Church Protected, Mission Ignored! Part-1

 

“And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” Luke 23:45 ESV.

Any religious building today is considered as the sacred place. Religion is more often connected to the religious facility, irrespective of a religion. It is the same with Church buildings too. People turn violent if their religious structures are affected in any ways. The incidents of riots in history as a result of attacks on religious structure has cost so many lives, and we are all aware of such incidents. People are always willing to sacrifice themselves for their religious place and building because they believe it is the dwelling place of god. Usually, people are attached to the sentiments of a religion, rather than the actual essence of it.

Churches are no different. Today, with thousands and thousands of denominations all over the world, Christendom is fragmented and divided in many ways. Christians are holding on to the denominational and Church sentiments more than the mission God has entrusted to the Church and individuals.  People who are part of the Church are blissfully convinced that they are going to meet God. The members of the congregation today are willing to do anything for the church building and programs of the Church, but rarely demonstrate their obedience to Christ’s mission. Church mission is converted to activities and programs inside the four walls. Churches are called as sanctuary and the decorum of it is meant to portray and convince that God lives inside the Church building and therefore frequent visits can transform their life issues.

Let me state the significant observation the Bible records about the most noteworthy incident which happened when Jesus was on the cross of Calvary. “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” Luke 23:45 ESV. This incident is conveniently ignored, but it has so much to say about the temple of God and the new definition of Church. There is no more the holy place inside the temple, however grandeur it may be. If you read the Bible carefully, Jesus was already claiming Himself to be God in many ways, but people were not willing to accept Him at all. In one instance, He makes this powerful remark. It says in Matthew 12:6, “I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.”.  Jesus wanted to convince the Jewish people that He is the God of the Temple. In other words, He was saying the ‘place’ has been moved to ‘person’ already and the most holy temple is substituted by Jesus Himself. But they weren’t willing to accept this fact.  They wanted to remain comfortable with the Temple and its ritual than the God of the temple and follow Him. They wanted to continue holding to the concept of the most holy place, the sanctuary, because it can be used to exercise power, and more importantly money.

Jesus’ prophecy regarding the temple which was recorded in the Bible was fulfilled in 70 A.D. Luke 24:1-2, ‘As Jesus left and was going out the temple, his disciples came up and called his attention to its buildings. He replied to them, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.”. But sadly, today Christendom is trying to give all the importance back to the Church building and ignore what He has already replaced with. He introduced the new term Church and that too on the person ‘Jesus’ rather than on a place. Christianity is radically different than any other religion. Church can happen anywhere and in any setting. The day Christians realise it, the beginning of revival is going to be certain. Why do you think the Christians are not serious about being the Church and be part of the movement? It is just because the people are made comfortable staying true to the Church activities, like paying the tithes and offerings (Luke 18:12), and all other things become superficial.

To be continued.

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“Do something for the Lord”

 

Anytime when Christians are not living up to the standard of God’s expectations, they end up living with cheap alternatives. Religiosity will overtake and have full control of them. Today, Christians are part of Church institutions where mere visits and offerings are felt like a great service to God (Luke 18:12). And in addition, when they happen to be huge financial contributors for the Church, then the Church sees them as a great resource and a pillar of the Church. Most of the decisions of the Church are taken only with their approval. The church looks at them as a faithful dignified member of the congregation.

We are in a time, with no scarcity for counterfeits, superficialities and dilutions. Christendom is overflowing with it. Unfortunately, Churches fail to clear the heresies and mess. Week after week, sermons are delivered from the pulpit customized to suit and entertain people’s ears, and eventually lull them to Christ’s mission in all sense. Do you know what people are hearing too often? “Do something for the Lord.”. I am hearing it, since ages. The moment people are given a choice to do something for the Lord, they end up doing nothing or do whatever “they” feel like and call it service to the Lord. And most of the time this “something”, happens to be a church program that satisfies all.

Why do people downplay the Great Commission and the substitute Great Commandment (Matt 28:19; Acts 1:8)?  Was Jesus ambiguous in His Mission and in His Commission? Not at all!  It is the Churches and Christian leaders constantly in the limelight who are using the Great Commission to their benefit. And how are they successful? They just have to convince people that they are reaching the nation on their behalf and that they have to be part of the mission by committing to give offering and be relaxed from their responsibilities. And then to spiritualize it,  they are asked to pray along with paying.  A tele-evangelist, probably a millionaire, was pleading for money saying, “Your support helps us to go to the end of the world with the gospel.”.  In fact you would get to hear this from many who are in the forefront. It is possible that they are actually reaching out in big numbers, but they fail to engage the lay person towards the unfulfilled mission.

