What's Missing from Church?
What's missing from our churches these days? I hear it every day, everywhere, all the time. People are bemoaning the fact that our churches are not growing. There is no spirit in them. There is no life. No fire. I have only one answer, the one thing missing from MOST churches today is God.
I work in a church on a daily basis. I attend a church (a different one) on a weekly basis. I believe the Bible and I love the Lord. So I am heartbroken to say that what is missing, what we need most, is God's presence in our churches.
Why is He not there anymore? We quit inviting Him a long time ago. Christians got caught up in the packaging. We want catchy hymns or praise songs. We want the flowers to look "just so." We want to sit still and quiet and never say, "Amen." Or we want to say, "Amen" and make someone else feel that they should have. We want to have ceremonies to honor our former pastors, our youth and those who have worked with the G. A.'s. We want to make sure our ministers are paid handsomely and told often how appreciated they are for their service. We want to start an early service and cancel a late one. We want to keep up with what other churches are doing. We want to have programs for our children and youth and senior adults so they can be busy. I hear so much of these plans and activities and methods, but rarely do I notice people saying, "I just want to know God better" or "I just want to praise Him."
God wants to bless our churches. God loves our churches and wants them to grow. But so much of our focus right now is on ourselves or our children that we don't focus on Him. Anytime you hear someone say, "If I don't do this, no one will," perhaps it's something that shouldn't take place at all. Do we prayerfully consider what curriculum we will follow? Or are we just operating out of habit? Do we have R. A.'s because we always have had R. A.'s? Or because God wants us to have R. A.'s?
We should not have church for church's sake. Whatever the church does should be for God's glory, not for the sake of anyone else. Until we recognize that, we will be waiting for an awakening that will never come. Church should not be something to keep us occupied. It should exist to allow God to occupy us!
"If my people . . . "
posted by Daffy76 @ 11:12 AM
7 Comments:
That is my point exactly. I'm not trying to confine God to geographical region. I realize that is not what He is about. I'm saying that we have to look to God in order for our churches to come to life. That's not the trend I'm seeing in churches today.
Maybe God is turned of by Christians, maybe he is embarrassed.
I have found God as much in a rising mist, a thunderstorm, or a brulliant full moon as I have in church.
Now I know you are Southern Baptist, ha ha ha....My mother was associational G A director for years in the state of Kansas. My father was a lay preacher, my oldest brother, a missionary to the Phillipines, my next oldest brother is a music director at hiis church in Pennsylvania and teaches in a Baptist college, my next oldest brother is a deacon.
By the way, I just got through putting a link in my blog to yours.
In response to Toad-
If Christians don't start acting better, God has every right to be embarrassed by us.
In response to Mark-
I figured my references to G.A.'s and R.A.'s would give me away. Thanks for linking me up.
About finding God anywhere--It is true that you can experience God wherever you are, IF you are looking for Him. My post is not about having to go to church to find God. The complaint I'm hearing is that churches just have no life to them. If people would LOOK for God at church, they would find him there. But He's not what most people are looking for there anymore.
We should work on the separation of church and hate.
Toad, the more you talk about Christians, the more you display your total misunderstanding of People who believe in God and have personal relationships with Him.
Christians are not trying to stop you from having fun, or to force a system of beliefs on anyone, They simply want you and everyone else to know the joy that is experienced by having a personal relationship with God. You may not believe, but those who DO know what I am talking about. If I figured out how to get a million dollars, I would tell you how to do it as well. It is the same principal...I want you to be able to experience the same joy that I know through a belief in Christ. It's up to you whether to accept Him or not, but if I didn't try to share it with you, I would be letting you down.
I think you are confusing Christianity with religion. These are two very different things...
Post a Comment
<< Home