Is Your Church Successful?

I just read the stories of several mega-church pastors. The attendance in their churches reaches the thousands. Some of these pastors have resigned. Some of them are preaching a gospel other than the one that I understand from the Bible. Each of them seemed to put church growth ahead of everything else. Each one of them is worth millions of dollars. Many of them are watched on tv by our own church family.

The actions of these mega-church pastors are not proof that mega-churches are bad. History cites many churches that grew to huge attendances who did much for the cause of Christ. There have been many preachers who were unaffected by the fame and were never enticed by the avarice of huge incomes. These churches started other churches, sent out missionaries and sent millions of dollars to mission agencies. Their lights burned bright for the cause of Christ.

A church must consider her values before she can call herself a success. What happens to the church who focuses solely on attendance? The temptation to change her message to accommodate and lure others in is enormous. Thus, pastors fall into the trap of giving hearers things which tickle their ears. The messages fail to speak of Christian commitment and make God someone who wants to help people reach what they have always wanted. The message that the world brings- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16)- becomes the message of the church. You want to have a great sex life? God can help you with that. You want to be rich? God will make you rich. You want to be someone of significance in the world? God will make you a victor in the world.

Surely, you have heard these messages. They draw huge crowds. Those who preach them stay away from messages that speak of taking up a cross. They don’t mention the need to hate father, mother, wife, children and personal life to be a disciple of Jesus. Can these churches make Jesus’ disciples if they don’t mention these things? I can’t see how.

So, what would happen if we had thousands in attendance but had no one who matured as a believer? What if no one took up a cross after attending here for any length of time? What if no one understood that God’s will might lead to martyrdom?

I can tell you plainly what this means. It means we have been a failure.

Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)
¹⁹  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Christianity Lite

Great entertainment deserves a great crowd. I get it. I think that people are enamored with someone who can tell a good joke and keep your attention for twenty minutes by telling amusing, even hilarious, stories. Why would someone purposely attend a boring speech if it wasn't for a grade or advanced them in any way?

However, I have found that what bores one person is absolutely exciting to another. Why is that so?

The person who is excited at what another would call a boring speech can see the way that speech helps him. He follows what is being said because it takes him to a place he wants to go. That place may be called laughter or new ideas or new methods of doing what he is doing.

Is this always good? No, is the obvious answer. Many people may not know where they want to go. Thus, they look for mere entertainment which satisfies the distraction from their problems. Or maybe they look for a superficial solution which is so easy that it requires little on no effort on their part. (Like the info commercials which sell pills to make people thinner. People will watch these for thirty minutes at a time without any sense of boredom. Unfortunately, these pills only make the wallet thinner.) The church is not immune to enticing people in this.

The message of many churches today is found in the world. These churches know that the world wants to be richer. Therefore, their messages tell how God wants the people to be richer. The world wants to have complete safety. The messages of these churches tell how God wants them to be completely safe. The world wants to win at everything. Thus, the messages tell how God will make you a winner in the world.

The Christians who come out of these churches have a very weak faith. They see God as someone who gives them what they already want. He doesn't need to change them. They simply need to change their thinking so that they can get Him to do what they want. These church attendees do not have a depth of knowledge of the Bible nor Jesus because they have avoided any scripture and any relationship that did not fit into their own wants.

I call this Christianity Lite. It is less filling and has a better worldly taste. It promises all the good times and none of the bad. It hinges on the stated faith of the one following the "Lite" Christianity. Things that don't work out like the attendee wants are caused by a lack of faith. The statement may be said, "I just have to believe it without any doubting and God will do what I want." It doesn't matter what God's will is. It doesn't matter that God may be able to do more in the difficult situation than in all good times. It doesn't matter what God thinks about any of this.

Thus, this "Lite" Christian can still act like any worldly person and call himself a Christian. He is jealous of those who have more than he does. He hates like the world hates. He acts like the world acts outside of the church. He has taken the world and put a thin Christian coating over it all.

It is just as possible that someone would listen to something which appears boring and get the very most out of it. The church which expounds depth from the Bible may be boring to the majority but is extremely interesting to him. It, too, takes him where he wants to go. It brings him into an intimate relationship with Jesus. His life is changed daily because of this relationship. He seeks God's will rather than his own will because he believes that God knows and does what will be seen as glorious. He prays but addresses God as the One who knows what should happen. His faith is not built on what he wants to happen but on God's revelation to Him. He submits to the will of God and finds joy in his Christian growth. He may find himself in the minority even at church. He proves his faith in what he has done as he has walked with God.

