When we go to church we look for sermons we want to hear and music that we prefer. We want the environment to look just right. We want our visual senses pleased. We want all the right entertainment for our kids. We want our teenagers in a safe place. We do not want to be put in a challenging situation. When we serve, it must be clean and easy. We want to be acknowledged for what we do for God. We want to leave feeling better about ourselves.

Is this how the Bride of Christ is to act?

And Jesus said to all, ”If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. – Luke 9:23-26 ESV

Will we pick up the Cross of Christ or will we worship ourselves?

While we are at it, I must share my favorite church service video. Enjoy!

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We live in a very spiritual time. Even though Atheism gets a lot of press, a belief in a higher power still dominates the minds of about everyone who lives on the planet. The current generation growing up that is beginning to enter the workforce (The Millennials), are more spiritual than their parent’s generation. If this is the case then why is the Church in decline? “According to church consultant Bill Easum, 85 percent of the churches in the United States have either plateaued or are dying,” says Dave Kraft in his book Leaders Who Last. Kraft continues by asking the question, “When are we going to wake up and deal with ego and insecurity and humbly take roles that God intended for us, rather than those we desire for the wrong reasons.”

What am I getting at? Being spiritual makes us feel better. It does not make us more obedient. Being spiritual makes us feel better about our lives the way they are. Being obedient to Jesus means we become more obedient to His example and follow His call.

Unfortunately, many church organizations have become more focused on giving a spiritual experience instead of calling to the people as Jesus did, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” – Matthew 28:19-20 ESV.

Understand that Jesus did not give this charge to just pastors. It is logistically impossible for pastors to do all the discipling. He gave this charge to everyone who would claim Jesus as their Lord.

It must be noted that Jesus said “Go” before He said “make disciples.” “Going” is not attending a building on Sundays and coming out feeling spiritual. Attending a building on Sundays is doing us no good unless it is empowering you to “Go.” The call of God is to everyone. Very few respond.

Do not be spiritual. Be obedient to Jesus, who came to save us from ourselves. Jesus concludes His call to us in Matthew 28 by telling us to observe what He taught.

Go disciple others with what He taught.

“Get this book into your gut; get the words of this book moving through your bloodstream; chew on these words and swallow them so they can be turned into muscle and gristle and bone.” – Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book

In the modern American church organization there is a drive to have the right look, the right smile, the right music, the right lighting, the right media, the right delivery, the right whatever else. Modern Americans are even very interested in spiritual things. But, what spiritual things? Christians have become very spiritual, apposed to the works-based, dry, ridged attitude of decades past(this attitude still exists in a major way, but we will not get into that right now). You could even say there has been a spiritual resurgence over the past couple decades. But, what has this done to change the condition of our lives and our culture. Not a whole lot, but I am not an expert.

Why? Why isn’t the condition of our culture improved? We are more spiritual. We are more relevant. We threw out the organ. We had a young, hip graphic designer craft our new logo. We use Apple computers. Our guitar players have Telecasters and delay pedals.

Being spiritual only does one thing. It makes us feel better. That is it. It makes us feel better about the same life that we lived before we became spiritual. Being spiritual does not save the world. It does not lower the divorce rate. It will not keep your kids off drugs. Being spiritual may raise Sunday attendance and will cause a short term change in one’s life, but not long term. Being spiritual is about feeling better about yourself. That feeling will come and go. Now doesn’t that shed light on all these come and go Christians?

These come and go Christians are responsible for their own lives, but it is perpetuated on Sundays with it’s snazzy feel good packaging.

How am I following Christ today? I grew up with the organ on Sunday mornings. We had no gaming systems in our youth room. The church I grew up going to had all the dry and traditional things that get complained about. But, it had one thing. The most important thing. My pastor, Sunday school teacher, and youth leaders “Ate this book.”

Eat what book?

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Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
-Philippians 2:2-4 ESV

There are a few subjects in the Christian world when I look at Scripture, then see them in practice, it does not correlate. Among other subjects, two of the major ones on the front of my brain is worship and church. We will not discuss worship this time around, but we will deal with church on this occasion.

