Is Church Broken? - Part 4

In the last part, we talked about Faith and why most have a dead faith. I think in this part, I want to quickly get through the other bullet points so that I can get to the good stuff.

The good stuff is how to fix the Church. But before I continue, I need to define just what makes up "The Church". The Church is not the 4 walled building that you go to on Sunday.

The Church is us. You and me. The building that we go to is nothing more than a gathering place.

A gathering, or meeting place is important. God told us not to neglect meeting together and encouraging each other. Hebrews 10:25

But somewhere along the line, the Church building became more important than the actual Church, which is us.

I want to talk briefly about ministries. I love ministries. I run one called Needs Met. Ministries exist because Churches are not doing their job.

Why Churches dont, or maybe cant, do their job is probably a question for someone smarter than I am. I have a few thoughts on it, but I dont know exactly why.

I have served in a lot of Churches in my life. Baptist Churches, Assembly of God Churches, Independent Churches, Non-Denominational Churches, and many more.

To be fair, Churches do try. Some of them, especially the smaller ones that are not bogged down by red tape, and debt, try hard to make it work. Some of them do succeed.

But there are a lot that just cant.

Some Churches are so top heavy with overpaid Pastoral staff, that they dont have the ability to get things done.

Some Churches are do weighed down by rules and regulations, that they are old and lifeless and cant get anything done.

Other Churches are plagued by fear. Fear that they will lose donations, fear that they wont be able to handle the needs, or fear that they wont have another people to meet needs. Other Churches are isolationist. They don't want to venture outside their walls.

God wants to speak to us. Why dont we let him?

This is something that I wrote a long time ago. I think it bears re-posting.

We love to talk and pray. I think most of the time, we just want to hear ourselves.

The Bible had some nasty warnings on this. Matthew 6:5

Here is an example of the problem.

Example: Rebecca and I are high school students that are going to have a conversation on the phone.

Rebecca - (calls up Phillip on the phone)
Rebecca - Hello Phillip. How are you today?
Phillip - Im …….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
My day was horrible. I had to get up at 4 this morning. DO you believe that 4am!
Phillip - I….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
And my English teacher hates me. What do you think about Mrs. Jennings?
Phillip - I ….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I met this guy that turned out to be a jerk. What do you think of Bob?
Phillip - I ….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
Lunch in the Cafeteria was pukey. I had the Hamburger which tasted like Rubber. DO you like Rubber?
Phillip - I ….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I have lots of Homework to do tonight? DO you want to come over and help me with my homework tonight?
Phillip - I ….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I sure am tired. Why don’t you answer me Phillip? Well, Bye…

Lets use the same scenario and apply it to a prayer

Rebecca - praying
Rebecca - Father, how are you today?
God - I….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
Father, I had a hard time at school today
God - I….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I wish I didn’t have so much homework. Its real hard and Im not sure that I will make it this year
God - I….
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
I met this guy God, and he’s real cute. But he didn’t notice me at all. Why don’t he notice me God?
God - I…
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
Lunch in the cafeteria was really aweful. Cant you do something about that food God. Make the school put in a Mcdonalds or something.
God - I…
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
The people at school are so mean. Why cant they just be more like me and be nice and friendly?
God - I…
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
My English teach hates me God. Cant you give her a heart attach or something? Well, maybe not a heart attach, but some really painful Gas or something like that
God - I…
Rebecca - (Immediately Interrupts)
Well, God, I gota go….In Jesus name I pray, Amen

That’s what most Christians prayer life is like.

We call up God on our spiritual prayer phone and tell God what we need, what we think, and ask God for help and then just hang up never letting God get in a word edgewise.

Is Church Broken? - Part 3

In part 1, I laid out what I thought were the issues in the current Church model.

In part 2, I said that there is a better way for Church to be done.

The better way is not anything new at all. In fact, its a very old way that has just been forgotten.

Why these methods were left behind, Im not sure.

Maybe like the religious leaders of Jesus day, church leaders feared loosing control over their Church and their people.

Maybe Church leaders fear losing donations and people if they do too much. Its hard to say exactly when and why the problem happened.

But that does not matter. Our society loves to play the blame game. We are always looking for someone to blame for what is wrong.

Most of the time, to find the problem, we only have to look in the mirror. Just like the late Michale Jackson told us.

Before I get to the answer, I want to lay more foundation by answering the bullet points I posed in Part 1. In going through these, we might even find that we have stumbled on the answer.

• When did our faith die?

In our Church services, we pray. We should certainly pray. Prayer is how things get done. Prayer activate the power of God. But we are missing a part of this process.

A part of this problem is that we dont let God talk. But Im not going to put that here. I will just link it and you can read it if you wish. Its called Let God talk too.

The part that is missing is letting God talk to. But this is also not the end of the process.