In many cases the Churches, Christian leaders and celebrities are freeing people of all the crucial mission responsibilities. The failure to the obedience to the Great Commission is because Churches in most cases have robbed the congregation members of Christ mission and purpose, and substituted with an alternative. Hardly a lay Christian has an audacity to share the gospel today. The need to present the gospel is never demanding and rarely compelling. People have no clue how to present it.

Christians are coaxed into thinking their attendance and positions in the Church by themselves are the fulfillment to Christ’s Mission. Paul in the book of Romans declares, “But not all obeyed the gospel”. Romans 10:16. And in verse 15 of the same chapter questions, “And how can they preach unless they are sent?”.  Yes, it is so true that most of the Christians are not sensitized enough or educated enough to lead a person to Christ. The other problem is most of them are never sent. I don't mean to tell you to send all people to some towns and villages but at least be informed enough to share the gospel to people under their influence. They forget that their workplace and other regular area of engagement in their daily life is a mission field. Sadly, they are misled into thinking that supporting a place 1,000 or more kilometers away from their home is a mission field.

There are no alternatives to the Great Commission. Every single person who finds Christ is commissioned to be a witness to the gospel,  preach the gospel and make disciples. Therefore, doing something for the Lord doesn’t directly or indirectly lead a person to Christ. It is a false mission. There are no ambiguities in the gospel and in the Great Commission whatsoever. Both the clergy and the laity, in other words pastors and lay people need to get this right. Can we commit our obedience to reach out?  Church, can you start sending or releasing your people for the sake of the gospel. Let's not forget, everywhere we turn we encounter people without Christ, especially in a country like ours. Therefore, our doing “something” cannot save a soul from eternal fire, but our clear message of the good news, will.

 

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When noticeable goes unnoticed!

 

We can either be the best example of Jesus in this world or a bad model of Christ’s teaching. Contradictory lifestyle is a result of superficiality and dishonest commitment towards God. When we want to follow God and at the same time satisfy our noticeable and sometimes unnoticeable selfish intentions to please the world, we end up living a life of contradiction. As we get used to it, our conscience is undisturbed, providing us with justifying reasons to hold on to that lifestyle.

In the book of Romans Chapter 2 Paul points out the contradictory behavior of the Jews and condemns them for being the reason God’s name is getting blasphemed (Romans 2:24). This is so true even today.  Beside people’s personal reason for rejecting God they give themselves valid reason to be offended by other Christians and yet live a contradictory lifestyle. Somehow we become the reasons for their offense.

Let me direct your attention to Romans 2:22, where it says,  “.. You who detest idols, do you rob temples.” Well I don’t intend to list out the contradiction concerning the Jews in this blog, but definitely want to draw all your attention to the contradictions sustained by the Christian world.  Sometimes our zeal for the Lord is so compartmentalized. Yes, you heard it right, compartmentalized. Many are upset on general evil the Bible condemns,  but overlook other evils brooding in their heart. And the sad part is that it finds approval to act on it.  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in one of the writings states, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of you and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every man. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

Today many Christian leaders can be so loud in their condemnation against all idolatries but still be comfortable to make Church an enterprise for a sustainable financial return. It doesn’t hurt them at all. The Mission of Christ continues to suffer because money covertly becomes a goal for the Church’s existence. The mandate of Christ in many cases has become a nice philosophy to mobilize funds and to do every other thing, beside actually reaching out to people with the good news. And Paul is right when he raises the question. It can be easy to detest the idols and still rob the church. Then in the days before Jesus the temple structure was seen as a holy sanctuary to a larger extent. But then the temple of the Lord was destroyed in 70 A.D fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus which was accused by Jesus for turning it into a business center. But today in the new testament era when God redefined the temple it culminated to a movement, a gathering, an assembly of believers coming together for a grandeur purpose. But when the grandeur purpose is robbed, we all stand condemned. Just meeting the pharisee’s legalistic requirement of not missing the Church gains importance.

Church leaders ensure that their congregation’s faithfulness is shown in the way they render their offerings and ensure that they don’t lose anyone. And the people are happy that they are fulfilling the church obligation i.e., by attending the Church and paying the tithes. Is this all the purpose of the Church? Today, by all means the purpose of reaching souls with the gospel is robbed. Just because you are pious in one activity doesn’t give you leverage of disobeying another Biblical requirement and most importantly, the Great Commission. Christians, Pastors and leaders be watchful that your Church is not robbed of its essence and the purpose and merely existing as a beautiful structure. 