Which one do you want to be? Or maybe I should ask, which one are you?

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 (ESV)
¹  But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. ²  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, ³  for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?  

I'm Done with the "Dones"

I recently read an article about a growing number of people who were once active in church but now are "done" with it. This article said they were once essential to their churches but no longer want someone who will tell them what to do in preaching. The implied suggestion was to keep these people from being "done" with church by giving them decision making abilities.

This article, no matter how long ago it was written, will circle the internet for years. Churches and, especially, pastors will lament what they could have done to have kept these people. After all, it must have been the Church's fault, right?

While I would agree that the Church may have not done so well in making these people mature disciples, I must admit that this is not a new problem for the church. The writer of Hebrews admonished believers to continue in church.

Hebrews 10:25 (ESV)
²⁵  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 


Evidently, there were once active members who had dropped out. The writer of Hebrews doesn't tell the church to "go out and get them back." No, he speaks to those who have left the church and tells them that they ought to be in church. The author also doesn't tell them that the church has or hasn't been all that they expected. The day of Christ return is drawing close and believers should be in church. If these people were as mature as the article I read implies they are they would have known this and wouldn't have left the Church no matter how flawed she is perceived to be.

The truth is that these "dones" are really immature no matter how long they have been in church. The Apostle Paul addressed this.

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 (ESV)
¹  But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. ²  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, ³  for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?  

There was self importance in the church as long as they were able to continue in their own sinful nature. The jealousy and strife can be compared to the sense of entitlement and selfishness seen in those who are done with the Church. They have claimed their own self as more important than the needs of the others in church. They have become bored because the church has not stimulated them like the world which appeals to their flesh. So, they leave.

Let's remember the story of the Prodigal Son. The father continues to look for his son to come home but he doesn't go out and bring him home. He has to come to his senses on his own. So, I, too, will welcome back these immature Christians who have left the church at one time. I will rejoice that they have come home. I will not however go out to get them. I will note that the struggle remains in making disciples who are mature enough to know that they simply can't leave the church because she is not everything it was hoped to be.

Jesus had a number of the people leave Him. It hurt and He asked His disciples if they would also leave Him. 

John 6:66-69 (ESV)
⁶⁶  After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷  So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” ⁶⁸  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹  and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Again, it should be noted that Jesus didn't go after them. He didn't say, "Don't go. I'll change my preaching just for you!" No, He turned to His own disciples to see if they would leave too. He wasn't changing what He was doing to keep people. He was doing what the Father told Him to do. He would not deviate even if it meant that no one followed Him.

The mandate given to the Church is to make disciples. That cannot be exchanged for large crowds. Maybe that is why the "dones" left. They were entertained into coming until it was no longer stimulating. They left because their churches used entertainment to get them to attend and never challenged them to become mature devoted followers of Christ who do not seek their own desires.

Philippians 2:4 (ESV)
⁴  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.


Unfortunately, many churches believe that a huge crowd is more important than solid discipleship. Thus, the crowd of people who seek their own interests grows within these churches. We should not be so surprised that immature people will think they are justified in leaving the Church.

As for me, I'm done with all this. I just want to walk with the people who want to walk with God. I can't understand how I can walk with the people who don't want to walk with God and still walk with God myself. I will proclaim the gospel to the lost but I will not try to "entertain" them into heaven. The truth of Jesus is much more powerful than entertainment.

What Is Satan Using to Keep You in Line?

We sing the songs which declare that we have victory in Jesus, that we have been made overcomers and we are victorious over the evil one but act very differently while living outside the church. It isn't that we don't want to be different. We just aren't any different. We worry as much as those who do not know Jesus. We get just as angry at people who slight us. We are just as afraid of speaking up as the person who doesn't know his Savior.

We are being controlled but hardly realizing it. We run from the things that God has for us. The prevalent answer to our timid nature is, "That's just not me." People accept that answer. It's easy to give. The trouble is that it reflects a life controlled by someone or something else. God always asks us to do more than what we are.

2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)
⁷  for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.




Our troubles and anxieties may not directly originate with Satan. However, he certainly uses our fallen nature to enhance them. God did not give us a spirit of fear so it had to come from somewhere. I believe they come from listening and being conformed to this world. The world tells us what we should believe, fear and value. Holding onto these things reveal hat we love this world and have bought into its values.

These make us miss what God has for us. We fail to follow Him because we have values and fears instilled in us by the world. Thus, we act like the world and lack victory whenever we are expected to act differently.