When we pray, we are having the faith that God will do something. We ask as though it was already done. That's faith.

But this is only part of Faith.

According to James 2:14-26, faith without works is dead.

In fact, this is a reoccurring theme throughout the entire Bible. What is Faith, what is not Faith, and how to have faith. I will do a study on that later. When I do, I will link it here.

In order to fulfill the requirements of faith (Have a real and genuine faith), we must put action to it. If we dont put any action (Work) to it, then according to God, its a dead faith.

A dead faith is completely worthless. Id go as far as to say that if you are not putting action to your faith, then its better not to have it all.

In fact, we have only to read another part of the Bible to confirm this principle.

Revelation 3:16 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Vomiting is a very violent action. Meaning that not only will God not put up with someone that is Lukewarm, he will expel them with great violence and force.

We can easily apply this same concept to Faith. If we don't have a living, breathing, working faith, God will have nothing to do with it.

So if we put this all together, we learn that its not enough to pray. Faith requires action to that prayer. So when we pray, we have to do something.

How about a few examples?

If you are praying for someone that needs clothes, you need to find that person clothes yourself. Maybe from your very own closet, which is probably overflowing with clothes you don't wear anyway. Or you can ask someone else that has the ability to give clothes to that person.

If you are praying for someone that needs food, find that person food yourself. Maybe from your own frig, which is probably overflowing with food you dont even need. Or you can direct that person to a food bank that can help them.

If you are praying for a job for someone, you need to try to figure out a way to help that person find a job. Maybe with the place that you work at. Or you can send them to the employment office. Or you can create a resume for that person and help them mail it out to places that need people.

If you are praying for healing for someone, dont stop with just an easy prayer. You can find out more about that persons illness and find a them a good doctor. Or research the disease for them and help them understand how to deal with it Or Give them money for medicine

The bottom line to all this is that if you pray for someone, or something, the other part to the process is action (Works)

Put some action to your prayer and do something about it.

According to the Bible, if you dont put some action to your prayer, then its a dead prayer.

The bible says that if you see a need and dont have compassion, then the love of God is not in you.

Having compassion for someone is more than just a feeling. Its the same as Faith. We learned that Faith without Works is dead.

Real, living, breathing compassion also requires action to be put to that feeling. To have the compassion feeling, but do nothing with that feeling, is to be no better than the world!

Compassion requires doing something. So when God says that to see someone in need, we should have compassion for them, he was not meaning that we need only that ooey gooey mushy feeling.

If you see someone in need, and dont do anything about it (Action), the love of God is not in you!

Continue to Part 4

Is Church broken? - Part 2

In Part 1, I made some observations about the Church as far as why it is not functioning properly.

I'm not going to go back through all of Part 1, but I will point out a few highlights. I expounded on a few of the points.

I am not a prophet, but I do consider myself a watchman. A Watchman's responsibility is to keep watch and speak up when he, or she, sees trouble coming. Ezekiel 1-3

I see a problem, or as I call it, a hole in the Church.

We go to Church, sing a few songs, listen to a sermon and then go home.

We have become so used to this way of doing things, that it just seems normal. Like this is how its supposed to be.

But is the way that Church is conducted really the way that God intended it to be?

Some of you probably know what I am talking about. Even if you only feel that something is wrong, but you just cant put your finger on it.

Its like in the movie The Matrix. Morpheus is trying to explain to Neo what the Matrix is. He tells Neo that he has felt all his life like something was just not right. Like a splinter in his mind.

I grew up in the church. But something just never quite felt right. There seemed to be something missing.

Well, about 5 years ago, God gave me the vision for Needs Met. Part of the vision for Needs Met was on how Needs are not being met in our Churches.

The way that current Church services are run is just not quite there. Its like a recipe that is missing an ingredient.

A cake just would not quite taste right if it was missing eggs, or flour.

Well, our Churches are missing something and I think I know what that something is.

We go to Church, sing a few songs, then listen to a sermon and that's it. Sometimes there are a few more ingredients to a service, but that pretty much describes most every Church in America.

Whats wrong this picture?

Maybe you don't see anything missing. Its ok if you don't. We have become indoctrinated to believe that this is how Church should be.

After all, this is how Church has been done for decades. So why change it?

Well, the 1st thing Id ask is that just because a thing has always been done a certain way, does that mean that its the correct way and there is no room for change or improvement?

We lived in darkness for many years. Finally someone came along and invented Kerosene and we had light. Now people did not have to go to bed when the sun went down.

We lived that way for a long time. Then someone came along and invented the electric light bulb. Now we had more efficient light.

For years, we traveled by car and had to travel state to state this way. Then one day someone invented an airplane and we suddenly could fly!

I could go on. The point is that throughout history, there has been a way that seemed right to us and that was the way things were done.