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Price in the hand of the fool!

       

                                                                                                    

King Solomon was a brilliant man, rhetoric in his speech, philosophical in his thoughts, logical in his analogies and raised many questions that demand extensive retrospection. One of it is this question that I thought was just brilliant. It goes like this, Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, Seeing he hath no heart to it? Proverbs 17:16. A serious question to ponder upon!  I was challenged when one of the Pastors in an open forum raised this question by asking, “how is that the many Christian scammers manage to receive funds over and over again, when someone who is honest and consciously careful, struggle to find resource for God’s work?”

The concerns grows when people witness many in Christian leadership positions call themselves as servants of God. They live with zero sense of accountability, fudging accounts, misappropriation of funds, take advantage of people for their benefit and personal amplification. And especially when the same portray as if God’s mission is in their hand, then it raises even more serious questions. If you are one among the groaners who is concerned, then I hear you dear people. I think Solomon when he raised this question had the same concern in mind. The sad thing in all of this is when the Christian world unfortunately assumes, that a person with a consistent fund flow of funds is God’s beloved candidate called to do God’s mission work in this world.

During my association with the international social agency, I used to visit many Churches and Church based organizations to monitor the program impact and fund utilization. Honestly, it would hurt so much. I would think, how one could claim being a servant of God, live so depraved using the name of Jesus, with poor accountability. I say this because the accounts would show so much of misuse, mishandling, and misappropriation of funds. Yet he would be thriving in his ministry. In such cases we are tempted to raise the pointed question of Solomon, “Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a food to get wisdom..” Well, it is not only about wisdom to buy; it can be anything.

In the Bible, we notice it disturbed David too, when he saw the wicked being more wicked, and yet flourishing and he was groaning and lamenting. We find this in Psalms 94:3 where he says, “Lord how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph?” I understand when it comes to the one who don’t know God and whose “god” is money, they have the best share in this world and the means don’t matter to them. But what about the ones who claim to be Christ’s servant yet all they do is mishandle and cheat for money. The sad part is they live under the false belief that God has blessed them and want them to thrive in their mission work. Hence, all the wickedness gets endorsed.

I have heard from several leaders who claim to be the great servants of God making bold claims by saying, God does not have any other alternative besides them. And that I thought was a desperate, pathetic statement I have ever heard. C S Lewis responds to this so beautifully, “God does not need you, the reason He has chosen to need you is because you need to be needed.” Kenner American French Historian said this way, "I have no fear that God's work will be kept undone, I have every fear that it will be done without me.”.

God’s work can grow best without funds too. If brevity of fund is the challenge for ineffective mission work, then technically God must be blamed for the stagnation of the gospel work, not you and me. And since it is not true, which means there is something seriously wrong. Mission work needs bold people who are ready to lay their life for the sake of the gospel. This is what is said about Barnabas and Paul in Acts 15:26, “who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”. Do not worry if you are struggling to manage funds to the bare minimum. It is not always about your accomplishment but it about your faithfulness. It would be a blessing if you don’t always get what you want. Let me end with the quote by Oscar Wilde, “In this world there are only two tragedies, one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it”. For example Solomon had harem twice the size of the temple. Do you have a price in your hand, how are you going to use it?

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Legitimate question!

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Psalms 115:2. Do we realize we are His ambassadors and witnesses?

 >To reflect the image of God (Genesis 1:27)?

 >Be a carrier of the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3),

 >Execute justice and fight against the moral and legal corruption (Amos 5:24; Jeremiah22:3; Luke 4:18), and

 >Lift His name high (Philippians 2:9)

If this is not reality then what on earth are we doing? John Calvin put it so beautifully by stating this, "A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.".  He is not far from the truth. Today, unlike the early Christians, many have learnt to maintain a long silence. I am not sure if they need to be categorized as cowards or are yet to understand His mission clearly. By and large, the so-called Christians including many Pastors/ leaders seriously lack confidence and are unable to muster courage to declare to the dying world that Jesus is Lord and there is no other name given under the heaven beside Jesus by which people can be saved (Acts 4:12). 

