CONGREGATIONS GONE WILD!

My heart is heavy for the church in America. I am all about reaching the unchurched, but I have grave concerns about the secularization of the church. There have always been new waves to ride in church growth, but we have a Biblical mandate that must be followed above all trends and fads. For as we know, they all fade eventually. I believe the church should progress and be contemporary but should never become secular. I also believe the unchurched need to be grounded and discipled in an experience with God that pursues His presence and His power. I still believe in "seek and you will find"- "tarry until you are endued with power" and "take up your cross and follow me." This article from the New York Times gripped my heart and I felt it was worth passing on to other people of faith.

Christianity is exploding throughout the world right now, but declining in America. We have an unaddressed spiritual problem when our preachers become entertainers and our worship set is timed down to a "time out" with God instead of a "romance with God." In America we are recycling people who didn't like church the way it use to be, so we are offering them a new experience that gives them a simple devotion that is not always followed up with commitment, lifestyle changes and dedication.

I don't believe this issue was caused by the new church experience. It was created by the old experience that was absent of love, acceptance and forgiveness. We allowed church to get boring, dry and irrelevant. We allowed ignorance to lead us and laziness to plan our worship services. The old church experience was filled with too many sour saints, angry pastors and mean church leaders. This caused people to go searching for a different kind of church, a church that looked nothing like the old model. Who could blame them?

I don't believe the new secular model is not the answer. We must go back to the Acts model and the New Testament church model. All of us need to return back to the heart of God and please Him above everything else. Watering down the gospel will not make the world less thirsty, it will only give them a sip from the well- the well that never runs dry. We need passion, power and God's presence in these last days. That is what the rest of the world is experiencing, while we in America take one more short cut to accommodate our American lifestyle of "things and places" to fill up the emptiness of peace, significance and wholesome living. I hope you take the time to read this article and hear the voice of one crying in the wilderness -"prepare the way of the Lord."


NEW YORK TIMES
Congregations Gone Wild
By G. JEFFREY MacDONALD
Published: August 7, 2010