As I drive through my home town with it’s many church buildings, you cannot convince me this is what Jesus meant when He talks about his followers as His bride. The church has been fragmented with each party entrenched in a fox hole of the reason why they do it better. Jesus stated plainly “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls” -Luke 11:17 ESV.

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Have you read part one? You will need to because this post is an extension of that one.

The commonly known approach to giving or generosity is backwards.

You may have heard this statement before, “You do not have to clean yourself up before coming to God.” The idea is God changes our hearts. When we are changed inside, it will find its way out. This would include giving too, right?

Instead of giving being an act of obedience from the heart that is given with an open hand, many Christians feel like someone is looking over them to ensure that they are in line with the laws of tithing. Are we not to keep each other accountable? Yes. My concern is for the overwhelming emphasis that many organizations place on money and giving in their services. This is quite self serving and I believe explains Jesus’ approach to the subject in dealing with the religious people of his day. The religious people during Jesus time on Earth were the Bible guys. The religious people in New Testament times where not that unlike us and our church leadership today. I know that will draw disagreements across the board, but the more I learn about the Jewish religious leaders the more I see the similarities. That discussion is for another day.

On many occasions I have been the scribe. I have ungracefully tried to enforce the commands of God on people like the pharisees. It has taken Jesus growing my heart for me to become more obedient.

Let us take a look at some verses when Jesus talked about the subject of money, giving, and generosity.

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A post on Twitter I saw recently

Have you ever been to a church service where they give a mini sermon before they take up the offering? I have been to several places that do this. Lately, hearing these makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little.

Jesus said on multiple occasions that what comes out of your mouth is from your heart (Matthew 12:34, 15:18). Does this have implications for the church organizations that are constantly talking about money? I think it does.

It seems that church organizations will not call you out on most sins because they want to “love” you and do not want you to feel “condemned.” There seems to be one big exception. You will get called out for not fulfilling your obligation to tithe. You can feel the waves of “Biblical obligation” spouted out from the stage with the promise of showers of blessings from heaven if you are obedient. Yet, poor people stay poor. It is the one “sin” that the church organization can check up on because they have your giving records (which is why I give in cash). Yes, I have seen the giving records whipped out before. Shame, shame.

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After I drafted this post, it was clearly in line with a post I did previously called Due Credit. That makes this part 2.

What would happen if we truly did not care who got the credit? What if the results mattered more than the credit? You may think that the results do matter more than who gets the credit, most of the time. It is hard to find real evidence of that.

If results mattered more than credit in politics, the nation might actually look on politicians favorably again. Politicians want to see the lives of citizens improve, when it is on their watch, not the other party. Campaigns are a time to try to soak up as much credit as possible and cast as much blame as possible on the opponent. Politicians are not the only guilty ones of like behavior.

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Image from the book Rework

Do you ever get the impression that Christianity is just one big event after another? Church organizations are always looking for the next big event. That big event thinking has even came into Sunday morning services everywhere. Christians feel the need to be big and impressive; we have to “attract” people to come in the doors of our church organization. We try to find the emotional buttons to push to bring a person to the point that they need Jesus and must become a loyal part of that gathering of believers with a soon-to-come message about how you must tithe and serve within that church context. It is easy to get the impression that the Christian life revolves around an event that happens on Sunday. Going from one event to the next will only put you on an emotional and spiritual roller coaster. Your spiritual life cannot spike up during an event only to spike down when you have no event to go to. How do you know if you are living like this? Do you feel like your spiritual and emotional life is like a roller coaster? Now you are wondering how you can avoid this trap or get out of it.

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Do you align yourself behind a certain way of thinking or belief system? Do you claim Calvinism, Arminianism, Pre-trib, Post-trib, Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, non-denominational, and the list can go on. Is your identity held in one of these labels? Does this self-labeling determine who you read or listen too?

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Seth Godin has a striking message in his book Linchpin. I do recommend it. Here is a quote from page 29:

“If you want a job where it’s okay to follow the rules, don’t be surprised if you get a job where following the rules is all you get to do.”

I could not help to replace the word job with another word:

“If you want a church where it’s okay to follow the rules, don’t be surprised if you get a church where following the rules is all you get to do.”

Reformation Day was just a few days ago. I am glad Martin Luther did not follow the rules. The church world of today has more rules than we realize. Follow Jesus, not the rules.