For that past seven months I have had the privilege of visiting churches as I have been in the process of relocating from Louisiana to North Carolina. I would like to say that this visitation time has been a blessing. I have truly come to this conclusion. I can tell you dear pastor why people are leaving churches by the droves. I am not trying to be critical or judgmental because I have to inventory my own ministry when I behold the condition of the Christian Church.
Honestly visiting this mix of churches has shown me one thing….when you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all….. regardless of their doctrine. I have also come to another conclusion, I would not attend church if I had to arise every Sunday morning and endure what I have seen these past seven months. Today took the prize as I sat in a large church from the denomination in which I was raised….how far this denomination has strayed from it’s powerful Pentecostal roots.
Some may say that this is the reason house church is becoming popular to which I will disagree because for the most part house church offers nothing more then a smaller version of “big” church. After all house church leaders simply follow the example of their Pastor.
My spirit grieves as over and over week after week we are offered “bribes” to get us to attend….. as if coffee and donuts is why I made the effort to be in attendance. Amazing how cheap we sell our God. How many times have I heard the announcement “God is here” and truly He is because He said He would be, but it is a rare moment that His presence in tangible or experienced. In a church of a few hundred there is a shout that “3 were saved this month” while millions around us are going to hell and some are most likely sitting on the pews of the church.
Our youth sit in a stupor as they endure the one to two hour performance. Is it any wonder we have no hold on this great generation of prophetic youth? It is not the counterfeit sound of the world that captures them my friend, it is the genuine sound of prophetic worship from heaven that pulls one’s spirit into anointed fervent display of powerful demonstration.
But we choose rather to offer some form of cookie cutter worship. Our repertoire is the same as the church down the street sung by the same type of lifeless, expressionless people we call the Praise and Worship Team. Entire congregations stare at the platform as one does a casket in a mortuary during a funeral. They clap their hands upon demand and at the end of every song. This they do week after week. There are few smiles, few expression of joy, and even fewer worshippers. And this, this leads us into some quiet, non confrontational, non challenging mockery of a message we call a Word from God!
Rarely does one weep over their sins, even more rare is the sound of groaning or travail.
Does anyone these days even know they have been fully redeemed from their sins? Is this all we have to offer the King who ransomed us, who washed us, cleansed us, delivered us from dreadful bondages, gave us our mind back, healed us of dreaded diseases, raised some of us from the dead, broke the curse of sin and death off of us, restored our lives and families, and shattered into fine dust the assignment satan strategized for our lives?
How can we not truly give ourselves unreserved to Worship the King of Kings? How can we endure another service in another church that has no idea how to pray and shake heaven and earth? How can we give ourselves so completely to something so foreign to God and His awesome power? The fault lies not with the people, but with the Pastors.
Where is the praying Church, the praying Worship Leader, better yet…. God! Where are the Praying Pastors who pull heaven to earth for the sake of someone who desperately needs a God encounter? Is there a Pastor, a people anywhere who have a cause that will make heaven and earth stand still? Is there a church anywhere that will grow sickened by the thimble full of anointing and presence of God the believe they possess and will shake the heavens till His glory fills the house and halts man’s agenda to rescue the perishing?
Is it any wonder that Islam is thriving? Do you ever hear them complain about praying, fasting, or the demands that their religion has made on them. They’ve sold out to a false god even unto death….and every Sunday we can barely wake up for the one true God. When we do we’ve nothing to offer Him as we enter in sin laden and desolate in spirit and soul. Yes I am talking about YOU!
I asked myself this morning….I wonder if to God the saddest day of the week is the first day of the week? I wonder if He weeps on Sundays. Most Christians would probably say no, because we are comfortable in our dead powerless churches. Such churches have made it much easier for us to justify our sin, excuse our lives, and take a stance against anything that would cause us to feel condemned or judged. These kinds of churches offer no challenge to the Pastors either. Pastor get in their networks and pat one another on the back and proclaim how great their churches are.
Pastors we have perverted this generation. Pastors we have become the problem not the problem solver. Pastors we have our work cut out for us and it begins in the prayer closet. Then it moves to intercessory prayer meetings and then to corporate prayer meetings….this accompanied by fastings often. Does your bulletin have a listing of weekly prayer meetings? Does your leadership attend and pray? Do YOU? Does your so called “Spirit filled” church speak in tongues or is there a spirit that hinders this holy work of God? Is it only the man in the pulpit who prays, or can your congregation shake the foundation with fervent prayer?
Pastors, we are killing our people by selling them into slavery. God have mercy on us, we have inoculated our members and they are immune to the power of God. No bother though, we ourselves have not experienced the raw awesome power of God in so long we wouldn’t recognize it, or may attribute it to demonic activity. No worries Pastors, let the blind continue to lead the blind, and let the dead bury the dead, it appears the sting of death is in the Church, and our churches have become the “graves victory.”
I believe and must remain persuaded that there is a man, a woman somewhere who is crying out “There Must Be More!” One who is set and ready to build a place of habitation for the God of Mighty Power! There is a remnant people. God help me find them! Give me a Kingdom Reformation Revival or I might just die!
God sticks his head out of heaven.
He looks around.
He's looking for someone not stupid —
one man, even, God-expectant,
just one God-ready woman. Ps 53:2 TMB