Church- No Thanks!

Yea, it's been awhile.  But I was awakened early this morning with a burden to write some thoughts that God has been stirring in me for awhile.

In my work as a young adult ministry director, tasked with helping to solve the issue of a young adult migration from church, I’ve stumbled on something I find somewhat disturbing.  The conversations start out well enough, but invariably lead to a statement made by my conversant that, though they take many forms, typically have one origin.

“Well Pastor, I like going to church, I really do, but Sabbath mornings, I am so tired that I like to sleep in.”  Or “I get so much more out of just sitting in nature and allowing God to talk to me from His second book than I do sitting in church.”  Or “I have to be honest with you, there are things the church is doing that I just don’t agree with and I can’t get anything whenever I go.”  Or “There are so many great preachers on the internet, I get my spiritual blessing there.  I mean, sometimes I watch 4 or 5 sermons in a row!”  Or “I get so much more spending the morning alone with my prayer journal and my Bible reading plan, I’d rather not go and bother with all of the people at my church.  Besides, most of them are hypocrites anyway.” Or “Sabbath School?  Just an opinion fest!  Church? Just a show…and it’s always the same.” And I could go on, but I think you’ve heard enough variations on the theme that you get my drift.

These aren’t new, but what is disturbing is that I’m hearing them more from people in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s than I am from young adults. To be sure, young adults are using some of the same statements and even adding new variations, but they all have a common origin.   Self. What’s in it for ME?  Or what isn’t there for me?  Or what I get more from.  Or what I like better.  Or how I’m spiritually more advanced than the average pew sitter so shouldn’t have to be bothered on a Sabbath morning to go and sit next to them.  And if church really is all about me, then why shouldn’t I be able to decide how I spend my Sabbath mornings?  And the same being that started the selfishness thing is behind those thoughts, because he knows that if he can’t hit the church head on, then he will divide and conquer.  

But then I come to this passage in Hebrews 10:19-25 NLT  

Heb. 10:19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.


Heb. 10:23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Verses 19-23 most certainly would encourage us in our personal pursuit of God, but suddenly verse 24 turns us outwardly. Now we move from thinking about “me and God” to “we and God”. Notice the words “Let us” and then the commands that follow… “think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.” “Let us NOT NEGLECT our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another,especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.”

Perhaps here, we get a clue as to why many of us have given up on church. Perhaps it’s because we have missed our role. And perhaps church, in the way it is currently happening, isn’t conducive to helping us with our role.

If I were to make a case for your role at church just looking at these passages, unassisted by the many others in scripture that are saying the same thing, I would say that first and foremost, you are called to be a worshipper as you remember the sacrifice Christ made, and the fact that He made it possible to approach the throne of grace. Worship because your guilt has been taken away. Christ has made you clean. Hold tightly to that belief and worship Christ because of it.

“But I can do that at home, or in nature!” you might be saying. And you would be right. You can worship anywhere. But now we come to another role of every Christian in the church. That of using your gifts to add to the sum total of the church.


A believer, singular, is just that. A believer. But to have a church, you have to have a group of believers. And it is into that group that the Holy Spirit disperses His gifts for the good of all believers. No one has ALL of the gifts. YOURS are important to the Body of Christ as well. So… “think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.” “Encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”


This means that even if you aren’t on the program, you have a role to play. The Holy Spirit could have brought someone to church that needs your love and encouragement. And if you aren’t there to distribute it according to your giftedness, that person will leave just as empty and discouraged as when they came. And enough times of experiencing nothing at church ends up causing another to drop out.

Now before you accuse me of laying all the blame on you and seek to self-justify, let me just say, “I get it.” YOU aren’t the church’s salvation, and therefore you shouldn’t have to carry the responsibility of being there for other people. And to a point…you’re right. Jesus is the only Savior of anyone, the church people included.

