May 30, 2008
Outsourcing
Today we hear a lot about jobs being outsourced to foreign markets where other countries are touted as being better producers than the United States. In a sense Jesus outsourced the Gospel when He told the chief priests and Pharisees, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (Matt. 21:43 NIV) It takes very little imagination for me to apply Jesus’ statement to churches in America today. Reportedly the Gospel is exploding in many areas around the world while U.S. churches and denominations are imploding. It makes me wonder if it’s a matter of who’s producing the fruit.
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Gail;
-----I think the Barna Report states 70-80% of Americans respond to surveys as being Christian (while maybe 20% of those charge the other 50-60% of being insincere.) And in spite of the Anti-Christian Civil Liberal Union efforts to sweep Christianity out of public sight, it remains everywhere to be seen with great, but quiet, support. I encounter people everywhere, appearing to be entirely disinterested in the Lord, who when given a tickler on the subject, pick it up readily and really surprise. Even in the liberal mire that is Boulder there are many Christians.
-----In this atmosphere, I think men get caught up in their American nature for competition. Like banks competing for your savings dollar, each church must have its own buzz phrase for a mission statement, as if that will make them “more about God” than the next church down the street. Of course, the church down the street holds themselves out to be “all about God,” doing only “what God wants” too, complete with buzz phrases and programs setting themselves out as distinct from the ones up the street. In all this need to be distinct in order to attract to their church the unchurched, they then begin weaving their own web of subtleties around the simple teaching of the Word.
-----Thank God He works through His church even when man has puffed it up with his own trappings taken from beyond what is written. And I believe He continues to use these puffy spectacles as long as He gets more benefit from their standing than from their imploding. But there seems to come a time when the benefit of an implosion will exceed that of a puff show. Then, as these little displays of pompous religiosity implode, we can get the confused idea that church’s are imploding. But if you look closely enough into the implosions, you see His fruitful people mixing and mingling around with the others of the community, a momentary glimpse at the truth that He has only one church of the community having trouble recognizing itself through all the pompous puff of its cloistered little gatherings. Yet, it is more to chuckle about than to get upset over, especially when one stands up to shout down another who points it out.
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