she was growing up in church, all those who professed Christ as Savior were considered disciples. We concluded that thought to be far from the truth. New professing believers are not disciples, at least not yet. But our lack of training in the Christian lifestyle makes me wonder if churches still equate a salvation experience with being a (mature) disciple.
I had another thought. Many of our churches are into practicing religion but not into practicing much Christianity. You can in fact go through the motions and not really follow Jesus. I think it might even be relatively easy for churches to get in that predicament. It makes me wonder how obedient we really are. There are legions who think that being a Christian means you go to church on Sunday morning and who think that being a disciple is the same as being a convert. I don’t think so.
I know that we are really comfortable in our inward church culture. But, what would Jesus say to us if He showed up in church this coming Sunday? I don’t think He would cheer on our committee work, nor our pot-lucks, nor business meeting agendas, etc., all focused on keeping the goldfish happy that are swimming in our tank.
He said He came to seek and to save those who were lost. He told us to go (that is the operative word) and be his ambassadors of reconciliation to a lost world. He told us to make disciples. But here is the problem: those in our churches who are true believers (?) might be so spiritually malnourished that we don’t understand what He told us to do. I guess that gets to the core of the matter: it is spiritual, and I think brought on by a great lack of building up believers into spiritual maturity.
What can we do as Directors of Missions? At least, we need to be raising the issue with our plateaued or declining churches. I just started a process with one of our churches to teach, through the Sunday School, what a Christian is really to be about. The first Sunday, the church had a 27% increase in Sunday School attendance—and it was Labor Day weekend. I think at least the new believers are hungry. Is it possible that we have lost the understanding of what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus? What do you think?
The local church is a huge system with all of its variables interrelated. Doing one thing to the system can have an impact on other parts of the system. And, it is often hard to anticipate the impact that changing one variable has on all other variables in the church. But system analysis (a good thing) helps us to evaluate what we are doing. If the offerings are down, there is a reason. It may be the economy is bad, but more likely, something has happened in the church to cause offerings to be down. The cause could be anything: the church spent some money foolishly (in the eyes of some members). The pastor started investing church money in the commodity market!! Spending is out of control. Attendance is down….. But, something is the cause of the decline in giving.
So, back to the issue: 80% of our churches are on plateau or are declining. What is the cause? I don’t think it is something that we did, I think it is something that we haven’t done well. Discipleship. Now, please understand, I am not talking about needing another “book study”. I am talking about training people how to live like Jesus, or if you prefer, I am talking about living like a missionary. I don’t know about churches in your association, but, I don’t have many churches that have a strong program that teaches believers what God expects of us as followers of Christ.
My wife, Sandra, and I were talking about this the other night and she made the observation that when she was growing up in church, all those who professed Christ as Savior were considered disciples. We concluded that thought to be far from the truth. New professing believers are not disciples, at least not yet. But our lack of training in the Christian lifestyle makes me wonder if churches still equate a salvation experience with being a (mature) disciple.
I had another thought. Many of our churches are into practicing religion but not into practicing much Christianity. You can in fact go through the motions and not really follow Jesus. I think it might even be relatively easy for churches to get in that predicament. It makes me wonder how obedient we really are. There are legions who think that being a Christian means you go to church on Sunday morning and who think that being a disciple is the same as being a convert. I don’t think so.
I know that we are really comfortable in our inward church culture. But, what would Jesus say to us if He showed up in church this coming Sunday? I don’t think He would cheer on our committee work, nor our pot-lucks, nor business meeting agendas, etc., all focused on keeping the goldfish happy that are swimming in our tank.
He said He came to seek and to save those who were lost. He told us to go (that is the operative word) and be his ambassadors of reconciliation to a lost world. He told us to make disciples. But here is the problem: those in our churches who are true believers (?) might be so spiritually malnourished that we don’t understand what He told us to do. I guess that gets to the core of the matter: it is spiritual, and I think brought on by a great lack of building up believers into spiritual maturity.
What can we do as Directors of Missions? At least, we need to be raising the issue with our plateaued or declining churches. I just started a process with one of our churches to teach, through the Sunday School, what a Christian is really to be about. The first Sunday, the church had a 27% increase in Sunday School attendance—and it was Labor Day weekend. I think at least the new believers are hungry. Is it possible that we have lost the understanding of what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus? What do you think?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Our Wicked Ways
Turning from our “wicked ways” sounds like something that is meant for pagans in the Old Testament. Maybe even those non-believers at the time of Jesus. And certainly it refers to most in our permissive society today who totally disregard Jesus and do their own thing. However, I believe it applies to us, followers of Christ.
