I ate at 5 Points Grille last night for the first time and it was pretty darn good. I can officially recommend the Basil Chicken Pasta thingy to any hungry downtowners. The conversation was good as well and got me into the word this morning praying over our response and responsibility to one another in the church. I heard a story of a church that is being sued by members within the church because they don’t like where the church is headed. They are not suing because of sin in the pulpit or the staff, they simply don’t like the way the rest of the people want to go. The suing people are definitely in the minority but since they have been there the longest they feel that the church is "theirs." Of course this is a load of crap, but for a lot more reasons that even a first glance might indicate. Yes they know that the Bible says not to sue other believers, but their response is that suing is, "the only way we can get our way." If you are a believer reading this you must understand that this effects you just as much as it effects the people in that church.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

The word you in these verses is plural. We together make up the temple that God dwells in. We are the temple of God together, and we together make up something that is holy. It is the same idea that Paul will go to later when he says that we are one body. When one member of the same body suffers, the rest of the body suffers. So, when a bunch of idiots in another city start suing their local church, we all should feel the pain of our holy temple being destroyed. The problem is that we don’t really care. Church is a place that we go to not a thing that we are. We should start from the beginning.

God made a covenant with Abraham and said that he would make him into a great nation. This nation was Israel and their job was to be a city on a hill that would light the way to God. They failed. Now the church is on the scene and its our job to be a city on a hill that will light the way to God. I’m not sure how we are doing. The cool thing about big cities is that when all the lights are on you can see that city from forever away. Those satellite photos of the earth at night are cool because you can see the big cities of the world clear as day from outer space. The lights together are seen from far away, but if you were to put your house on a semi and move it out into the desert the only people that would see your lights would be the people in your front yard. WE LIGHT THE WAY TO GOD TOGETHER. This personal relationship stuff has gotten out of hand. Yes there is a place for personal devotion and prayer but the fact of the matter is if you are not an active member of the temple/body universal you have no personal relationship to turn to anyway. We are baptized into one Spirit, one body, on temple, one everything. You are not the bride of Christ and I am not the bride of Christ. WE are the bride of Christ.

A change in the way we view the make up of the church would change a couple of key areas. There are probably a lot more but these are the ones that came to mind. If you think of more please tag them on.

Love

If I see myself as unimportant and dead apart from the total make up of the temple I begin to care a whole lot more for those who also make up the temple. If we suffer we do it together and if we have success we do it together. If the leg is cut the hand will bandage it. None will be poor, none will be hungry, and none will be cold. On the flip side we will love in rebuke as well. None will be stingy, none will be aloof, and none will act as more important than anyone else. We won’t allow it. (Oh yeah, and if anyone sues a local church we will kick their butts to the curb so fast they won’t have time to respond at all)

Outreach

We have pushed outreach onto the leaders and missionaries of our churches. Again WE are a city on a hill. WE have to do this thing together. One guy off in a hut apart from the temple will not shine very brightly. We will point the way together. If you are not reaching out in the name of Christ with the body then our light is not shining as bright as it could and we are all suffering for it.

Anyway this was on my mind. There is a lot more to say but I will leave it here for now. I would love to chat with some of you on this for sure. It is pretty important.

I had a hard conversation with friends over dinner last night about the focus, mission, and stewardship of the the American Church. This conversation leaves me with a few thoughts that I would like to put on the table.

It seems that the modern church model is to talk about a dream of community and discipleship, while spending millions on facilities that will bring in the masses for the Jesus show of Sunday mornings. This show generally consists of uninspired singing coupled with lecture style preaching. In churches where people rave about how great the "worship" is, I usually see a place where the Spirit of God has been replaced with flat ironed hair, 110 db of sound, and intelligent lighting. This reaction in worship is to the experience itself and not to the Lord. I doubt if many of the same people if placed in a poorly lit room with just their voices to express their worship through song would have the same reaction. This means that their reaction in worship is not to the idea that they have been redeemed but is only a testament to the fact that they attend a better Jesus show than the church up the street. The second part of the service is the lecture style preaching of the word that is tired and generally ineffective. The teaching and preaching of the word from the pulpit has become the pinnacle of the modern church. How well our preacher preaches defines whether or not our churches are a success. The pervasive thought is that as long as the preacher does not say anything untrue then we have heard a good sermon. We as the church have not been called to just hear truth, we have been called to act on truth as a body. This, I feel is where the problem lies. The call is to simply come on Sunday morning, not to give your life to the people around you. We must have a shift in focus.

