God has brought different men of God into my life at different times of my journey and growth as a pastor. The most recent pastor to have a remarkable impact on me has been James MacDonald -- he rocks. I call him a "Hip John MacArthur." He recently blogged on an upcoming book he is working on about the church. I think this is a great article and should shake us up -- especially Christians about how they view their church....enjoy!
I’m getting ready to write a book on the church. It’s gone through countless edits in my head and has now escalated into an almost non-stop conversation between me and . . . well, I’m not sure who I’m talking to… hopefully you and not just myself.
I’m thinking of calling the book, When God Goes to Church! I don’t have a subtitle yet–maybe I don’t need one. I think at the end of the day, my message is this: we have to get back to vertical church. Somewhere along the line, well meaning people have hijacked the church. Some in the name of organizational excellence, some because they want to see more people coming to Christ, some because they feel the church has become too stale to actually reach this so-called postmodern audience, and some because of countless other motivations, good and bad, that I can’t think of right now.
Bottom line: at Harvest Bible Chapel we now have almost 20 years invested in the notion that church should not, better, must not be an audience-centered effort. NO MORE AUDIENCE-CENTERED CHURCH, unless of course we return to the biblical priority of God Himself being the audience. My thesis is that God simply does not attend most churches in America. He won’t work or manifest His presence in places where His Word is apologized for, His Son is polished and marketed, and His power is not sought in prayer or even anticipated. God does not attend churches where the gospel is watered down to a self-help pep talk about felt needs. God does not attend churches where Jesus’ crucified life is not proclaimed as the only hope for a fallen humanity. God does not attend churches where Bibles are not brought, and the gospel is reduced to a formula that a person can recite in 60 seconds. God does not attend churches where words, biblical words, like holiness, repentance, and Lordship are scrubbed from the vocabulary in an effort to . . . ? You may be able to get people to attend churches like that but God doesn’t show up much at all.
God shows up with power to save where Jesus is passionately adored without shame or pretense, without entertainment or needless comedy. God shows up where His Word is proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit. God shows up where He can be certain that His Word will be heard and held up for the sufficient, saving, sanctifying word that He promises it to be. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth” (John 17:17).
The church has fallen and is now, on most fronts, floundering in the abyss of cultural analysis and human approval. Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.” The western church in our day is floundering in silly attempts to be pleasing to an audience that does not conceptualize the stench of our lives in the nostrils of a holy God. Attempting to become ‘relevant,’ the church has become impotent and irrelevant. At the end of the day people want to meet God when they go to church, but His Spirit is so grieved by what happens in most churches, He simply refuses to attend.
I heard a pastor say recently that the past 20 years have been about “church done with excellence in the flesh is better than church done poorly in the flesh.” How insightful! How about church done according to God’s Word and in the power of the Spirit? How about church on fire, led by men on fire, burning a swath of God’s power across our land like a tornado across a Kansas wheat field? Where is the mighty prevailing church (Matthew 16:18) moving with God’s power, seeing lives transformed frequently and totally? Where is the church that sees miraculous answers to prayer and marvelous interventions of grace? I want to spend the rest of my days working to see the true church, the grace AND truth church, (John 1:14) the spirit and power church, the overcoming, Christ-adoring, prayerfully dependant, Word-proclaiming church return to prominence. I believe it is only then that God will begin regularly attending the churches of our land. If that were to happen it would make ALL the difference, would it not?
Pray for me please as I continue to think and pray about writing this book. It’s boiling up in me now and will take a mammoth effort to write. I’ll surface little bits here on this blog as I work and pray. Next time I want to talk about how the church got in this mess, starting with: “Starving Saints, Selfish Shepherds, and Shallow Services.”