CAUTION: If you’re easily offended by criticism of the church, do not read any further.
A few days ago, a friend of mine reminded me of how long it had been since I posted anything to this blog. When I logged into my blog today I had over a thousand comments to other posts, which had not been moderated (approved or disapproved). Reading through more than a handful of the comments along with my friend’s reminder a few days ago, I finally felt the need to break my cyberspace silence. I haven’t been intentionally ignoring you – my captive audience; rather, I’ve been victim of the demands of every day life, commonly known as the rat race.
Still, in celebration of re-connecting with you after a lengthy absence, I’d like to challenge your thinking and your theology for a few minutes and get some things off my chest.
Occasionally, while I’m enjoying a few solemn moments busy doing nothing: channel surfing (and not blogging), walking the dog (and not blogging), texting some out of state friends…and not blogging, I’ll catch a minute or two of a preacher or televangelist doing their thing on national television. Now, I don’t know if it’s just my luck and the way I subliminally filter these episodes – or what – but without fail every time I tune in, the preacher/televangelist/teacher is always talking about how going to church, serving God, and giving to their ministry is going to benefit me.
Will there ever be a time when a message is preached and the benefits-to-the-believer-acknowledgements be left out?
Follow me here: I promise this will make sense.
You can probably remember the last time you were forced to sit through one of those ridiculously long telephone conversations with an insurance agent. Or, if you’re super-lucky, you can probably remember the last time the Life Insurance guy was at your house going over policies and premiums with you. What a salesman he was, right? I mean, it has to take someone special to actually sell you something that you (personally) won’t get any use out of or benefit from. To top it off, you get to pay for it in monthly installments for the next 10-30 years! As you sat through the long discussions, debating coverages, comparing premiums with other competitors and pouring cup after cup of coffee to be able to remain awake through it all, you finally decide on a policy. And what helped you reach your decision were probably 2 answers to 2 questions:
What’s it going to cost me?
A N D
What’s the pay off when I die?
I know this, because I’m hard-wired the same way you are when it comes to things that involve the way our world systems work. We naturally want to know what it’s going to cost, and what the pay-off is for us…or in this case our spouse and our loved ones. Thus, the selling point of any insurance policy is always going to come down to the cost of the policy versus what you can afford to pay, and the pay-off, which is going to benefit your spouse and loved ones.
The problem is, we have been conditioned by this way of thinking and we have selfishly allowed it to dictate how we filter everything else in our lives. Churches and preachers all over the world recognize this, and as a result, when you walk through the doors of some of the bigger or more contemporary churches of today you’re instantly greeted with open arms of everything that appeals to your senses and to your liking.
It’s not good enough to walk into a church anymore. You have to walk into a church that looks like Disneyland!
Bright stages.
Big lighting.
HD Sound systems.
Multiple large screens with projectors.
Coffee… Even Cafe’-styled coffee bars with breakfast snacks! I mean, God-forbid, you actually have to enter a praise & worship service without your Grande Caramel Macchiato! I know how boring it can be to have to sing …TO GOD!
But, that’s just to warm you up. We haven’t even touched the policy yet. That’s saved for sermon time.
You see, it’s during sermon time when you hear things like:
“…let me show you 5 reasons why God wants you to be prosperous.”
“…God can heal you, if you’ll just use your faith.”
“…the Lord doesn’t want you to carry those burdens all by yourself.”
“…It’s not God’s will that you remain single, (or divorced…or in a bad marriage)…”
“…If you give God the first fruit of your increase, God will heal your family…”
While I think it’s great and wonderful that these statements and teachings are made from behind the pulpit, and while I know that they are said and taught to provoke a feel-good-association to the Church, the result have been anything but Godly by and large.
The Church and the gathering together of believers is for the education of the believer. To be educated on what, or who?
On Christ. On His teachings.
We should be going to Church to:
- be confronted
- be challenged
- be uplifted with the Truth
- be instructed for living a Godly life
Almost everything from behind the pulpit is sold to us as a BENEFIT of serving God. We are such a self-serving society of people; it is engrained in us to want for ourselves. Whether it be teaching on, how can I bring my wife back, how can I do better financially, how can I get a promotion at work, or, how can I live a prosperous life… everyone wants their needs met. And they expect that the Church will provide them with the answers.
Most pastors and preachers don’t want to confront you about you, because they’re afraid of losing people in their congregation. They don’t want to tell you that YOUR abuse was the reason your wife left you; it’s easier to say, “…brother…God has someone else for you.” They don’t want to tell you that you need to arrive to work on time; it’s easier to say, “…sister, the Lord understands…He has another job for you.” They don’t want to tell you that you were a hypocrite at home with your children and that is why they don’t go to church today; it’s easier to say, “…every young man has to come to the Lord on their own… you did your part – you brought them to the house of God.” They don’t want to tell you that your sexual addiction is “the reason,” because they’re convicted about their own sexual addiction.
We would rather learn how to earn more and pay off that house quicker, than learn how to build a home with our spouse and our family through Godly living. We would rather be taught how to receive a 100-fold return on our giving, than simply how to give without expecting to receive anything at all. We would rather learn how to justify a divorce by bending and flexing scripture and assign blame to the wayward spouse, rather than to show people in churches how to break family curses that destroyed marriages in that person’s family lineage.
The fact of the matter is this: there are more people walking out of the church with a serve me-attitude of I-deserve more than an attitude of I’m here to serve. And most of us can recite more scripture that reflect our desire to succeed in areas of health and financial prosperity than the scriptures that deal with servanthood, giving, doing for others, and otherwise living a Godly-lifestyle.
Living the life of a believer is about following.
Living the life of a believer is about exchanging identities; you give up yours, and Jesus gives you His.
Living the life of a believer is about sacrifice; it’s not about gain.
The Church’s mission is to teach you to follow His example. Instead, much of the Church has become an institution of selling and exploiting the benefits of serving God. It would be like window shopping outside of your favorite stores, and saying to your spouse, “…I’m going to be able to buy that with that money from our life insurance policy…when YOU die, Honey!” If you’re a normal person – and not a con artist with criminal intent – you live your marriage with your spouse day after day, month after month, year after year giving little thought or reflection to their last day on earth. Hopefully, you’re not thinking about how you’re going to spend the Life Insurance money someday…after he or she dies. You look forward to the here and now, right? You have ups and downs, right? Good times and bad times?
So, why do we constantly have to be fed self-serving topics… or what I call the benefits of being believers? Why does the Church spend so much time pumping you up, begging you to get into your Bibles, cheerleading during worship services, hoping that you’ll just clap a hand, or shout a praise? Don’t you believe?
It is time we allow ourselves to be de-programmed from a self-serving, how-this-benefits-me doctrine, and allow ourselves to re-progammed to a what-am-I-doing-for-God-and-for-others mindset.
Believe me friends, the BENEFITS of serving God are great, beyond your wildest imaginations, and you can partake of them in full, after you die here on earth. For now, try and forget about you.
Live your life today…for God.
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