The Churches Are Failing, pt4 of ?
Posted on Apr 8, 2021
As an adult, Easter was always a fun time for me. More so after LeeAnne was born. I loved it when she and other girls would dress up in the in their pretty dresses with the gloves and hats. They were so cute. When I was younger, the mothers would also dress up as part of the ritual.
Sadly, for many, that is all Easter is, a ritual. And why shouldn't it be for many? Most, including Christians, don’t really know the significance of Easter. The may know that someone died; supposedly to take their sins away. Many don’t know what sins are and most deny even having any. But if people don’t know about what Easter is, or rather Resurrection Sunday, how are they going to be told? Are the Christians going to tell them?
I was noticing this Easter Weekend on FB, that some people that I know that identify as Christian, had left or rather shared, someone else s post of a Jesus/Death/Resurrection image that most likely contained a Bible verse. Ones showing an empty tomb or Him departing the tomb would usually have some kind of exclamatory message of victory. 1 minister made a post that mentioned what he was going to peach about an it contained an invite to come or watch the live stream; a pretty impersonal invite in my opinion. Another minster shared their churches post which contained the service times; not any warmer an invitation. He did also share the other activities related to this weekend. Another individual, a lay person, did share their churches post on their timeline and finally, another individual shared what a great Easter service it was and a link to the churches recorded stream. To the best of my knowledge, none of the Elders, Deacons or teachers posted anything about the Easter weekend let alone an invite to come to church. I didn't aside form the 2 mentioned above, I saw no associate ministers, youth ministers or former/retired ministers elude to the weekend or any personal invite.
Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, really is the culmination of the Christian ethos. The Work Jesus did on what we call Good Friday (good for us, bad for Him) paid our sin debt and reconciled us with God (1 Peter 3:18). Christ's resurrection on Sunday showed that He was God and had the power over death (Romans 1:4), and there by we can have the hope (hope in this sense is a guarantee) we can participate in eternal life with God as adopted heirs in the family (Romans 6:4). This is so much more than Christmas!
Yet at Christmas this past year, again using my FB account as the reference, countless electronic Christmas cards went out. I’m to lazy to go back that far and look but if memory serves me well enough, several people at least shared their churches FB posting on their own timeline. Maybe, maybe a couple of people actually invited others to a Christmas or Christmas Eve service. Granted the Covid thing does skew things slightly. However, I am pretty sure the previous year at least a few people actually did invite people to come to service.
So how are people going to learn the resurrection story and the rest of God’s message for us? Apparently, people are going to have to their own gumption up and read the Bible and figure it out themselves. Although, my small stats from my FB usage shouldn’t be the final word on how people are communicating and sharing their apologetics with others, I fear it is the most that the majority of Christians do. And although the general crux of the Gospel is simple enough for anyone to grasp and understand (1 John 4:9-10), it can be misinterpreted or perverted (1 Timothy 6:3). Even the schooled Ethiopian needed some help (Acts 8:30-31).
Many people have a misconception of Christian and church and in some cases, rightly fully so. They have been shown what ‘Christianity’ is all about by the actions of so called Christians. Perhaps they have been hurt by Christians’ actions or as in the topic of my thesis here, the Christian inaction.
Several months back, I received a letter from someone local to me. I opened it and it was a page and a half hand written letter made out to me from a real individual. This person was apologizing for not being able to meet in me in person due to the Covid restrictions. They showed genuine interest in me and had it not been for my personal relation with Jesus and my training, I could see where someone could interested in a religion like this Jehovah Witness was portraying.
Yet, I see on my FB page, posts from ministers/ associate ministers/ music ministers/ Elders/ Deacons/ teachers and others that claim to be Lovers of Christ, showing their family life, political satire, fund raisers and the like not mentioning Good Friday, the Passover or Resurrection Sunday.. Maybe a Christian MEME forwarded from someone's else’s page or perhaps a thumbs up to a “The World Needs Jesus” post that someone made. But virtually no posts of what Christ has done for them, maybe a mention of the church service they had that day or the previous day and how great it was, but almost certainly no personal invite to come and attend a service with them or an offer to talk to anyone about Jesus.
This is how they see Jesus. This is what is shown to them. They may hear hear the Christian say how great Jesus is, but they don’t hear the Christian talk about Him. They hear the Christian say what a great worship service but the Christian never invites them. They hear the Christian say how much Jesus loves the world (the saved and unsaved) but they don’t see the Christian helping them when they are having personal problems. To many, in and out of it, see church as a club. Worse yet, many treat it as a club; their club.
This can be excusable for a new and/or immature Christian, but not one that has has been redeemed for a while. And the church, that is the entire congregation, the lay people, teachers, Deacons, Elders and Ministers share blame in this. People turn their lives of to Christ and get baptized then they are left to their own devices.. Many congregations leave it at that; if a new convert wants to learn more, they on their own. The new convert often isn't even encouraged to really pursue the depths of Christ love through the Gospel. The congregation, even the lay people, are doing the new Christian disservice; BIGTIME. And will likely pay the price (Matthew 18:6).
The congregation is seriously ill if it doesn’t encourage others to grow in Christ (Romans 15:14). And unfortunately, the Elders, ministers, deacons and teachers have far to often become complacent with the dismal numbers of people that come and sit in the pews each Sunday. But just like the non-Christian is shown what ‘Christianity’ is like, so are most congregations with their lazy Elders, ministers, Deacons and teachers. These people, are showing the congregations what it is like to be a Christian and the congregation is showing the world what they see. Jesus rebuked these kinds of people (Matthew 15:7-9).
