There is something that is sweeping American evangelical churches like the plague, apathy.  It is a disease.  There needs to be a radical heart transformation in the life of churches.  Paul writes that we are to, “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called,” (Eph. 4:1).  This does not seem to be happening.  There is more passion and desire for accumulating possessions than there is for impacting this world for Christ.

What will it take for there to be passionate Christ-followers?  God will have to do something dramatic to get our attention.  I am not talking about a person doing something dramatic, but God.  It will take Him shaking our personal worlds.  I am certain that all Christ-followers (including myself) need to remember what God has done for us through Christ (read Ephesians 1-2 for example).  God please change our hearts!

I am not sure how many of us have noticed, but it seems apparent thta there is a lot of worldliness in the church.  In the world people think that everything is about, “me”.  Then you go to church for awhile and you begin to see and hear the same kind of things.  The truth is, according to God, everything isn’t about me, it’s all about God.

The soon that we realize that life isn’t about, “me, myself, and I” the sooner we will see God begin to bless churches.  Does anyone think I am making this stuff up?  The Bible says, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;” (Rom. 12:10 NASB).  We spend most of our time devoted to loving ourselves; giving preference to ourselves in honor.  We have placed ourselves in the wrong place, a place of honor.  A servant of Christ serves Christ first and foremost, not himself!

One of the saddest realities about this selfishness is that most of us don’t even know there is a problem!  It is very similar to what God said to the Laodiceans, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,”.  Here is something extremely important to notice, God’s appraisal of their condition was on the opposite end of the spectrum from where they thought.  How many of us are thinking, “well, we’re not doing too badly.”?  In reality, we are on the opposite end of the spectrum.

How many of you have ever experienced or at the very least heard of someone secretly moving property lines?  The person does this dishonest thing to gain something that is not reality.  That person has attempted to alter reality.  The truth is not what appears.  I believe that the same is true in the church, we have reconstructed what it means to be a Christian.  We have watered it down, we have altered what it means to be a Christian so much, that it only faintly resembles (and I emphasize faintly) what the Bible describes as authentic Christianity.  Do you know what the number one answer to this deadly problem is?  Remorse and repentance – sorrow for our sin and a forsaking of it!  We need to recognize how far we have strayed from the authentic path of biblical Christianity.

There is something that I have noticed as a Christ-follower, anytime there is a “new” movement evangelical Christians are against it. I am not saying that believers should automatically buy in to everything that comes down the pike.  What I am saying is that most times opinions are given about “new” movements, “new” Bible translations, “new” books, “new” whatever, without sufficient information to form an opinion.  The reasoning is something like this, “If it is ‘new’, I don’t like it.”  Why don’t you like it?  “I don’t know.  I just don’t.  Someone else said it was bad.”  And so the story goes.  Unless something is clearly un-biblical, why don’t Christ-followers take a breather and wait to see what develops.  It is similar to when evangelicals were against the NIV translation of the Bible, and 15-20 years later the same people who were against it, now use it in their churches!  It seems to be a similar issue with the TNIV, the HCSB, the NET Bible, etc…  If we fastfoward about 15-20 years all the same people who criticized these translations originally, will be using them in their churches. 

I have just received a newsletter talking about the “evils” of the Emerging Church.  Yes, I will admit not everything that every person is doing under the title of Emerging Church is something that I am comfortable with.  On the other hand there are alot of things that I am not comfortable with that conservative evangelical churches are doing right now.  There seems to be no outcry that there are unspiritual people in churches dictating to God’s appointed leaders (pastors) what to do in ministry and leadership.  I would say that this issue is much more an offense to God, than lighting candles and burning incense.

Maybe for the sake of what pleases God we can stop picking apart other movements within Christianity (that are not un-biblical) and start fixing our own churches!  Like dealing with the carnality and people pleasing that is occurring.  I am not going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer for why I didn’t get irritated over the Emerging Church’s candles, but I will stand before Him and answer for why I didn’t stand for truth in my own church. 

This is a call to wisdom, common sense, and repentance. 

I am extremely perplexed about why people who claim to be Christ-followers are so conformed to the society around them.  I am not implying that Christians purposely seek to be “strange” or “weird” in their behavior.  I am implying that Christians are more in-tune with the “fly by the seat of your pants” method of decision making than they are in-tune with the teachings of the Scriptures.  Christians choose colleges based on, “how much money I can make”, choose husbands and wives based on, “how cute they are” or “how great they make me feel”.  Christians also are choosing to use their time to do “what I enjoy most”, which has led to a decline in ministry involvement in local churches.  Christians are choosing to use their money to “buy what I have always wanted.  I cannot live without it.”  which has led to a decline in tithing in local churches. 

Christians have forgotten that they are not their own.  If they truly have placed their trust for forgiveness of sins in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they belong to Him.  “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor 6:20).  “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”  (Rom 14:7-8).

We have forgotten that we are not “masters of our own domain”, we are in fact, “servants of Christ”.  Jesus is the boss, and His Word determines how we are supposed to live in a vibrant, loving relationship with Him.  So we are to conform to Christ, not to society.

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.  Colossians 1:28-29

I love how Paul so succinctly summarizes what his goal is in life.  He states that he desires to proclaim the truth of God’s Word in such a way (by the grace of God), that people will not only put their trust in Christ for forgiveness of sins but that they will become fully mature followers of Christ.  Paul says that he works day in and day out, through God’s enablement, to see this happens.

What is our goal as Christian leaders?  A large crowd of people?  A big bank account?

What is our goal as Christians?  The appearance of success?

From the statement of Paul mentioned above (and the evidence of his life), we are missing out on what is most important. 

1) We should pour ourselves into proclaiming God’s message of forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Christ.

2) We should pour ourselves into proclaiming God’s message of obedience to His Word, so that the forgiven may actually become like Christ (Rom 8:29).

Not a bad way to spend our lives!

It is so interesting to me that so many Christ followers who are attending Theological institutions (such as, seminaries) are so concerned with not being considered conservative.  Why is there a fear of being labeled, “Theologically conservative”?  I think it is probably better to err on the side of caution when it comes to such an issue.  In a search for “significance”, have Christ followers sought approval from those who have questioned the underpinings of the Word of God as the message from God, revealing Himself to humanity?  It is such a paradox that Christ followers would shun being considered “conservative” because it implies narrow-mindedness, ignorance, and legalism.  No one likes labels, because they are almost always jaded by the person who is doing the labeling.  I would voice a word of caution, if I may, don’t be so quick to seek the approval of people by jettisoning beliefs in the core doctrines of the faith, as revealed by the Word of God.  When we begin picking which parts of Scripture are really true or really from God, and which parts aren’t, where do you stop?  I am not calling for blind ignorance.  I am encouraging caution.  I don’t think that any of us would desire to be promoters of false teaching/doctrine in our day.  Study yes, but be careful what you take in as truth from “critical scholarship.”  Contend for the faith, as Jude called for.