But what I am saying is that He has called you to be His hands and feet, not just to address the noble causes of starving children and abused women and homeless people. But He is calling you to also serve those who sit in the pew with you. Those who come and are starving spiritually. Those who have suffered the abuse of a bad workplace all week and just long for some spiritual balm to give them courage to go back into it. Those who find themselves without a home church, but who keep looking. YOU have what they need, and God can use YOU!


So before you skip church again this week, think about the blessing of service that you are missing if you do. Think about who won’t be welcomed or encouraged if you aren’t there. Think about the contribution to the Body of Christ that you can make instead of the blessing you want for yourself. And you will invariably find that the blessing you were looking for is waiting for you in the foyer before church, or in the fellowship hall after church, or in Sabbath School class where someone pours out their heart and gives you a chance to respond with a private note of encouragement. As the old Nike ad pointed out: “You won’t know unless you go.”

And after you have engaged for a while, take a Sabbath off to recoup. Spend some time in nature, or with your Bible, or watching sermons on the internet. Just don’t make that your weekly go-to. Because someone at the church was put there to encourage YOU. And they can’t use their gift if you aren’t there.

Heb. 10:23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

It's Everybody's Choice

It was a hot, humid Sabbath, back in the day before air-conditioning.  The windows were all open, flies buzzed in and out, fans stationed at strategic locations around the church churned the otherwise breezeless air.  I sat there with sweat running down my back, my forehead, my chest—pretty much any pore that could sweat was sweating.  I have no idea what the pastor said, for in my misery, his voice had long ago become little more than a drone in the background of my suffering.

I looked around and saw many other church members stirring up the air themselves with whatever they could get hold of, be it funeral home fans, camp-meeting fans, or just hymnals out of the rack, and trying to pay attention.  Others had succumbed to the heat and were dozing, some quietly, some not so quietly. Other kids, like me, were trying to simply endure to the end.  Some were watching the flying insects.  Some were counting ceiling tiles.  One had abandoned his seat altogether, and had crawled under the pew and was now laying on the cool tile floor right in front of one of the square box fans sitting on the floor.  He was fast asleep.  I privately envied him, knowing that death would be my fate if I tried something similar on my side of the church.

The pastor, in his dark suit, with the coat on and buttoned, literally had rivulets of water pouring down his forehead, which he swiped repeatedly with an already soaked handkerchief as he continued to preach.  I don’t know how he did it.

And somewhere in the middle of my agony, the question came clearly to my mind.  I had no answer for it that day, and I’m not sure that I  have a much better answer for it on this day.  The question?  Why do we do this?  Why do we come to church week after week when nothing ever seems to change?

On that day for me, as on this day for some of you, the answer was that I was there because I had to be there. My parents had insisted I be there, so I was there because I had to be.  But others had actually chosen to be there.  What was that about?

In that day and time, a person was measured in the church community, as well as the society at large, by their behavior.  It seemed to be externally focused.  Look good…you are good.  Look bad…you are bad.  It didn’t seem to matter what a person was really like on the inside.  If you didn’t look or act just right on the outside, you were judged harshly.  So maybe many of them came to avoid judgment.  Or perhaps they came because they wanted to move up in the church community.

Or maybe from my perspective, I was the one being a bit harsh, because there probably were some there because they truly loved Jesus.  I mean, there had to be some there because of that.  It’s just that it seemed like nothing ever changed in that church.  Week after week, summer, spring, winter and fall, we would all be there, and outside of a few amusing incidents, I can’t really remember anyone changing.

Miss C, an old maid spinster, was still mean outside of church.  Mr. R. still yelled at little kids who didn’t go right into church, asking them if they wanted to go to hell, because that’s where they were headed if they didn’t get right into church…which is where some of us thought we were on those hot summer days IN church.  The story was that Mr. B would beat his kids if they didn’t sit still during church as well as their one-hour family worships, and the two older ones often came to school with bruises on their legs and arms.  Mrs. M. gossiped about everyone to everyone.  And it was widely known, probably through Mrs. M, that Mr. H was making political moves towards being nominated head elder so that he could run the church the way he thought it ought to be, and that included maybe even getting rid of the pastor, if need be.