Then someone came up with a better way and life changed.

Church has been done a certain way for a long long time. What if there was a better way?

Now Im not saying that we need to re-write the Bible or anything silly like that. In fact, what I am talking about is nothing new at all. Its simply been forgotten.

Click here to continue to Part 3

Is Church broken? - Part 1

Before I even start, I need to set the tone for this. I love the Church. Its out of this love for the Church that I have to speak out about it.

I know what I have to say is not going to be popular on many levels.

As people, we don't like being told that we are wrong. We don't like being told that we are messed up and need correction. That's human nature.

As Christians, we especially don't like being told that we are wrong. Much of this can be justified. There is so much in the Bible that seems to be negative. At least, it can be taken this way.

Being a Christian is not unlike that episode in Star Wars where Luke has just found out that his father is Darth Vader. He asks Obi Wan why he didnt tell him and why he told him that his father was dead.

ObiWan told him that what he said about his father was true. He told him that much of what the Jedi Knights believed was true from a certain point of view.

So basically ObiWan was telling Luke that he had to choose what he wanted to believe. Same thing in the movie The Matrix. The Oracle tells Neo that he has to make up his own mind what he wants to believe.

As a Christian, you need to choose what you want to believe. You can choose to see the good and positive in the Bible, or you can choose to see bad and negative.

As a Pastor, or leader in the Church, we dont want to be told that we are wrong either. In fact, Id say that this is one of the worst and toughest to overcome.

Its as if the Church thinks its untouchable and perfect. Nothing that the Church does can possibly be wrong or need fixing? And the larger the Church, the more difficult this is.

In large Churches, the senior Pastor is just about untouchable and unapproachable.

To stand up and speak out about something that the Church is doing wrong is...paramount to sacrilege.

On a side note, I tried a few years ago to get out the idea that Churches needed evaluating, just like any other business. Someone would go into a Church and submit a report of what the Church was doing right and what it was doing wrong. The idea was not well received at all. But I digress.

There are many examples in the Bible where people spoke out when things had gone awry in the Church, or with its leaders or even kings. They were called prophets. They were less than popular.

Prophets were not really known for giving much in the way of good news.

Then there is the ultimate example that we have of correction. Jesus himself!

We love to listen to all the "cute" things that Jesus had to say. Things like Love thy neighbor, and things like that. Mainly the stuff that tickles our ears.

But Jesus had some very scathing words to say about the religious leaders of the day. In our current day vernacular; He tore them a new one.

We don't like that part much because we don't want to think that the Church, even in that day, was wrong.

Now, Im not saying that I am a prophet. So don't mishear me. If anything, Id say that I am a watchman that stands on the wall and sounds the alarm when I see trouble coming.

The problem is that the Church in our day is also broken. In fact, id go so far as to say that the Church has reverted to the same problems that it had back in Jesus day.

That's a pretty bad indictment I know. But its one that our Churches need to hear.

So just what is the problem, you might ask. Or hopefully you are asking.

Well, Church has become a place where Christians go to be entertained.

We go into a Church service, which with minor differences, is pretty much the same wherever you go. We sing a few songs. Then we listen to a sermon. Then take up an offering and go home.

Maybe there are a few announcements, maybe a time for prayer, maybe a call to go down to the alter for prayer, maybe communion is held. But that's about it.

A pretty dead service if you ask me.

• When did Church Services become so dry and boring?
• Where in the Bible do we find this formula for what a Church service should be?
• Where do we find the top down structure that our modern day Churches have?
• When did our faith die?
• When did Church become just a place of Christian entertainment?
• Why are there so many ministries out there?
• What should we be doing in Church?

I didnt want to get this too long, so I decided to continue this on Part 2

The Movie Pain and Gain - Hollywood cashing on on true story of torture

Is there ever a time when its acceptable to glorify torture and death?

And even worse, make money of it?

Hollywood sure thinks there is.

Over the weekend, I saw the show 48 hours. One of the stories was called Muscle and Mayhem.

Click here to read the 48 hours true life story.

It was a true story of 2 guys that kidnapped a man and tortured him ruthlessly and horribly for 4 months in a warehouse. The torture was very very gruesome.

They got the guy to sign over all his possessions, which included his house and millions of dollars. The muscle heads moved into the guys house, spent all his money and trashed his life.

Afterwards, they took on a new target. They found a couple worth millions and killed them both brutally. I could not believe how bad this true story was.

But then it got even worse.

I found out that Hollywood could not resist making a movie from the story.

The movie is called Pain & Gain. It has just come out recently. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson. The movie has received very bad reviews, which I am very glad about.

Hollywood has sunk to an all new low!

How is it that we have allowed Hollywood to sink so low as to make money off the pain, torture, and death of others?