Luke 10:41-42 (ESV)
⁴¹  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, ⁴²  but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

The people who think like the world cannot understand why the church doesn't adopt the thinking of the world. It is completely logical to them. They may even run to Jesus to get those who are following Him without regard to the values of the world to change. They see what they are doing as right and those who sit at Jesus feet as wasting their time.They may not recognize the value of God's presence over work. They may not recognize His voice at all.

Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)
¹²  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.


I used to think that the only place that I ever had to fight Satan was outside of myself. I thought of him as the one who was opposing my ministry with discourage words or attacks from others. I forgot that he was working on me too. He was seeking to conform me to this world. He was surrounding me with people who have fallen into his trap. They may be believers but they are still thinking like the world. Like Martha, they can only see the values of the world. They are full of their own anxieties and troubles.

John 15:19 (ESV)
¹⁹  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 


Satan is  always reasonable to the thinking of the world. It is his realm. Those who think like the world oppose those who are not of this world. They may even hate those who think outside of this world. Those not of this world still live in the world but they have not been conformed to its thinking. They are truly those who have overcome the world.

A spiritual awakening comes when the people who call themselves Christians reject the thinking of the world and sit at the feet of Jesus. These believers merely do what the Lord leads them to do. They speak when they are called to speak and remain silent when they are led to be silent. They act like they are going to live in a city built by God that is outside of this world (Hebrews 11:10). They are controlled by their freedom to obey the Lord. It springs out of their love for Him. Nothing else is more important.

We will always be controlled by something until we are freed by the Spirit. We won't have that freedom as long as we listen to the world. Satan will always be able to control us without our own spiritual awakening which releases us from his grip.

He is definitely keeping believers in line by anxieties and worries. What is he using to keep you in line?

An Upside Down World

Isaiah 5:20 (ESV)
²⁰  Woe to those who call evil good
            and good evil,
     who put darkness for light
           and light for darkness,
     who put bitter for sweet
           and sweet for bitter! 


The word "spiritual" has become a mystery to me. People who do not know Christ or the Holy Spirit are claiming to be spiritual. I don't really think they are saying they are spiritual the way the demons are spiritual but what other spirits are there?

I sit with a man in a coffee shop as he tells me that his mother was a spiritual sort of person. I inquire what that means. He tells me that it is a special quality of understanding that there are spirits around us. He tells me that he knows things that he couldn't know without the "spirits" revealing them to him. He speaks of a warm glow when he is in his spiritual self. He says that his mother had that same quality.

The strange thing is that he is not strange. I have heard it before. I see it on tv as people speak of being spiritual. It makes itself known in movies. It is right and desired to be spiritual. No one seems to care who these spirits are. These spirits allow the person to adopt a new standard of right and wrong. Those who hold to the old standard are wrong. Those who go with the flow of these spirits are in the right.

Where do you think this will lead us?

The above scripture bothers me. We see it as a completed act. Those who ascribe to a biblical ethos of morality are called evil. The Bible itself is declared as having bad parts which do not need to be followed. One politician said that we "read" those bad parts out of the Bible. He placed the reader in control of what is right and wrong. He did not acknowledge that this simply isn't our call. The Holy Almighty God determines what is right and wrong. Even that statement would be considered evil by some.

God says that woe will fall on those who do this. It is the definition of being lost for we certainly don't know the way when we are going the wrong direction while claiming we are on the right path. You simply can't be more lost than to wholeheartedly believe you are right when you are wrong.

This seems like a losing battle too. Many Christians are adopting the morality of the world. They want to be in the majority. They don't want to be left outside. The world has captured them. They are claiming the world in exchange for their lives.

Things are apparently better as people are freed from the biblical standard. No one seems to notice the murders and robberies reported on a daily basis. I wonder why these are considered wrong. Couldn't the perpetrators simply claim to be spiritual and led to take what they wanted? Couldn't they say that they were ridding the world of a greater evil when they killed another person?

Some even claim they understand the acts of terrorism in France because of the cartoons drawn which mocked their religion. Who say those same things if Christians were so inclined to kill others in such acts of evil? We condemn those who kill the doctors who perform abortions. Who in their right mind would say this is good? There is no justice in murder. God does not condone murder.

So many times I hear people take the Bible out of context to justify their own evil. They have not read what it really says. They never understand it as a book which describes a loving God. They see only the parts and never the whole. Thus, they see it as an evil that brings about evil. Only those who take it out of context can use it to justify their evil. Only those who take it out of context deem it as evil.

