The American Church has lost its vision, mission, light, salt, and place on the hill in our cities. Fewer and fewer people are coming to church. Many gave deconstructed and left. Many keep coming with a form of holiness but have silently quit Jesus because of the lack of the power of the cross in the churches.
Small and large churches sell false hope in mirage miracles and postulated prophecy, shooting more blanks with an occasional word stretched to fit their narrative.
With scientific breakthroughs in medicine, we are more likely to experience a miracle from a doctor than in a church. All the miracles Jesus did will be performed by science in the next few years. The lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see, the mute speak, and there will be a resurrection from the book of Revelation. Churches that seek power, miracles, and signs and wonders without leading people to the power of the cross are increasingly irrelevant to our communities and God.
Not all churches market miracles, but some market the day's wisdom—success at having our best life now. There is nothing about losing our lives. Losing doesn't sell church attendance. But these churches sell the day's wisdom with Cliff notes and abridged services. Our wise master-building churches offer less wisdom than two-hour podcasts of Joe Rogan, Jordan Petterson, Steve Bartlett, Chris Williamson, etc. None of these podcasters claim to know Christ, but they offer better wisdom than many churches on Sunday mornings.
The world is outperforming churches in both miracles and wisdom. The only thing the church has that the world cannot compete with is grace and truth. But where are we to find those power twins? There are plenty of churches that offer an imitation grace minus the truth. And plenty of churches that provide the truth but have left their first love and the greatest commandment. Where is the church that Jesus established with grace and truth that even the gates of hell cannot knock down?
The world doesn't know about grace and truth. The world does see the lite, sodium-free church on the hill, largely abandoned. Churches nowadays offer grace to live our truth rather than grace to face the truth. But God's grace is the power to overcome, not the permission to succumb. The church is fast-tracking, being useless and trampled on. However, we have a promise from the church's founder, Jesus, the Christ, that the gates of hell will not defeat the church.
Upon this rock, Jesus built his church. Many churches have grown over the years with add-ons and renovations. But did anyone check to see if the additions were built on the rock?
Some may view my words as accusations, criticism, or anger toward the church. And you would be right to a point: I have all those issues, but part of my calling is to prepare the bride for her husband. And the bride is not ready!
I will not abandon the church on the hill. Jesus walked in the public to his crucifixion, and I will follow his lead. We are told not to forsake the assembly of the church. The church is the only place we find eternal light. Even if the fire is a smokestack and the reed is bent, the church belongs to Jesus. If Jesus endured church hurt from people wanting to throw him off a cliff after his sermon but still went back. Then we, too, will endure and go back. Jesus doesn't lead the home alone Christian except to leave the 99 to bring the one back into the fold.
Jesus had a few words to say during his day that are just as relevant today. The temple and synagogues were corrupt, but they were God's way. Back then and in many places now, you may only find your miracle, wisdom, and love for God on the outside of the four walls of the church. Even so, Jesus would do something in the streets of Israel and then send them back to show themselves to the priest and be a witness that God is still alive and active.
Jesus warned his disciples of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. Do as they say but not as they do. We are to come out from among them, but that doesn't mean to start yet another church. There are some woke churches that are ready to be cut off and burned by the angels of God. Come out of them, find a church you can serve, and be a light stroking the fire for revival.
Many churches try to obey Jesus' command to go to the other side. But somewhere in the storms of life halfway there, these churches forgot that without Jesus, we cannot do anything. So, we row, row our boat, but it is not a gentle stream. Some get out of the boat or fellow-ship and start to sink and do sink. And others find a renewal in Jesus and get to the other side. In the boat or walking on water, we do not get to the other side without Jesus. The storms were not an issue with Jesus; they shouldn't be an issue with us. He either walked through them or slept through them. Jesus trusted his Father to get him to the other side, and we should do likewise. Rebuke the storm or not; without Jesus at the helm, we are not getting to the other side.
