I am inspired strongly by the spirit
of God to pen down on the difficult subject that relates and reiterates on
the body of Christ - The Church. God was gracious to
give me an opportunity to be part of an organization that worked in partnership
with over 150 Church denominations in India for close to two decades. The
Church is the hope for the nation which is striving to bring peace in all
facets of life and therefore the Church should exist holistically (areas
pertaining to spiritual, physical, emotional and cognitive). Bryant L Meyers in
his book 'Walking with the poor' sadly remarks the poor understanding of the
Church on Holism "We express our captivity to a modern
worldview when we say that holistic ministry means combining evangelism
(meeting spiritual need) with relief and development (meeting physical
need) as if these were divisible realms and activities. Then we make it
worse by insisting that the church or the evangelism part of our organization
do the former, while the development agency does the latter. A number of
serious and thoughtful Christian groups are organized this way". Influencing the
unification of Churches and refining the approaches towards mission and
development is challenging because of the Church diversity in pattern, doctrine
and many other factors that raises questions for a non-believer and for the non-Christian
world. With all honesty in Christ I am only striving to put things upfront what
the Lord is putting in my heart without diluting the facts by any means.
Center
for the Study of Global Christianity at
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary estimated 34,000 denominations in 2,000,
rising to an estimated 43,000 in 2012. I believe it would have reached close to
50, 000 by now. It is said, every day hundreds of new denominations keeps
emerging. The sad story is that every Church displays Christ from
their own denominational framework distorting the core Message of Biblical
Holism [(meeting spiritual need) with relief and development (physical
need)]. I want to draw your attention to the seven Churches
described in the book of Revelation, only two successfully qualifies out of
Seven which works up to 28.6%. Jesus always had concern on
the way the temple of God was managed and the way the priest and leaders were
not doing justice to ‘the house of prayer’. He condemned the spiritual leaders
by saying “you are making it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13)
and later John in the book of Revelation articulates the wretchedness
of the seven Churches. One of the senior leader from a political party in
India remarked this way "The problem in our country is not the
lack of leadership, in fact we have too many leaders". It is so
true even when it comes to the Churches today. We have too many leaders yet the
Churches are not significantly making any impact, either because the Churches
are selective in priorities, concentrating only on themselves or have not
understood the gospel correctly.
Let me give you the success rate of
Jesus leadership team. Except Judas, eleven were successful that works up
to 91.7%. I am sure you will agree even today with so many
Christian leaders on air, on magazine yet unable to create successful impact in
the society and in our nation. The statistic scale today is not very different
from the seven churches qualifying rate as described in the book of
Revelation.
In the book of
Ezekiel God raises several allegations against the leaders, pastors and every
individual who claim to be His disciple. It says "You have not
strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the
strays, or sought the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and
cruelty.". Ezekiel 34:4 CSB. What is our response to this accusation?
Do we take God's love for granted? Let's not forget He is also consuming fire.
Churches all over the world are going through serious persecution, in
fact God is trying it, to ensure only the Churches with correct understanding
of its vision exists. Take this into cognizance, if as an individual or
Church you maintain a superficial relationship by shutting your ears and
closing your eyes to the need of the poor and failing to have a proper strategy
derived from the vision for your church, then it is very much likely both
(individuals & Church) will fall miserably from the divine standard.
The Bible cautions us of the judgement that is going to start from the house of
God as said in 1 Peter 4:17 "For the time has come for judgment to
begin with God’s household, and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be
for those who disobey the gospel of God"?
Philip Yancey, in
his book What's So Amazing about Grace? Quotes “Having spent time around
"sinners" and also around purported saints, I have a hunch why Jesus
spent so much time with the former group: I think he preferred their company.
Because the sinners were honest about themselves and had no pretense, Jesus
could deal with them. In contrast, the saints put on airs, judged him, and
sought to catch him in a moral trap. In the end it was the saints, not the
sinners, who arrested Jesus.”. To be more precise, the
priest and leaders from the synagogue are the ones who got Jesus
crucified. History will definitely repeat, if we operate from a
selfish zone by making Church as a business centre as Jesus mentions it in the
book of John (2:16) "..stop making My Father's house a place of
business", failing which it is very likely we would be crucifying
him yet again. Leaders and believers, can we position our Church holistically
and be active like the early Church reaching out to the poor and needy?
Thought provoking article on live and
dead Church (author unknown)
Live churches have space problems;
Dead churches have no such worries.
Live churches are always changing things;
Dead churches don’t have to – they remain the same.
Live churches have noisy children and active youth;
Dead churches are fairly quiet and serene.
Live churches have a shortage of staff;
Dead churches usually have a surplus.
Live churches are always overspending their budgets;
Dead churches maintain large bank accounts.
Live churches are keen to develop new leaders;
Dead churches use the same ones over and over again.
Live churches spend much on missions;
Dead churches keep it all at home.
Live Churches have an active leadership team and a
structure;
Dead Churches structure confines to the pastor and his
family alone.
Live churches are filled with givers;
Dead churches are filled with tippers.
Live churches operate primarily on faith;
Dead churches operate totally on sight.
Live Churches sermons are refreshing and new every week;
Dead Churches repeat the sermons and illustration
over and over.
Live churches strain to learn and serve;
Dead churches seek their comfort zones.
Live churches evangelize;
Dead Churches fossilize!
Blessings,
David Raj
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