Obviously, the operative scripture is 2 Chronicles 7:14. Our “wicked ways” do not have to be murder, rape, sodomy, etc. to be included here. For those who call themselves “followers of Jesus”, the term “wicked ways”, I believe, includes anything that ignores Jesus, and, we have a multitude of opportunities there. I have consulted in dozens of churches over the years. If there is one thing that is common to many churches, it is this: churches, like individuals in our society, are attempting to live out their own agenda without regard to Jesus. I believe they are living out their “wicked ways”. How many people or churches do you know that really live out Luke 9:23?? Probably not many.
Certainly, churches pay little regard to the Lord because members of the church pay little attention to Jesus in their daily lives. As we individually ignore Jesus, the tendency is embraced by the corporate church. Since individuals fail to consult Jesus in the circumstances of their daily lives, so the church does likewise. Failure to consult Jesus is a result of our spiritual drifting over the past 100-200 years.
It seems to me that the most important on-going discussion in the life of a church is to answer this question: Where do we see Jesus working around us? The importance of that question surfaces in the amazing scripture of John 5:19. If Jesus can’t figure out what to do, who are we to make those decisions in our personal lives as well as in the activities of the church? Jesus said that He can do nothing of Himself, but instead, looks to see what the Father is doing, and He does likewise. So, to understand what God is doing around us is extremely important.
One of the principles that Blackaby interpolates from scripture is very appropriate here: When God shows you where He is working, that is an invitation for you to join Him in that work. So, the key to being obedient to the Lord is to constantly assess the activity you see around you and determine if God is up to something. I think that God intended for us to do that in our personal lives as well as in the life of our church.
The key to obedience, to my way of understanding, includes two things. First, we must be guided by the Bible. It tells us a lot, more than most of us can understand. In addition to what we find in the Bible, we must observe what God is doing around us. When we put those two things together, making sure one does not contradict the other, we can have a fairly clear picture of what God wants us to do. If we fail to follow the Lord as Jesus followed the leading of the Father, I believe we can slip into activity that can be described as some of our “wicked ways”, because it does not include the activity of God.
Here is the basic problem that we all must face: It is my understanding that if we don't follow Jesus and we decided to keep on with our "wicked ways" (which excludes Him), we are deceiving ourselves if we call ourselves "Christians". If our intent is to make it to heaven, we are in a very spiritually precarious position. If we want to remedy the situation, it must start with repentance.
Obviously, the operative scripture is 2 Chronicles 7:14. Our “wicked ways” do not have to be murder, rape, sodomy, etc. to be included here. For those who call themselves “followers of Jesus”, the term “wicked ways”, I believe, includes anything that ignores Jesus, and, we have a multitude of opportunities there. I have consulted in dozens of churches over the years. If there is one thing that is common to many churches, it is this: churches, like individuals in our society, are attempting to live out their own agenda without regard to Jesus. I believe they are living out their “wicked ways”. How many people or churches do you know that really live out Luke 9:23?? Probably not many.
Certainly, churches pay little regard to the Lord because members of the church pay little attention to Jesus in their daily lives. As we individually ignore Jesus, the tendency is embraced by the corporate church. Since individuals fail to consult Jesus in the circumstances of their daily lives, so the church does likewise. Failure to consult Jesus is a result of our spiritual drifting over the past 100-200 years.
It seems to me that the most important on-going discussion in the life of a church is to answer this question: Where do we see Jesus working around us? The importance of that question surfaces in the amazing scripture of John 5:19. If Jesus can’t figure out what to do, who are we to make those decisions in our personal lives as well as in the activities of the church? Jesus said that He can do nothing of Himself, but instead, looks to see what the Father is doing, and He does likewise. So, to understand what God is doing around us is extremely important.
One of the principles that Blackaby interpolates from scripture is very appropriate here: When God shows you where He is working, that is an invitation for you to join Him in that work. So, the key to being obedient to the Lord is to constantly assess the activity you see around you and determine if God is up to something. I think that God intended for us to do that in our personal lives as well as in the life of our church.