The 1st victim of these two muscle heads survived.

We need to stop Hollywood. They are out of control and think they can do anything they want.

The only way that we are going to be able to hold Hollywood accountable for movies like this is to vote with our wallets. We have a lot of power. But we can only have this power when we unite.

If even a small portion of us band together, boycotted this movie, and the actors that played in it (Mark Wahlberg & Dwayne Johnson), Hollywood would pay attention.

If the movie lost millions of dollars in revenue, Hollywood would think twice about doing something like this again.

Hollywood should be donating the proceeds of this movie toward the surviving victim and other victims like him.

So, just how to we do this?

Dont go see this movie. Tell all your friends to not go to see this movie. Send this newsletter to all your friends. And have them send it to all their friends. Ask them to send it to all their friends.

If you want to go the extra mile, you could send petitions to the producer of the movie, the actors that were in the movie & the makers of the movie.

But the best way to get Hollywood's attention is to just not go see the movie.

To be perfect, or not, that is the question.

I run a non-profit called Needs Met. Needs Met is all about meeting the needs of people. Things like Food, clothes, household items etc.

I have talked to a lot of people and Churches about the concept for Needs Met.

What I hear all the time are things like;

"Why dont you have a more clear vision?"
"Why dont you have all the details worked out?"
"Where will you get financing from?"
"Where will you get donations?"
"Where will you get a facility?"
"What kind of criteria will you have to determine who gets served and who does not and on and on."

This really bothers me. I have perfectionist tendencies. I love it when things are all worked out. All the I's are doted and the T's crossed.

I love it when I have a solid plan. Nothing left to chance! This really appeals to my humanity.

But is this really the way that God wants us to do things?

If we look at the Bible for examples of how God worked with other people, we can find lots of them.

Lets look at Moses? When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, he did not give Moses a well laid out plan for how to deal with Pharaoh.

God told Moses to go down to Egypt and get his people out of there. Moses tried to press God for a few details.

God gave Moses a little more, but not much. God told Moses that he would bring them to a place flowing with Milk & Honey. He also told Moses that he would stretch out his hand and strike Egypt.

What! No details God? Whats up with that?

God told Moses that if would have to speak to Pharaoh and tell him to let his people go.

Moses complained to God that he was not a good speaker. This was not a good idea!

God got angry at Moses.

Can you imagine what would have happened if Moses would have asked God for a mission statement, or a game plan of exactly how God intended to convince Pharaoh to let the Israeites go?

Not to mention to huge tasks of getting all those Israelite's (Estimates of the total # are around 3 million) through the desert with very little water and food.

Then Moses needed a plan of what to do when they got to this land flowing with Milk and Honey. They would need a government, money to buy things, building materials to build houses, food and water, etc...

It was a monumental task that God was asking Moses to do. But God was being very vague with it.

God intentionally held back from Moses. Moses just didnt need to be burdened with all the details.

I think that if Moses would have known all that he was getting himself into, he would have never agreed to it. I think he would have collapsed out of fear and doubt!

And Moses is just one of many many examples just like this.

Every single time throughout the entire Bible, when God asked someone to do something, he offered very little to nothing as to details on what the task involved.

So why is it that we think that we need to know everything down to the smallest detail in order to do anything for God?

Today, most Churches have highly structured services. Even down to the second in some cases!

Worship, especially in larger Churches, is practiced and rehearsed over and over so that there is no room for mistakes.

Anyone wanting to put together a mission, group, or organization must know all the details of how everything will work, where donations will come from, what expenses will arise, and on and on.

I believe that in striving for perfection, we have left God out.

I was in a missions organization called Youth With A Mission for several years.

We performed mime dramas all over the world. I remember on some occasions, we would do our best to practice and get our performance just as perfect as we could.

This seemed right to us. We wanted to give people the best performance that we could. We thought that if we did a really good job, that people would be stirred to come up front for prayer and some would get saved.

Then there were other times that we just could not practice. We were busy traveling and doing things and just didnt find time. We thought that those would be the performances that would not see many come up for prayer.

What we found was just the opposite of what we expected. When our performance was well rehearsed and perfect, very few came forward.

When we had little, or no time, to rehearse and our performance was bad, lots of people came and got saved. This baffled us.

You see, God is not interested in our perfection. In fact, he cant work with it at all.

When we are trying to be perfect, and have all the little details worked out, there is little to no room for God to work.

We can read about this concept in God's word.

For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you.
2 Corinthians 13:4

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness...
Romans 8:26

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10

We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection.
2 Corinthians 13:9

There are many more scriptures on this, but I think you get the idea here.

We are not to try to be perfect and have it all together. We are to be weak so that God can be strong and perfect.

Its in that very time when you dont have it all together that you leave room for God and he will show up.