As I said in yesterday’s post, I believe the church has more potential that she’s ever had…I believe our greatest days are ahead of us and UNBELIEVABLE things are in store…if we could just recognize that MOST people don’t have a problem with Jesus…just His church!
It’s not the product…it’s the service.
Let me talk about this from two points of view…how believers act inside of the church and outside of the church.
INSIDE
The way many church services are conducted many would conclude that Jesus never rose from the grave!
We do not serve a God who is lifeless, boring and dull…thus our church services should not be either. I DO believe in reverence…yet many have concluded that term with rigor mortis!
The following are some personal convictions that I really do believe that, if applied, CAN make a difference.
- When people show up they should be greeted by people who smile, say hello and are actually GLAD that they are there (and not worried about whether or not “those new people” are going to get the seat they’ve had for 20 years!)
- If we actually believe what Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:48, John 20:21 and Acts 1:8 instead of claiming the extremely unbiblical line that “we aren’t one of those church who like to reach people…we just want to love one another.”
- Jesus did not save us for our glory…He saved us for HIS!
- If, when people showed up the music was actually good instead of letting the deacons niece sing, which always causes people’s ears to bleed and makes people pray for Jesus to come back at that moment!
- Actually taking time to PLAN the worship experience (with open hands of course) instead of letting a bunch of really bad things happen in consecutive order and then blaming the entire thing on the Holy Spirit.
- Begging God for HIS unbelievable power to be demonstrated among us!
- (BTW…some people say plan, others say pray…I believe the Bible says DO BOTH!!!)
- Use language that people can actually understand! (I’m all about the blood of Jesus…but if I am an unchurched person and you ask me if I’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb…I am peeing my pants and then running like a bat out of Hades away from you!)
I could go on and on…what I’m really trying to say is that if we spent more time in our church services actually caring about reaching people rather than keeping people…I really do believe we could make a dent in the number of lost and unchurched people on the planet.
OUTSIDE
Nope…it’s not enough to just come to church and then go home…what we do outside the walls of the church in many ways is way more important that what happens on the inside. Saying that here are some ways we can take it to the next level in regards to making Matthew 5:14-16 become a reality.
- Teach people to read their Bibles…to discover the reality of Hebrews 4:12, the LIVING/ACTIVE Word of God. A person who learns to hear the voice of God through the lens of Scripture is UNSTOPPABLE!
- Challenge the church to take care of “one another” instead of hiring professionals to do it all!
- Treat people outside of the church like they have a heart and soul…for example, being incredible kind to the server at the restaurant, DESPITE the “service” that they give. They might have had the roughest day of their life…and the last thing they need is someone wearing a Christian t-shirt and has a fish on their car being a complete butthole to them because their water glass wasn’t filled!
- SERVE the world we live in rather than screaming at it. (The stupidity of some people in the church who believe lost people should act like Christians still blows my mind!)
- Stop looking down on others who commit “those sins” and realize that, were it not for the grace of God that we would be the very people we criticize!
- Repent of our own sins before we call out the sins in others! (It blows my mind how an obese person can look at a drunkard and try to point out their sin without addressing their own! Whew…that was tense because FOOD has become the idol in the American church that many pastors are afraid to address.)
- STOP trying to isolate ourselves from the world that God was so desperate for that He sent His Son to LIVE HERE for 33 years and then gave His life for it!
- Stop trying to win God’s approval through legalistic effort and walk in the incredible grace that HE gives us in Christ.
The world can try to deny Christ and Christianity all day long…but when a church gets on fire because the people are on fire and we actually do and become what Jesus has called us to do and become…I believe we’ll see an outpouring of God’s favor and anointing like NEVER before.