October 18, 2006
Church's Chicken Little
‘The church is dying, the church is dying…’ A few years ago our leaders began saying, “If we don’t make some changes, this church is going to die.” At that time the worship attendance averaged 600, which to my mind is not even close to a near death experience. Given the potential for church growth in our area, I believe our leaders began to equate the lack of notable growth to that of a dying church. The marketing prescription for increased attendance is to build bigger buildings, start new programs, and be more relevant to the culture. To walk the political, social and religious line of correctness while focusing on numbers and entertainment. ‘The church is dying, the church is dying…’ This must be startling news to Jesus, because He said, “…and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Matt 16:18b NIV
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2 comments:
Gail;
----I remember those years and the fret in the air around the church. They were so conflicted because so many of the church were old people. It always seemed to me that if so many were old people, then the church should have been about serving old people. But that was not the decision of the spiritual geniuses of those days. They decided that church was not for serving one another, but was for everyone serving these people called "seekers" who mostly were not even there. How sad to give up serving one another! What show of love to tell your grandad that what he needs is killing the church and is therefore worse than irrelevant! What kind of spiritual giant does it take to brew up such unscriptural philosophy?
----If the leaders had rather put on the nature of Jesus Christ and exhibitted genuine love for everyone in the church at that time it might of remained healthy. But they chose to limit their service to a particular attendee profile. Younger people, in short, were favored over older people.
----Now go research you Bible about favoritism. Be sure to read Ezekiel chapter 34, Malachi chapter 2 and James chapter 3. Churches don't die from from lack of bodies, they die from lack of obedience.
Gail;
---Eh-hem. Excuse me please, my carelessness shows again. That should be James chapter 2. Sorry.
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