Then there was the pantry patrol, a group of ladies who would go to the homes of others in the church to make sure that they didn’t have any “forbidden’s” in their pantry or refrigerators.  No sugar. No pop.  No mustard.  No vinegar. Nothing that would be against the health message they touted.  Moderation was not part of their vocabulary.  Nor was kindness.  As strict vegetarians, they also sought to make all others vegetarian, and woe be unto you if they found some meat in your fridge.  Eggs, somehow were ok…but not chicken.

The gospel preached back in that day emphasized more the hardship of following Jesus, and how much you had to do, or not do, and how much you were supposed to give up. It was about conquering all known sin, at least any that people could see. It was about passing out tracts and literature, distributing articles of clothing and Bible studies given.  It was about getting your Ingathering goal…not giving it, and it was about making sure that others knew that you had done your part for the church, whatever that may be.  It seemed to be all about externals—but though people did some pretty whacky things, like the pantry patrol, it never really seemed to make a difference in their day-to-day lives.  It just seemed like people were working like mad to get to heaven.

Gradually, the pendulum began to swing back the other direction.  People actually acknowledged that one could be saved by grace, through faith, and not from the works they were doing.  But as pendulum swings go, it kept going through its swing until we get down to now, where we are on the other side of the pendulum swing.

We’ve opted now for such a grace orientation, that we almost never talk about Christ's life and death and resurrection giving us the victory over sin anymore.  We’ve just accepted living with it and repeating a pattern of sin, feel guilty, ask forgiveness, sin, feel guilty, ask forgiveness, etc.   We’ve actually settled for sin management, instead of sin conquering.  Which is not new either.

That started back in the garden.  Check out  Genesis 3:6,7  When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

We get pretty hard on Adam and Eve for plunging us all into sin, but the fact is, they had never heard a lie before, and they had no clue that all beings weren’t totally honest.  They did not know that deception existed.  They had only had truthful dealings with God.  Everything He told them was true, and they had no reason to doubt.  Isn’t it logical then to assume that in their innocence, they would have no reason to doubt what the serpent said? Satan knew this, and used it to his advantage.  But once they had bitten on the lie, innocence faded away.

Isn’t it interesting that when the abrupt realization comes that they were not innocent anymore, and that suddenly they find themselves vulnerable and naked, they instantly start trying to manage sin?

They sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, caused by their transgression.  Now here’s the real interesting thought.  Adam and Eve had never heard of deception before.  They were innocent and had no knowledge of evil, or lies or anything…they were led to sin because they trusted a serpent to be honest with them, even though the serpent contradicted God.  Their doubt, their desire to be like God, and their acting on that desire caused them to fall, though they had never seen sin or lies or evil before.

We, on the other hand, have known about deceit almost from birth.  We know of evil and disease.  We have a written history of how it started.  We have the story of sin and of redemption.  We know that Jesus has made a way out for us when He died on the cross.  We know all of this, and yet we still sin.  And we still make excuses.  And in our teaching today, we have actually made it all ok.

See, whenever we teach that salvation is by mental assent, or intellectual belief, that doesn’t also include transformed behavior, we have given ourselves permission to keep on sinning.  And we make excuses.  We sew fig leaves.  “Well, that’s just the way I am!  I can’t help it.”  “I was born with a red-hot Irish temper—so I can’t help it.”  “My dad had a problem with chasing other women, so I guess it just comes naturally.”  That may be the way you are, but it is not the way Jesus wants to leave you.

How much longer will we go on pretending to be Christians, while doing everything the world does?  When will we realize that to do everything the world does, would actually make us non-Christian?  When will we realize that to do so is really fraudulent of the church at large?  That we are actually telling people we are what, in fact, we really aren’t?