Hopefully, I have given enough encouragement for the church to bring correction to the church. I'm talking about the lite church. The lite church can't stand against every wind of doctrine. And the sodium-free church has become more of a low-cost entertainment social club. Allow me to box with aim and hit the target.
If the power of the gospel is the cross, why did we closet it? Wisdom is for the mature. The fear of the Lord is for the sinner who does not know sin and righteousness. Giving wisdom to fools gives us the craziness we see in our churches today. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. We use wisdom to tickle the intellect, which causes us to be proud and puffed-upped, not humbled.
We stir the waters of revival and miracle services yearly to bring in the crowds. We bring up the one person who received something and send everyone back home to try again next year. We have countless people lying on their side, frustrated for years because no one is helping them. And no one tells them they only need Jesus to get up and walk.
- Seeking personal success and glory
I'm guilty of this one in the past. It is a sin that dedication can hide. We are not told to seek success at any cost. And seeking our glory is super bad. We are to seek the glory of God. We are to live for Christ alone. We are to be faithful even when it looks like success is getting further and further away. To be faithful is to bear fruit of righteousness for the kingdom of God. Success, as God defines it, is something we want.
Filling seats and building bigger barns for the Lord doesn't mean we are faithful to the eternal word of God that can not be shaken. Getting a confession and being a witness to Jesus' resurrection is easy. Discipleship is difficult and can't be done with methods outside of Jesus. We have large and small churches that, when they get tested with fire, will burn to the ground with no reward.
Seeking success has cost us our humility that receives the grace of God to be fruitful. We are presenting God with our resumes to get promotions rather than handing him Jesus's resume with the bywords that we have only done what is required of a servant.
We are the ones thanking God that we are not like other people and that he can count on us because we are made different. We knock on his door during prayer to let us in the holy place so we can tell him everything we have done in his name. Instead of taking joy in our names being written in the Book of Life, we prefer the applause of men and demons who know our names.
- Living our best life now instead of losing one's life
We hear more sermons on how we can rise to the top and live our best life now rather than choose to be last so we can boost those at the bottom. We are not looking for a cross to bear. We are looking for a throne to rule. We are seeking Jesus for our place in the kingdom before we surrender our place of authority to him. We want to sit with him in high places before we bow a knee to him.
- Practicing New Age Christianity or Christianity 2.0
The new breed of Christians or the next generation of pastors seem to think they have been tasked with a newer covenant or a third testament. Some of my generation believe we know more about the authors of the New Testament. We have passed them in revelation.
We have replaced prayers and petitions with declarations and decrees. We have replaced preaching the gospel with binding up evil spirits in high places.
We are to cast out low-level demons out of the oppressed. And we are to speak to the mountain like David did to Goliath. But we have confused encouraging our soul in the Lord with a new age higher power of speaking to the storms of life rather than trusting God to get us to the other side. Why didn't Paul have the revelation to calm the storm? He could have avoided being shipwrecked three times. How will we and our neighbors know that our house is built upon the rock if we rebuke the storms rather than endure the storms with grace and courage?
Maybe we need a little rock 'n roll from Bon Jovi, who seems to know that we are halfway there and need to live on a prayer. Jesus told Peter to take my hand. Bon Jovi added we will make it, I swear. But it is true. And I don't know where Bon Jovi stands in knowing Jesus; I'm just pulling a truth from our culture.
The devil likes it when we prefer subjective experience over objective truth found in scripture. All our experiences must align with scripture. If you rebuked a storm in the name of Jesus, and then it was calm, I believe you. However, rebuking storms is not God's everyday way. Walking by faith and not by sight is God's everyday way.
Several ministers have spoken about how long they have gone without sinning over the decades. I do believe we can go a while without known sin. However, John, the disciple that Jesus loved, said anyone who claims to be without sin is a liar. None of us has reached perfection, so why are we pretending we have? Why not glory in our weakness so that the strength of God is seen?
