Upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.-Jesus
Jesus said that his church would be rock solid. Impenetrable. Jesus said that nothing out of hell could conquer it.
So how come it feels like the American church is penetrated? Why does it feel like we are shrinking? How come it feels like we are being overwhelmed by the world?
Well, maybe that is because some of the problems that are killing us aren’t coming from the outside. They are coming from within. These internal issues are causing cancer to spread in the body of Christ and we have to stop it.
These are 5 issues killing the church and what you can do to stop it.
Racism
So last week’s post, White Christian, You Don’t Understand received a few less-than glowing responses. From those responses I gathered that I underestimated this demon within.
Racism isn’t an issue of the past. It isn’t a fabricated story or an excuse to loot and plunder the inner city. It is current, present day struggle.
January 14, 2015 Billy Graham said:
“I’ve often said that in my view, racism is the biggest social problem we face in the world today, and I believe it still is. Not only do we have continuing problems with racism in our own country, but racism is a worldwide problem that leads to countless wars and conflicts. It also is at the root of much of the world’s injustice and poverty.”
Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr. were close friends and allies during the Civil Rights Movement.
The church has to respond biblically to racism, riots and civil rights. Individually we have to respond biblically.
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Is. 1:17
Bad Doctrine
Some issues that used to be controversial aren’t any more. I wonder if that’s because we forgot what God said about them. Did we forget what Jesus said about issues like divorce and remarriage, baptism and the arrival of the Holy Spirit?
I was nurtured in a tradition that often said, “Speak where the Bible speaks. Be silent where the Bible is silent.” Those are pretty stellar words to live by. But to live by them we have to know what the Bible says. We have to have the courage to follow those words to our grave.
Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees! Ps. 119:5
Holy Living
Holy Who? I thought it was do what makes you feel good. Follow your heart. After all you deserve to be happy.
Actually not. The Creator and Sustainer of all life has an essence so pure and clean that he cannot lay eyes on our unrighteousness. He cannot fellowship filth. If he can’t, his church sure can’t either.
We need to wake up, embrace the call to holiness and fight for it.
God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. 1 Thes. 4:3
Now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 1 Pet. 1:15
Discipleship
If the church isn’t growing we must need to find a new preacher or make the music more relevant or offer more programs.
Or what if we just follow the Master’s plan and make disciples who make disciples.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Mt. 28:19
Earthly Minded
Paving parking lots and renovating bathrooms are of earth. Neglecting the assembling of Jesus’ people for a ball game is of earth. Worry. Money. House work. Work work. It is all of the earth. It is of this world.
Our love of the world and our attachment to it is killing the heart of the church.
We are a supernatural kingdom. We have to live like it.
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 1 John 2:15-16