Again, FB should and isn’t the only means of communication available to the Christian, but it is a platform used by many across the country and I would be willing to guess that many Christians on FB have non-Christian FB friends. FB or not, show your brothers, your neighbors the love of Christ. At the very least, be inviting people to attend church with you (I hope it is a 66 book Bible believing church). If you can’t answer the questions that people have concerning God, get them in touch with someone who can; don’t avoid the subject. Then stick around and learn with that person.
Don’t be like the unhealthy Elders, ministers, Deacons, teachers or other lay people (Matthew 15:8). Don’t follow their lead or rather their non-leading (Matthew 23:3). These people should be showing you not only God’s love but how to share Christ with others (James 1:22). If they're not, I suggest you find somewhere else to worship as I would question, not necessarily their love for God or spiritualness, but their dedication, ability or possibly their motives.
These people are not going to be your lawyer or counsel when you stand before God. You’re not going to able to point your finger and sift blame to someone else because you didn’t do what God wants when you stand before Him on judgement day. Someone else may have misled you, but as I stated above, the underlying message of Gospel is understandable by all. You knew enough and you knew better.
God’s grace and plan for salvation didn’t stop with you (Philippians 1:6). He wants everyone saved (2 Peter 3:9). And as a Christian, as a member of the priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), you have an obligation to spread the word (Matthew 28:18-20). Look to others for help in understanding and for good examples (Matthew 7:7), but do not let others hold you back from acting despite their teaching (Colossians 3:21). The time is now (Matthew 9:37). Spread the word (Mark 16:15-16); did you read that? Those who don't believe are condemned! They're going to HELL! We can at least try. Use all means available. Certainly use the easy resources such as FB, but also make the personal connection, a phone call, a face to face conversation, a helping hand.
Christmas is great and all, but as sad as Good Friday is, that someone had to pay our penalty (1 Peter 1:18-19), someone (Jesus) had to die in our place, because every sinner has to have the price paid (either with their own life, which isn’t enough, or with Jesus’, the only one capable) and people need to know this (1 Corinthians 7:23). It should be somber. But the best news is the following Sunday. Not only did our redeemer arise, proving He was God, we are told that we have the same promise, and will also be risen from the dead to spend eternity with God with the rest of mankind that accepted Him (John 11:25-26, John 6:40).
Somehow, heaven, is only going to get better with the more people that get in. Get out their and tell the world! It isn’t just a Christmas thing that we give glad tidings and Joy to the World. Nor is it an Easter thing. It is an every day thing for the Christian!
Praise the Lord
and have
a Blessed Day
**Note** – This was not going to be my pt4 message but I keep feeling that God wanted me to go here as I was disturbed from the lack of Christian presence, o rather, lack of specific or targeted presence on FB.
**Note** - The picture I used as the background for this article on my FB Story is of a spire that was on fire from the Notre-Dame de Paris.
Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) - Construction started in 1163 and was completed in 1260. It was dedicated to the ‘Virgin Mary’.
Like many things the Bible that have been perverted, Mary, who certainly wasn’t a virgin after the birth of Jesus, so documented in the Gospels as Jesus having brothers (John 2:12, Matthew 13:55), what should be a place of Worship to God and Christ is dedicated to the mother of Jesus. No where in the Bible is it mentioned that anyone outside of the Triune God is be worshiped and after the resurrection of Jesus is there any mention of any other person for which to pray or ask intercession (1 Timothy 2:5). Yet many do, and this structure was built to encourage people to at best, take a secondary route to Christ, and at worse, completely remove Him from the way to God.
Mary was favored (Luke 1:28) by God to be the virgin mother of Christ (Luke 1:34), a supernatural fertilization that didn’t involve the act of sex to bring about an embryo/ fetus/ and finally the man that is Jesus (Luke 1:35). A side from the lack of sex, and though born of a woman, Jesus went through all the metabolic changes that anyone would from the point of conception. Jesus is 100% (fully) human (Philippians 2:7), while at the same time, 100% (fully) God (Colossians 2:9). This is some supernatural God math here.
Back to the cathedral. I did some investigation as to how many people actually worship here. Looking at several sites, I came up empty. Information basically gave that 13 million people visited the cathedral each year. The cathedrals website mentioned that prayer vigils could be attended at other nearby churches but it also didn’t give any numbers of attendance or even how many prayer services were held at the cathedral normally.
Prior to the fire of 2019, it does appear that some sort of services do occur there, the cathedral was reduced to a museum and tourist attraction quite some time ago. As an effective means to spread the Good News and Gospel of Christ, it is virtually worthless; a dead congregation and essentially a hallow empty shell.
How many of our churches have or are suffering the same fate? The physical church building becoming a relic? The congregation none existent? The News Testament gives the Christian Church a lot of leeway in how it needs to operate to perform the mandate Jesus Christ left us with; the Great Commission (Mark 16:15). But I’m pretty sure He didn’t want virtually unused buildings and lazy, ineffective, complacent congregations filling them for an hour or two each week. When we become Christians and submit ourselves to Him, He will use us to greatly effect our communities (Acts 1:8). If you or the congregation aren't effecting the community, you need to ask yourself, are you healthy (James 2:26)? Don't become a museum. Don't let people wonder why this relic, this Christin religion, ever was a thing.