I was speaking with a friend the other day that I had not spoken with in some time. She is in a ministry position at the church she attends and she was sharing with me that they are all about numbers. I asked “dollars or people?” She replied “people.” She went on to say “it seems like churches are all about how many people they can get in the door rather than making disciples.” I told her it's like mass produced items. When a product is mass produced sometimes the quality of the product is not as good.” It seems today the church is more interested in quantity rather than quality, more interested in numbers than disciples, more interested in soft messages than preaching the truth of Jesus Christ.
Today in America the new thing for “pop culture Christians” is making sure they attend a mega-church! Mega-churches are giant houses of worship that draw congregations of up to 20,000 to weekend services. They have become fixtures in the American religious landscape. We have some mega-churches that are expanding their facilities in ways that are shocking when compared to the simplicity of the early church. Their plans include such things as artificial lakes, food courts, coffee houses, jumbo video screens, and recreational attractions including rock-climbing walls, and golf courses. Personally, I think they should go ahead and add in all the amenities that one would get while at a resort vacation spot or a country club! Sign me up now! There is no sacrifice or suffering and I get to go to heaven too! These mega-churches seem to be more concerned about having an entertaining Sunday show, feel-good sermon, and an appealing social environment, than focusing on the truth of Jesus Christ.
How would you advertise for a resort-like church? Maybe like this...
Campus Church-Resort
It’s all about YOU! Come to our church where we have provided a refuge from the hectic pace of your life. While visiting you can try out our golf course, play basketball or tennis, try your skill at rock climbing, or maybe go water skiing on the lake behind the church. We also offer lake side cabins for your comfort as well. We know you will want to visit the gift shop where we provide the latest music, books, clothing and messages for your convenience. When you are done shopping and are tired, don't worry we have a place for you to relax and get a massage. If you get hungry we serve breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared for a small donation, for Jesus.We want to make sure you will have an exciting spiritual experience too. After all, isn't that what church is all about? We have the most popular musical talent money can buy! And when you hear the pastor’s sermons, you won’t have to worry about hell-fire and brimstone, at Campus Church-Resort Jesus loves us all! Check out our website for church hours or call our hotline 1-88mega-church. For emergencies please schedule an appointment.
OK, that may be exaggerated and somewhat fictional. I know there may be some mega-churches that do a lot in their communities and are interested in building God's kingdom, not their own. However, they are few in number. I am deeply grieved there are churches out there that are more concerned about being like a popular resort or country club than being a church that teaches the truth about Jesus Christ. Would God not want them to seek His face, repent, and then build a sanctuary to lay before the Him? They hold board meetings to decide the direction of the church instead of laying before the Lord and seeking His face. They build up their kingdoms on this earth rather than building up God's kingdom! They are using entertainment and deceptive preaching to lure many into their trap, promising them that they do not have to repent and seek God. They are peddling the gospel with a soft, itching-ear message that has nothing to do with picking up the cross and carrying it. These mega-churches put their faith in large numbers of mass produced Christians rather than being known for raising up disciples. When we mass produce Christians instead of teaching them as disciples we get poor quality Christians who do not know who they are in Christ.
In the past I have bought-in to the misconception that for a church to be desirable or successful, an enormous size congregation was an important factor. Now I know the most important factor is about having a personal relationship with Jesus. It is about being a disciple in life, in suffering, in sacrificing and in dying to self so that His truth of the Cross will be proclaimed! Churches need to disciple their people and teach the truth of Jesus Christ. They need to be about developing Disciples of Christ. This would develop real fruit in the lives of the Ministry, and in the lives of the people they disciple. A disciple needs to learn who they are in Christ, and become grounded in the Word. When someone is taught as a disciple, they experience knowing who the Lord is and they experience walking in the truth. When a person becomes a disciple they are more willing to disciple others. God’s mission for the church is not about how many people can be enticed to fill a building or attend an event. It is about reaching the lost, baptizing them in Jesus' name, and then teaching them to become disciples of God’s word.
I am not sure how the church has gotten so far off the message Jesus gave them in
Matthew 28:18-20, which is known as The Great Commission. It is a simple basic mission, given directly by Jesus. We need to come back to the cross and the truth of the Word of God! It is ALL about building HIS kingdom not ours! It is about quality not quantity!
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:27
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:33
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, Ephesians 4: 11-17
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3
Jackie Burgess
No comments:
Post a Comment