Christ Following, life, The Church
Yesterday, I wrote about my feelings on the apparent direction the American church is taking. You can check that out here.
I got to thinking and realized another positive to a shift in Evangelicalism as we know it: faith. When the resources aren’t there, we have to have faith that God will provide where He’s guided. In our culture of meticulously calculated ministries, that’s hard to fathom.
There’s an old story about a Chinese pastor who came to the United States to check out our churches. When he returned home to China, his friend asked him, “What did you think of the American churches?” The pastor replied, “It’s amazing what can be accomplished without God’s help.”
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it’s impossible to please God without faith. Maybe the challenges we face ahead will help us to be a church that pleases God more and more.
Family
Tonight my family and I went to a little Mexican restaurant with the in-laws. It’s my favorite place to eat when we’re in New Mexico. After dessert, I sat there looking at my ten-year-old son fondly. Filled with love for him, I asked him to come close and I told him in his ear how proud I am of him for the way he loves Jesus. I told him how much I love him and how he makes me smile. He paused for a moment, looked me in the eye, and said, “Your breath smells like onions.”
I love you Cole.
Christ Following, life, ministry, The Church
Something tells me it’s not just me. I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of the American church lately. I’ve heard more than once from different sources that America is the only country in the world where the church is shrinking instead of growing. In fact, I’ve heard predictions that evangelicalism as we know it is coming to an end. You can read the article that was published in the Christian Science Monitor here.
I was talking with a friend who pastors a church in Ireland and even he had something to say about the western church. His words echoed in my ears for a while. “In the next ten years the American church is going to look much like the church in Europe. A post-Christian environment will emerge where very few churches have full-time paid staff members. We’re ministering to more people here with less money than we ever have before.”
Here’s the thing that my fellow church and ministry staffers may not like me saying. I don’t necessarily believe that the things I mentioned above are bad things. We’ve spent so many years building our own kingdoms with bigger buildings, slicker marketing, and a $4 billion-a-year Christian entertainment industry. During a recent drive through Dallas, I saw mega-churches sprinkled all along the interstate. They looked like shopping malls with massive structures and expansive parking lots. How is it that we can have so much, but bear so little fruit? I spoke with a pastor recently who had no idea how to share his faith and has never led a soul to The Lord. He shared that, growing up, no one ever taught him how to witness. It’s no wonder the American church is weak when we’re better at putting on a show than we are at giving away the greatest hope there is!
So why do I believe that the things mentioned in the first two paragraphs aren’t necessarily bad things? First of all, the church has always had a way of flourishing during hard times. Excessive prosperity has a way of making us lazy and stupid (not to mention greedy for more). Hard times make us prioritize and focus on what’s important. “Hmmm… should I spend these resources on reaching the lost, hungry, and sick, or should I bring the latest rock star in for a concert?” Also, when things take a down-turn, we pray more. Jesus said that the House of God is a house of prayer. There are very few churches that I know of that have a line in the budget for prayer. In fact, there are very few churches that I know of that have regular prayer meetings! God has a way of bringing his bride back to the things that matter most. A good shaking once in a while is a positive thing!
The important thing to remember is what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “… and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” God’s church will stand and continue to march forward. Nothing can stop it! So if we find the church as we know it changing and things disapearing, then maybe those things weren’t The Church after all.
Praise and Worship, prayer
Working with a prayer center, the topic of prayer and worship comes up often in a variety of settings and circumstances. I am a massive believer in the power of young people seeking God and singing His praises. It’s my job to help increase the level of prayer across our community.
From time to time, I’ll meet someone in ministry who deliberately leaves out corporate prayer and worship because they believe their students “aren’t ready” to sing songs to The Savior or are afraid newcomers might be “turned off” by extended prayer. There’s an attitude that passionate prayer and worship are extremist expressions of our faith. One might get the impression that worship and prayer were embarrassing things that should be done in private to be followed by a good washing of the hands. It’s no wonder that 80 percent of young people walk away from the faith when they graduate high school. They are, as Manning puts it “young people who have been denied access to their own spiritual depths.”
Last weekend I had the particular honor of speaking at a retreat for Senior High students in our region. I teamed up with my Furnace Midwest worship team and we decided to hold nothing back. We sang praises with passion and prayed with tenacity. It was powerful! What was the response? The students loved it! They dove in and didn’t look back. After dismissing the group (twice) they kept praying for another 45 minutes! One of the youth pastors involved told me that it was the first time he ever saw his kids worship!
The point is this: young people are hungry for an encounter with the living God. They long to connect with God on a heart level that can’t be accomplished through a Bible study alone (and I love the Bible study!) We must provide the next generation with opportunities to worship and pray if more than 4 percent of them are going to make it as adults. As the old saying goes, “He who prays stays, and he who fasts lasts.“
Love
Here’s something I wrote a while back. I’m not sure why, but it was really resonating with me today…
So today I decided to hang out with my three year old for a little while. We’d been putting our change in a baby bottle to raise money for Crisis Pregnancy Centers and the bottle was too full of coins to put any more in it. I asked Hudson if he wanted to go to the bank with me so we could exchange all the coins for paper money in order to fit more in the bottle. When we arrived, he excitedly brought the bottle to the teller window and watched the kind lady empty all the change into the coin counter. My son had a particular interest in this because, of all our family members, he put the most money in. When it was all counted, the teller gave us back fifteen dollars and a bottle with more room for our spare change.
After our bank errand, I asked Hudson if he’d like to get some lunch with me. Asking your child if he’d like to eat at a resteraunt is pretty much like asking if the sky is blue, and asking a three year old if McDonald’s sounds good is like asking a drowning man if some air would be nice. He said, “YES!”
If you’ve ever shared a meal with a three year old boy, you know there’s not a ton of conversation that takes place. “How do you like your lunch?”, “What did you do this morning?”, and “You’re getting so big!” were my contributions to the dialogue, and “uh-huh” was his. It didn’t take long for me start looking around the dining room while I waited for Hudson to take down his chicken nuggets.
As I scanned the room, certain realizations came alive in me. I noticed an older woman having a lively conversation with her adult son and I thought about the wonderful gift God gave us in relationships. I saw a young man having lunch with his toddler. He was wearing a bright green hoodie that seemed to pop out at me, and I thought how awesome it was that The Creator created colors out of nothing! I turned my head and there was a middle-aged basketball coach, from the local youth center, speaking into the lives of four of his young players. I thought about the example Jesus set when he shared so many meals with his disciples and even gave the invitation to share a meal with anyone willing to open the door and let Him in. Finaly, my eyes met Hudson’s. His big blue eyes reflected the bright sunlit sky and he smiled a great big baby-toothed smile. My hear melted and I felt such a massive endearing love for him. At that moment, The Father reminded me, “That’s how I feel about you!” I melt His heart! Wow! And he used my youngest son to illustrate the point.
As I sat slightly stunned by all God spoke to me in a sixty second look around the resteraunt, I couldn’t help but think about the words of Isaiah, “The whole earth is filled with His Glory!” And you can find His Glory everywhere you look… even at the Golden Arches.