The church has been deeply affected by American individualism. It used to be that a community would gather on Sunday morning to sing and hear a message and these things would strengthen the community that was already there. This model was effective because the community already existed. We now are scrambling to invent community in our churches because we have come to the realization that there are a bunch of strangers gathered in a room together in churches nationwide. The afore mentioned modern sermon usually culminates in a challenge to the body, but even this challenge is usually directed to the individual. How to pray better, how to give better, how to have success in your personal battles, are the types of topics given from the pulpit today, and we are usually sent home encouraged to think about what we have heard in the privacy of our own homes throughout the week. This is proving over and over again to be ineffective because the church was never meant to be a place to go once a week to simply hear a good sermon! We are to be the body of Christ. How many millions of dollars do we have to spend on building and aesthetics so that more and more people will come to the show, before we see that the money is being wasted and is creating a mere shadow of what the church is meant to be.

I believe that the church is the physical representation of Christ in the world today. To each other, as the church gathered, we exist to spur one another on towards Godliness and good works, and to the world as a whole we exist to minister the love of Christ through service and love. If these two things are true then we must make some observations about ourselves.

1. We have been sold a bill of goods that says we must present a hip and cool environment on Sunday mornings for unbelievers, so that they will come to "church" think Jesus is cool and get saved. This model is stupid and we are wasting our time and money on this goal. We come together for each other, to encourage one another towards Godliness and good works. Which brings us to the next point.

2. If the first statement is true then why in the world are spending the kind of money we are on modern Church construction. Why would God need for us to spend this kind of cash to encourage each other spiritually. One reason, among many, would be that we consider our pastor on Sunday mornings to be the only one who can give nuggets of wisdom for the church and so we must build huge sanctuaries that thousands can sit in to hear one man and then get in our own cars and go home. The pastor is to lead the local congregation but should never be the only voice of instruction and encouragement. This leads to arrogance in the pastor and laziness in the body. Sounds familiar. This in itself is a huge conversation that needs to be had and I know I may have oversimplified it here, but I stand by the basic idea that we have elevated the modern preacher (not the preaching of the word...completely different) to a ridiculous level. He is to be the number one servant of Christs body not the CEO/motiational speaker.

3. Since we are building these huge buildings, and outfitting them with every technological bell and whistle money can buy, we are crippling our ability to be the hands and feet of Christ to our communities and the world. Here is a quote from and article I read, "It would cost roughly $3 billion to keep all the people in Ethiopia free from famine. We have spent nearly seven times that much on new church construction in a year." We are in essence saying to the world that it is more important for us to have luxurious padded seats for our butts to sit on, great sound and lighting to keep us "engaged," and ornately decorated sanctuaries to prove just how much God is blessing us than to feed you so you won't die.

These thoughts are scary to me because if only a couple of them are true then we have some serious repenting to do as a church. We have wasted God's money on our own ridiculous need to pampered. It is also scary because it means a major shift in how we do church. Our priorities must be to reach out to one another with the gospel and then take that same message to the world. Jesus said that they will know Him through our love. And love in the New Testament is shown through action. If someone is hungry feed them, if they are thirsty give them water. They will see Jesus through this kind of love, not the here's a track pray a prayer have a good life kind of love.

Like I said I want to start or continue the discussion. Let me know what you think and how we start changing the whole thing so that Christ can change the whole world through us. I'm listening.

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