At Ease, Church

The church in America today, at least the one most non-churched people see, is one of ease. It is a cultural construct, just something people do. It doesn't seem to have much impact in changing the life of the churched people that non-Christians have experienced. You go in, have a great light and music show, someone talks to you about how much better, more blessed that your life will be if you just follow these steps, and "oh, by the way, here are some verses from the Bible that happen to support my points." Then we go our way and live out the other segments of our lives - for we are rich and have need of nothing.

"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Rev. 3:17 NIV)

And those to whom God would have us bring His word see right through us; So we lose the power to impact our world.

As I logged in to the blogspot this morning, I noticed the scripture verse of the day posted, it was Phillipians 1:29 (NIV)

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ 

not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him

So what does "suffering" look like? The aesetics took it literally and deprived themselves of pretty much everything. I believe that, taken in the context of Phillipians, suffering means that we stand firm in the Gospel, no matter how we are opposed. For us in America today, there is not much in the way of physical opposition, but rather it is and intellectual or societal opposition. So how do we stand? Do we stand by the Gospel or do we become "tolerant" of things that scripture speaks against so that we don't ruffle any feathers and are considered enlightened? God has always been God and has not changed His commands in our lives, though it is not about the rules but about right relationship with Him. Today we struggle with that, we want it both ways, we want the benefits without the submission to the one who gives us the blessings. This is not a new issue. On Sunday mornings we are studying Hosea. It is odd that, as they say, the more things change the more they stay the same. In Hosea 10:2, scripture says "their heart is deceitful." The Hebrew word translated deceitful is hlq or halaq. This word can mean both smooth, as in a smooth talker, or divided, not being of one heart or mind. It's a really long story, Hosea is, but very informative for where we are today. God's people wanted both Yahweh and Baal, in fact, they called Baal, "Baal-Yahweh." And you wonder why God is so hard on adultery? But that's another story. In the words of Pastor Win, they wanted the blessing but not the blesser. 

So do we. we want the benefits without the commitment to be who God asks us to be. Just in case you wondered, God doesn't want us to be "rule followers" first, He wants us to be Yahweh followers. Israel, and religions ever since, have tried to boil God down to following rules, which is both easier and impossible at the same time. It's easier because we can feel if we can balance enough obedient behaviors against our disobedience we can feel good - even superior. It's impossible because we can never meet all of the rules (hence the need for a savior?) - and so it has to be about relationship, not rules, and relationships are hard. We divide our hearts still, we compartmentalize our faith to Sunday and Wednesday, and then we have the rest of our lives to live "normally." We become Laodicea because we want it both ways. We want the blessing without the blesser. We want to feel good, because that's what our world tells us we want. In the words of Paul to the Phillipians though, we need to take a stand for the Gospel:

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved - and that by God. (Phil. 1:28-29 NIV)

So instead of "Church, at ease" with little to no impact, we need to be "Church at attention," focused, undivided, one in the Spirit. Then, instead of lukewarm impotence, we'll have the hot potency in Yahweh that changes the world.

To the Church in Laodicea - Today

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

   These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

If we take a good look at the church in America today, you may be left with a feeling of "Uh, oh well." The Church seems to have no power today. Perhaps there is a reason for that - we are impotent because we are more ours than God's. We reshape the Word to be our words. We use scripture to support our own notions, we have created a Christian self-help message, supporting our ideas with quotes out of the Bible. Dilute God's Word and then question where the power is? Hmmm... it doesn't take Lloyd John Ogilvie to figure that out.

The next few blogs will take a look at this topic. I don't believe all of the church is here, but it does seem to be a major problem. By the way, a church does not have to look lukewarm to be lukewarm. Some of the most vibrant, high energy congregations still do not remain faithful to God's revealed word. For many, it is more important to attract people and keep them than to take people from milk to meat. So, we'll get a bit more specific in the next few spots. Stay tuned - and respond or question if you like - make it a discourse. I'm in - are you?

IM or I AM?

Have you noticed an interesting phenomenon that is occurring in our churches on Sunday morning? I'm talking about an electronic one. 3G, 4G, 5G, many people are using Kindle, Nook, various apps and internet weblinks to follow along during the worship service. Some congregations have begun to notice and address this issue. We discuss whether or not this is a positive development: Does this enhance or detract from our "worship experience?" Probably the answer is "It depends."

When I am listening to a sermon, I frequently find myself looking forward and backward in the bible, contextualizing the passage being dealt with, following references and the like and honestly, sometimes following rabbit trails that come up. I can't help it, I think that the Bible is pretty cool, but I am, at that point, distracted from the message the pastor is giving. Is that different from the distraction of the electronic device? I don't think so, at least in the case of a person using the device for the Bible app or concordance or commentary features. But what if it's being used for something else?

Last Sunday, as I moved through the congregation to get a note out to the worship team, I noticed several people using their electronic devices to access social media, or text, or check email and I thought "Seriously? Can you not stay with me one hour?" Are we in our churches on Sundays to be with the One God, to focus our lives for a short time solely on Him, or has our outside world interrupted that as well? Even when we are perusing the Bible separate from the sermon, it would appear we are still engaging with God. With whom are we engaging when we are on facebook? I haven't seen a home page for the Triune God. The enemy would love to distract us, to pull us from our attention to God and place the attention on other things, specifically on ourselves. In the movie The Fighting Temptations when Cuba Gooding's phone goes off in the sanctuary, the pastor remarks "Son, if that ain't Jesus calling, shut it off..." When do we take that approach? How do we address this issue?

I am all for the positive, effective use of electronic media. It is a part of our world, we effectively use technology to enhance worship. The technology itself is benign, it's the application that concerns me. Our world distracts and inundates us every day of the week. We are "connected" constantly. Don't you wish sometimes at work you could have a "no email" day? Why do we have to bring that to our places of worship? I think that we could at least take the time we are worshipping and commit our focus for even that brief time on the God who gave all for us. So what is it - IM or I AM?