So, good will continue to considered evil unless there is Someone who turns this all around. No number of sermons given by any number of believers can change things without a fresh breath of the Holy Spirit. Until Christians truly understand what it is to be spiritual those who claim to be spiritual will be just as spiritual as Christians.

It's an upside down world until that happens. I pray that God turns it right side up again.

The Strength of Waiting

Isaiah 40:30-31 (ESV)
³⁰  Even youths shall faint and be weary,
            and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹  but they who wait for the LORD shall 
            renew their strength; 
     they shall mount up with wings 
            like eagles; 
     they shall run and not be weary; 
            they shall walk and not faint.

I hate waiting. I would rather do something that would cause something bad to happen that is going to happen anyway than wait for it to happen. If will drive my car faster if I think its going to break down. Somehow I believe that will cause it to break down faster. Then, I can get if fixed. Otherwise, I am only waiting for it to break. That kind of living can wear you out. It depends on what you can do. It never waits for someone to do anything.

Of course, always waiting for others doesn't get anything done. It is totally dependent. There is no virtue in doing nothing. There are no medals given to soldiers who waited for somebody to do something. There are no awards given to athletes who never suit up. The medals and ribbons go to those who run. The people in the stands just wait.

The key is knowing when to wait and when to act. Acting without waiting will simply wear you out. You are constantly active and never satisfied.

And it doesn't matter how old you are either. Even young people will get tired when they constantly act. Those who are wiser know that acting is important but not as important as acting at the right time. That way your strength is not exhausted meaninglessly.

Many times I have told myself that I was tired in the ministry. I have gotten tired because I an always trying to please people I am always trying to "force" my church to grow. I am always trying to make things happen. But it is like pushing a huge rock up a hill. I get tired for all my effort but see very little progress. The Bible says that building a house without the Lord is a labor in vain. I suppose I am the poster child of "labor in vain."

So, I can either be tired or wait until my strength is renewed by the Lord. Waiting is not a weakness but a means of gaining strength when the waiting is for the Lord.

I just recently took a turn at trying to worry something into a better place. I went after worrying as if it were an Olympic event. I am sure that I won the gold but nothing happened from my worrying. Maybe I should have tried praying. Praying is asking and waiting upon the Lord to do what needs to be done. There is strength in this waiting. I can attest that worrying will wear you out.

I commit myself to the Lord. I ask for Him to work in me. I wait for His direction and strength. Then I am not so tired anymore. Yes, that's the way its supposed to go.

What If Jesus Says Something You Don't Want to Hear?

John 6:66 (ESV)
⁶⁶  After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

I know that Jesus was crucified. I know that there were people who passionately hated Him. I like to think that they never paid much attention to Him. I like to think that they never listened to Him. That wasn’t true. There were people who listened and wanted to hear more until they heard something that they wouldn’t accept.

These people heard Jesus say that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. They were literalists who believed that Jesus was offering His physical body to be cannibalized. It was a statement which either demanded getting closer to Christ or leaving Him altogether. Many chose the latter.

It is easy to understand why they left. They didn’t know who Jesus is. Thus, they could not accept what He was saying as anything but literal. Anyone who offers his flesh to be eaten must be of the same order as Hannibal Lector- crazy as a loon! As long as I didn’t know who Jesus is, I would have left Him too. I know because I would leave anyone who said that to me today.

The problem people have with Jesus’ call of commitment to them is that they don’t know who He is. They want to make the decision to follow Him as one that is so reasonable that they would be seen as fools if they didn’t. A problem will always arise when He asked for a commitment that the world will deem foolish. Then, they leave what He has said and, very often, leave Him as well.

Many people who call themselves Christians do not mind going to church. They don’t mind working in the occasional church project. They might like serving in the food pantry or collecting blankets for the homeless or  even the buying of toys for destitute children at Christmas.  Their faith is fine as long as it doesn’t alter their lifestyle. They can’t see giving until it affects how they spend their money on their own wants. They can’t see serving when it means they will miss the NFL game on Sunday afternoon. Their commitment to Christ must fit in the box which they prepared. Honestly, no matter how long they claim to have known Christ , they do not really know Him.

Peter’s response to this reveals that he knew who Jesus is:

John 6:67-69 (ESV)
⁶⁷  So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” ⁶⁸  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,⁶⁹  and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Can you see the difference between those who know who He is and those who don’t?

There are people in church every Sunday who have listened to what He has said. They want to hear more until they hear something that doesn’t fit into their box. Then, they decide not to follow Him. That may not mean that they quit coming to church. It only means that they are going their own way now.

You just can’t pick and choose what Jesus has said and know Him as your Lord.