Loving the Church, Faults and all

One theme in today's "Christian" relevance plays over and over again. It is either something culturally accepted and boastfully alluded to by modern day social gospel preachers or it is something that is totally avoided and neglected due to disagreements by a younger rebellious youth. It is not new and seems to follow all age groups from the creation of man. The subject is the church and its main preeminence within the believers life. Today it seems the more convenient the church is to cater to the worldly desires of today's youth, the least amount of demands it places on any individual, and its ability to submit to the desires of the congregations, well the more attractive she is. The unregenerate person has no desire to be inconvenienced by church involvement. Unless of course it is center stage and one day a week with no prior requirements.

We seem to be living in an era where devotion to the centrality of the church upon a believer is almost completely neglected. Cultivating within our youth a strong desire to love the church and be devoted to it as the central focus of ones life takes a back seat to more important things like sports, education, leisure, and an array of other topics. Youth are not loving the church, loving the education of a proper worldview, sports within the context of the local church and leisure with the people they go to church with. It all seems like "work."

This attitude is usually bred by parents who seem to be rather non-submissive and uninformed on the need to love the church. They seem overly critical and have complaining hearts. The church is great as long as it does everything they agree with. Once a sacrifice of trust is required of them they are the first to shoot and complain or even leave. In face the battle cry of today's relevant church is to look and act as little like church as possible and as much like the world as they can afford (which comes far short).

Beware, for one you are working yourself out of a job. How? Every generation has this youthful pride that says the best way is different. Its not 2000 years of biblical theology. Its now, its hip, its cool, its not old. Young man, you are getting older. Many of you in less then 15 years will be the older uncool man. The next generation will come and repeat your method of ecclesiology. And you my friend, will loose your job because you will just be to old. You will not be respected but discarded and the "new" perspectives of prideful know it all spirituality will become even more liberal then your "new" ways which will all to soon become "old" ways. But what do you expect? This was your modeled ministry.

What I want to do over the next few weeks as the Lord allows is go through the 9 Marks of a healthy church. If you have not ran by these then do a google search for 9 Marks Ministry and go through each of the 9 Marks to see how your church stacks up. These are not necessary controversial marks but they are marks that all to often are assumed but never explained. This results in a distorted view of meaning on each mark. The reason I am doing this is two fold. One reason to serve you in your search for a healthy church. The second reason is all to often I have seen people who have neglected to lead there family to a healthy church either due to a lack of biblical leadership, concern of self, or simply because they do not know what to look for. My prayer is that in each case this will serve you in order to stir up again a desire to lead you and/or your family to a church with a high view of God and His Word or to aid you in what to look for as you discern the difference of a God centered church from a man centered church. Maybe you are in a situation where your parents are going to an unbiblical church. My prayer is that as you go through each mark you will become more aware of your need to pray. Maybe you are a submissive wife who is following a husband who seems to prefer position and or convenience more then family leadership. Well let these things revive a desire to pray for your church and further your commitment to God. Know that He is in control and your gentle loving spirit has an impact. But do not neglect the need for prayer and become desperate in your desire to see your family grow in grace. God will honor those prayers.

So after this introduction our first Mark will be "Expositional Preaching" in which I will be posting later this week. Commit to prayer for your family and your Pastors. Commit to being a part of the solution within your local church. It is easy to sit back and judge and never do the heavy lifting. Start to show a pattern of self denial to your local church and service. Begin to love the church and teach your children to do the same.

1 Corinthians 12:18-21
God has arranged the parts in the body,
every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!"
And the head cannot say to the feet, "I dont need
you!"