Rom. 12:1,2  Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,(a sacrifice is a total giving up of something—here Paul is saying to offer yourself as a sacrifice) holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.  2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

God is calling you this morning to a transformation.  It is true that Jesus loves you just where you are…but He loves you too much to leave you that way.  He wants you to become just like Jesus.  And if you are not becoming more and more like Jesus, you are not truly a disciple. 

If you are not being transformed into the image of Jesus, then you are not truly following as a disciple.  If your temper problem is not more under control today than it was when you first started following, you haven’t truly given it to Jesus.  If you still lie, or gossip or steal, then you need to bring those things to Jesus and let Him begin the transformation process.  If you don’t love others more now, than when you first started with Jesus, then you haven’t been doing the discipleship coursework.

Accepting His gift is one thing.  It’s the first step.  That’s what we call justification.  But walking in His steps is the second step and the third…and so on, until you become like Jesus.  That’s sanctification.  Your faith becomes obvious in your life by the changes that take place due to your obedience to Jesus.

We’ve got to rearrange our goals from being successful, or wealthy or even noble and instead, make our goal to be a committed follower of Jesus.  Until we do, we will lack passion, and perspective and priorities and perseverance to follow Jesus.  And we won’t see the fruit of the Spirit growing in our lives.  And we won’t tell others about the kingdom, even though we know that Jesus asked us to.  And we will be weak, spineless, Christ-less Christians, which are really not Christians at all.  And as a result, because the individual members lack those things, the whole church will be weak, spineless and Christ-less, which means that we really aren’t a Christian church, no matter how much we may identify ourselves that way.

It all goes back to a choice.  It’s everybody’s choice.  Each of you have to make it.  A choice, not only to take the first step with Jesus…which many of you did last Sabbath by accepting His grace and forgiveness in your lives, but also a choice to take the second step, by accepting His grace and leadership into your lives.  He not only wants to forgive you, He wants to transform you into His likeness.  He wants to change you from who you are to who He wants you to be.  He wants to help you overcome your sin and bad habits and He wants to rule in your heart.  He wants you to talk and act and think and become Just like Jesus.

God calls us to more than just a mental assent to the truth.  He calls us first of all to repentance.  And then He calls us to live the life of Jesus.  To believe what Jesus believed. Live as Jesus lived. To love like Jesus loves.  To minister like Jesus ministered.  To lead as Jesus led.

Making Your Theology Your Biography- Lifestyles of the Humble and Holy

There used to be a show on TV called, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."  People loved to watch it because it showed off all of the things the wealthy have that everyone else wanted.  We've fallen for this same ideology in the church as well.  We seek to have a lifestyle of the Rich and Famous rather than what Jesus called us to: Lifestyles of the Humble and Holy.

I received an e-mail last week that I think may sum up what we are talking about.  It was titled “The way we might sing some well-known hymns if we were being honest.

I surrender Some.   There shall be sprinkles of blessings.  Fill my...spoon, Lord.   Oh, how I like Jesus.   He’s quite a bit to me.   I love to talk about telling the story.   Take my life and let me be!   It is my   secret what God can do.   There is scattered cloudiness in my soul today.   Onward, Christian Reserves.   Where He leads me, I will consider following.   Just as I ...pretend to be.   When the Saints go Sneaking in.

When will the church get honest about its intentions?  When will we get honest about our individual intentions?   There comes a time when we must stop playing church and start praying, church!   When we must stop kidding ourselves into thinking that we are praying saints when we have never really stopped being selfish.   We still want what we want, when we want it, how we want it, why we want it, and who gives two full-blown hoots about what God is asking of us.   In short, we like the idea of being God too much to relinquish the throne.    He asks for our time...we’re too busy.  He asks for our money... can’t afford it, don’t want to give it, and  don’t agree with what they want to do with it anyway.   He asks for our talents...I can’t be bothered with that, I have to use mine in making sure that I have enough in my house.  Someone else can work on filling His house.