Paul, an apostle of Jesus, said he hadn't arrived but was pushing to get there. Paul also called himself a wretch without the saving grace of God because he failed to do right and did wrong. It is one thing not to have condemnation in Christ and quite another to think we have arrived even for a day of sinlessness. The closer you are to arriving, the more sin you find, and finally, you give up being perfect and call yourself the chief of all sinners, losing all applause of man for the sake of knowing Christ.
Even Jesus, who had no sin from birth to death to resurrection, corrected a man who called Jesus good. There is no good but God. Outside of the Father and Son, there is no good! We are foolish to compare ourselves with each other and even our past selves.
I have more to say, but I will hold off for now so we can return to Jesus, the perfector of our faith. Because we can neither start perfection nor finish it. Halfway there, we should come to this realization.
But to show you that I am not out of bounds in speaking of my frustration with the church, Jesus and Paul were as well.
How frustrating is it to go into a church to save the lost, heal the sick, and set free the captives only to find no one who needs your help? Jesus said he didn't come for the righteous but for the sinner. And he didn't come for the healthy but the sick.
Jesus got frustrated with this adulterous generation and voiced his concern for his disciples who weren't getting it. Where is your faith? Do you not know me by now? How long do I have to put up with this? I wish this world were already kindled. When I return, will I find any faith?
Paul was always frustrated that he had ministered or run his race in vain—shadowboxing without hitting the mark. Paul rebuked a church that started well but reverted to their strength to go the second half. Most believe that Paul wrote another book asking why the Jews were going back to a system of bondage rather than moving forward in the eternal sacrifice of Jesus.
If we, as the American church, want to avoid being trampled on because we offer no value to a lost and dying world, then we must give up our rights to be number one. We must fully surrender to our Lord Jesus, who paid it all. We will only experience the true freedom of living in Christ Jesus by losing our rights and freedoms in this world.
We must get used to the fact that we are God's harvest, and he wants more fruit so that the world knows we belong to him. We must submit to the harvest. The harvest is ready, but the labors are few.
As we go out to harvest, God will make us better harvesters. How do you ask? Because we, too, are a harvest. To harvest grapes, you step on the grapes to get the wine that brings joy. Only overcomers have the joy of the Lord.
We are also graphed into the olive tree. To harvest olives, they must be pressed. If we want the anointing that breaks the yokes of sin and brings healing to the nations, we must submit to the pressure of living a righteous life in Christ.
The American church is full of leaves but little fruit. Jesus cursed a tree for having leaves and no fruit. Our best marketing of the church and Jesus is leafy. We need God to prune us of excess leafy branches that do not bear fruit. All the dead works we do that offer no value to anyone but our ego.
If we, the church, don't make a course correction, then we will do the unthinkable and trample the blood of Christ in which there is no forgiveness because we have forsaken the one who gives it. At some point, God will cut his losses with his bounty and pull us out. He will then judge the nations in his wrath, saving a few souls who respond.
I am making a call to action so I don't present a problem without a solution. The church at large and maybe your church has people who have not bowed their knees to Baal. But we need to come out of the caves we are hiding in. We must not fear proclaiming from the rooftops in whom we believe and belong.
We must return to the manna from heaven. We need our daily bread. He is not a continental breakfast but our source of life. Under the Old Testament, they were to eat of yesterday's manna one day a week. We suffer malnutrition going more than a day on yesterday's manna.
Complete surrender will not happen overnight. Once we decide to follow Christ, we must manage that decision every day of our lives.
If we want to live well, we must learn how to die well. Even as born again, we have a fatal wound that cannot be bandaged. We are given once to die and then face judgment. Live like we are in a hospice and not on vacation.
Consider our life worthless so that God can make us worthy of the plan he has for us. It is his empowerment and not ours if you are stuck halfway. Then you know why.
We will not blame the church that God gave us to help us. We will also not bite into the forbidden fruit imported into our churches by the world.