A Neighborhood of Caring Neighbors
View all responsesFar too often Christians who want to experience Christ beyond the control of Sunday morning church attendance are criticized and pressured to conform to the passivity and mediocracy of traditional church services. If they persist in their desire, they may even be rebuked by the pastor and told in subtle ways that they need to go through his authority and not directly to Jesus.
Prepackaged Sunday religion and Spirit-led Christianity are not the same thing. Here is a question for pastors. When you preach why not be directly led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14) living within you (Colossians 1:27) instead of by your sermon notes? (Mark 13:11)
It’s October — the month when criticism of church is praised. So here I go.
In October of 1517 a man publicly criticized 95 things about the church. He started a big fuss that has been going on until now. It is said that today there are more than 40,000 Christian denominations in the world not counting the millions of independent churches. The guy who started this mess, who diced up the church into self-sufficient fragments, is called a hero of the church. His name is Martin Luther.
The past 500+ years have shown that church doesn’t operate very effectively when it is run as a human institution and controlled by people. It trains its members to be passive and satisfied with mediocracy. Human run churches often hurt the people who want to experience more than a Sunday message.
Christ, Himself, wants to be the living Director and Head of His body. He doesn’t want people in churches to honor Him with lips while their heart is far from Him, and they ignore Him with their behavior.
The body of Christ is not and was never intended to be an organization. It is supposed to be a living organism under the direct control of the risen King Jesus. That only happens when individual Christ-followers are trained and allowed to listen to Jesus and do whatever He tells them to. Churches need to throw away their human programs and agendas and instead gather people to listen to and obey the risen Jesus.
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” This is a very well-known and widely ignored Bible verse. For centuries churches have trained Christians to listen to the Bible preached and then to go their way and ignore what they have heard. They have taught people to disobey the Bible by not training them and giving them opportunities to actually do what was preached.
How can a church give people the opportunity and the courage to do the word? By making a sermon very short and practical, showing people how to do it, and then giving them time in the service to literally do what was taught. Here are some examples:
* Preach: “Confess your sins to each other.” (James 5:11) Then let people get on the mic and confess.
* Preach: If two are more people agree in prayer it shall be done for them. (Matthew 18:19) Then have people break into pairs and ask God for something together.
* Preach “Humble yourself.” (James 4:10) Then ask people to humble themselves during the following week and come back the next Sunday and share how they did it.
* Preach “Bless those who curse you.” (Luke 6:28) Then have people take turns standing up and speaking a blessing over someone who has cursed them.
* Preach “Give and it shall be given unto you.” (Luke 6:38) Then have people to personally give something to someone the next week.
* Preach “Praise the Lord.” Then have people take turns declaring the Lord’s praise.
* Preach “They overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony,” and then have people take turns testifying about how they first encountered the risen Jesus and how He has changed and continues to change their life.
There are so many other biblical things that churches could train people and give them the opportunity to do. The important thing is to find a church somewhere that is willing to do that! Are you willing to be a doer of the word and not simply a hearer? Then do so!