The key to obedience, to my way of understanding, includes two things. First, we must be guided by the Bible. It tells us a lot, more than most of us can understand. In addition to what we find in the Bible, we must observe what God is doing around us. When we put those two things together, making sure one does not contradict the other, we can have a fairly clear picture of what God wants us to do. If we fail to follow the Lord as Jesus followed the leading of the Father, I believe we can slip into activity that can be described as some of our “wicked ways”, because it does not include the activity of God.
Here is the basic problem that we all must face: It is my understanding that if we don't follow Jesus and we decided to keep on with our "wicked ways" (which excludes Him), we are deceiving ourselves if we call ourselves "Christians". If our intent is to make it to heaven, we are in a very spiritually precarious position. If we want to remedy the situation, it must start with repentance.
Spiritual Drift
Do people drift in their relationship with the Lord? Absolutely! The Old Testament is filled with the occurrences of the Israelites in a “sin cycle” involving fellowship with God, drifting from God, disobedience through sin, repentance, and returning to fellowship with God. Drifting is not confined to the Old Testament. I believe it has happened in America over the past 100-200 years. As best as I can determine, we are in the “negative” part of the sin cycle in America.
We see indirect evidence of this everywhere. Baptisms are of down significantly from 20 years ago. Many churches are inward focused. Only 1% of our churches are growing because of conversion growth. Serious corporate and individual prayer is low. Cooperative program gifts, when you consider economic inflation, have been decreasing over the past 20 years. There is little evidence in our churches where activity is attributed to the sovereign supernatural intervention of God. Many church leaders have lost God’s vision and their passion for God’s work. There is significant conflict and/or ineffectiveness at many levels of SBC life. The list goes on.
How did we get where we are? Spiritual drift. Consider this. Just suppose when you were saved you joined a church that was 50% dysfunctional. The church did some things right and some things that God did not like, but, you had no church background, so, what you observed in church was considered “normal” activity. Twenty years later, the church is about 60% dysfunctional. You have seen some changes, but not enough to get too concerned about. Now at 60% level of church dysfunction, someone else is saved and to that person everything is “normal” because he has no previous experience in church life. Now, extend that kind of spiritual drift from 20 to 100 or 200 years. Might we have drifted so slowly away from God that our drifting away from God has been undetectable to us? Might we have drifted so far that we are out of fellowship with God and don’t know it? I think that is a distinct possibility.
What is the solution? In a word, REPENTANCE. Are there any scriptures we specifically need to follow in this situation? There are several, but two come to mind: Luke 9:23 (get off of our own agenda and get onto God’s agenda) and 2 Chronicles 7:14 (get humble, pray, turn from our wicked ways). You say we aren’t involved in wicked ways? Well I think we are, and this will be the topic of my next article.
We see indirect evidence of this everywhere. Baptisms are of down significantly from 20 years ago. Many churches are inward focused. Only 1% of our churches are growing because of conversion growth. Serious corporate and individual prayer is low. Cooperative program gifts, when you consider economic inflation, have been decreasing over the past 20 years. There is little evidence in our churches where activity is attributed to the sovereign supernatural intervention of God. Many church leaders have lost God’s vision and their passion for God’s work. There is significant conflict and/or ineffectiveness at many levels of SBC life. The list goes on.
How did we get where we are? Spiritual drift. Consider this. Just suppose when you were saved you joined a church that was 50% dysfunctional. The church did some things right and some things that God did not like, but, you had no church background, so, what you observed in church was considered “normal” activity. Twenty years later, the church is about 60% dysfunctional. You have seen some changes, but not enough to get too concerned about. Now at 60% level of church dysfunction, someone else is saved and to that person everything is “normal” because he has no previous experience in church life. Now, extend that kind of spiritual drift from 20 to 100 or 200 years. Might we have drifted so slowly away from God that our drifting away from God has been undetectable to us? Might we have drifted so far that we are out of fellowship with God and don’t know it? I think that is a distinct possibility.
What is the solution? In a word, REPENTANCE. Are there any scriptures we specifically need to follow in this situation? There are several, but two come to mind: Luke 9:23 (get off of our own agenda and get onto God’s agenda) and 2 Chronicles 7:14 (get humble, pray, turn from our wicked ways). You say we aren’t involved in wicked ways? Well I think we are, and this will be the topic of my next article.
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