If your time, talents and money aren’t spent on leading others to the kingdom, you just wasted your time, talents and money.   If you can’t see past meeting your own wants to a see a world that is dying, you are more philosophically aligned with the Rich and Famous than with the Humble and Holy.   Can you not lift your sights above the here and now?  Is there no recognition that all of this stuff will burn? 

Many of us have a proper theology, but it has not yet become our biography.  Many of us know the texts, but we hold too tightly to the things of this earth for the texts to mean much to us.   Many of us know what we should be doing, but we have gotten good at holding on to wordly policy plans.  Think about this though: It isn’t a huge outbreaking of sin in our lives, but rather, the selfish, greedy spirit that takes possession of us, which will finally lead us, like Judas,  to sell out our Master.  How much are you willing to sell Him for?  Unfortunately, I have often sold Him out for far less than Judas.

So how do we turn our Theology into our Biography?  How do we take what we say we believe and live it out?  Well, there’s good news and bad news.  

First the bad news...We can’t.  There is no way that we can live out our theology. You may be able to accomplish a few things on the list by yourself, but Jesus said that apart from Him  we can do nothing.   So put away your how-to notebooks and forget about trying to be good.  You won’t be able to do it.   Bury the idea that you have a strong will and can do anything you put your mind to.  Sink the ship of self-sufficiency and recognize that you, nor I, have what it takes to make it across the ocean of life.   Try as hard as you will, you cannot  live out your theology.  You are doomed to failure!   Your theology is too demanding.  It is too formidable.  Too hard.  Anyone seeking to make it on their own will find themselves sinking into a sea of discouragement and hoplessness.   They will grow bitter over the disappointments in life.  Eventually, they will seek any other way, and end up selling their Master out.  So the bad news  is....you can’t live your theology.   So if we can’t do it, then why talk about it....

Because our theology must be lived!

But wait...remember, there's also good news!  Here it is.   While I can’t do it, Jesus already did.   And He has promised to ascribe His life to me if I will just accept it.  He has promised that He will come in and change me if I will let Him.   He has promised that He will work His theology into my biography.  Not because of what I do...but because of what He does in and through me.  

Jesus said in John 15:5    “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

So what is my part?  I must let go of the world and allow myself to be grafted into the Vine.  Then his Spirit will flow through my branches and produce fruit.  Not because of me...but because I’m living in Him.  It is a natural progression.  I’m grafted in, the fresh sap of the Vine begins to give me nourishment.  I grow and change and produce fruit.   If your not growing, check out your connection to the Vine.   If you have a connection, your time, talents, money and everything else will be freely given to Him.   You can’t help it.   Jesus inspires us to grow outward, giving of what we have to help His kingdom grow.

If you find yourself struggling with selfishness, greed and gain in the material world with little thought of the eternal,  stop and check your connection to the Vine.   Recognize that all of this is just going to burn.  It won’t last.  When Jesus comes, all that you worked for in the material world will be gone.  You can’t take it with you.   Check out your connection to the Vine.  Make sure that you are grafted in.  Which brings me to my last point.

In order for the church to stay a part of the Vine, we must daily feed on Jesus.  Daily draw our source of life from Him.   This is vital if we are to survive.  How do we do that?  Through prayer and the ministry of the Word.   We must once again go back to His Word and find our nourishment there.  We must hold each other up in prayer as the devil attacks and tries to rip us away from the Vine.  We must become intercessors, not only for ourselves and our families, but for each other in the church family as well.   We must fight against our natural instinct to put self first, and instead, let Jesus replace us on the throne of our hearts. 

Prayer and the Word.  Imperative to the spiritual battle.  If we recognize that we must have a lifestyle of the Humble and Holy, we must also recognize that it must start with us.  No one else can make that choice for you or me.   If we remain in the Vine, and the Vine in us, we will find that, by and by, our Theology has grown very naturally, into our Biography.   Not because of what we do, but because we have fed from the True Vine.  We have lived in Him and allowed Him to live and work in us.

May you allow Him to live in you today.