How we’ve done church wrong

As I’m right in the middle of a three part series on Sunday mornings at New Covenant (December 2011), I’m again struck by the strong difference between what the Bible teaches and what the church does. Eph. 4:11-12 clearly states that the purpose of all the preaching, teaching, etc. that goes on in church is to equip the saints (God’s people) to do the work of the ministry. This is in strong contrast to the modern concept of church where we primarily see ourselves as the recipient of ministry. It’s almost like a product we consume rather than divine instructions we receive as a worker or a soldier would receive their marching orders. This “Christian consumerism” has created a variety of evils: churches ever becoming more entertaining to attract more ‘customers’, lowering the bar and creating a mass of undeveloped Christians who couldn’t lead someone to the Lord, or minister to the hurting, or give simple Bible instruction or core Christian principles if their life depended on it. This overfed and under exercised crowd sadly mirrors our obese culture rather than changing it.

The greatest loss is not in the low number of real Christian workers available today. It is in the life of the believer themselves. They become “Christian critics”, much look food critics, who constantly compare one restaurant with the other, in terms of what kind of experience it gave them, many times regularly visiting multiple churches to get the ‘full menu’. Don’t get me wrong – being in a Spirit filled, New Testament church should be an exhilarating experience where we regularly experience God’s Presence and rich spiritual food. But once church becomes a ‘product we consume’ and sees itself primarily as something to bring back ‘repeat customers’, it sedates its members with messages and activities that don’t challenge or develop them. It’s ‘members’ (many no longer join, just attend) become half asleep, wondering why life is not more exciting, why it’s so hard for them to ‘have faith’, and why they struggle with a sense of mission or purpose. When believers answer the call to ministry they develop the spiritual muscles they need to become fully alive.