What are the Churches and Christians really busy about? Christians and Christian leaders/pastors in many cases are busy in number of non-productive tasks assuming they are doing a great favour to God, leaving millions enter a Christ-less eternity. We are silent in order to protect our dignity and image in the society. By doing so we want to portray that we are just another religious entity like any other in our country. We are busy using His name to increase our bank balances, build luxurious houses, buy high end cars and tag it, "all for God and for God's work.".  There are many who are sleeping and doing nothing as long as they have good fund flow. It is easy for many to manage big numbers, which we use on our favor to impress donors and congregation. The Bible condemns the Shepherds vehemently. In Isaiah 56:10 it says "His watchmen are blind, They are all ignorant; They are all dumb dogs, They cannot bark; Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.". I don't want to sound critical and condemning, but there are many facts which are undeniable. There are many who thrive and take credits on the accomplishment of their poor Pastors/ workers doing the ministry in the fields. Visiting so many churches and having worked with Mission organizations the patterns are a proof time and time again that most of them are scamsters, culminating to misappropriation. The Bible warns, “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” Haggai 1:4 CSB, when it sees a similar situation of peoples’ apathy.

Let’s not conclude and justify our demands from the congregation and well-wishers to build a Church building, and call it a Church. Your Church building is not a Church. Your pulpit is not a sanctuary like the temple of God. Don't create a false sense of holiness about the church building to impress the people so that they can sustain you. This is totally unbiblical. God does not dwell in any of our Church buildings. There is one largest Church in Chennai collecting building funds for more than 20 years and still the building mission remains unaccomplished.  Solomon’s temple was the last building where God dwelt. He no more dwells in building made by hands. He dwells in human hearts (Acts 7:48; 17:24).  You may need a Church, but you don't need a building to be a Church.

Today, we want to heighten the importance of Church buildings over Church movements. Technically, Jesus had supporters from all over, and He could have easily erected a Church building to start weekly service and settled in. And for real it would been the largest Church facility with huge sum of offering flowing in. But no, that was never His goal and it should never be the goal for us, even today. For that matter the apostles could have also done the same. But they were concentrated on the gospel and became the mobile church. Coming to the theme verse, why should the nations say, "where is their God?”.  If we are struggling to come out of superficialities, struggling to be His real ambassadors, then the nations would continue to grope in the dark for a true God and we will remain to be failures to present the Savior to the world.  What is your answer to this legitimate question? - "where is their God?” 

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Where is the revival Oh God?

 

The word revival has become such a common term today that it is casually used in our preaching, singing, playing music, and in every other Christian setting without any serious implications. I hope we are really aware of the actual meaning to the context of the early Church history and Missionary movements. They were not talking about raising children, building happy marriages, being a member in the Church and so on but rather emphasized on sending, which is the mandate in Christ’s mission. These are the people who like Peter on behalf of all the disciples said in Matthew 19:27 “See we have left everything and followed you. So what will there be for us”. The reward Jesus articulated in this context was not assured happiness, prosperity & happy marriages on this earth but rather emphasized their place and their position in eternity. Today many preach, God is going to shower His abundant blessing on those who are serving Him, and there will be no lack, they will be prosperous and full always. Absolutely contradicting what Christ intends, when it comes to mission. It’s good to think about this, in the light of Christ’s mission and His mandate.

The problem today is, we are looking for comforts in Christian life and luxury in Christian service and name it blessing. We all are aware that the twelve disciples left everything including their families and scattered to different parts of the world and died as martyrs, including most of the missionaries. There were sacrifices involved in their commitment to follow Christ. But sadly, today we strive to find a comfortable position here on this earth and in the Churches.  

Christianity has been limited only to buildings, structures and sanctuaries taking the priority and successfully replaced the mission. You may fail to accept it, but that’s the truth. If this is not the case with your Church, praise God! People sit in the Church and pray for a revival and go home happy, thereafter. The question ‘who will go for me?’’ remains a paradox in this new era.

One of the challenging books by Leonard Ravenhill “Why Revival Tarries?” is a must-read book for all of us.  Leonard points out, “We have millions of Bibles, scores of thousands of churches, endless preachers-and yet what sin!” . “Going out” is being commercialised, today. How could we expect a revival in such a scenario? Leonard, in one of the many explanations says this to the response to ‘why revival tarries?’, “The answer is simple enough-because evangelism is so highly commercialized. The tithes of widows and of the poor are spent in luxury-living by many evangelists. The great crowds, great lines of seekers, great appreciation by the mayor, etc., are shouted to high heaven. All get publicity--except the love-offering! The poor dupes who give "think they do God service," while all they are doing is keeping a big-reputationed, small-hearted preacher living in Hollywood style.”.  What a tragedy!”.

Paul Rees remarks, “Revival and evangelism, although closely linked, are not to be confounded. Revival is an experience in the Church, evangelism is and expression of the Church”. Today most of the people think the failure to evangelism work is due to the lack of resources, which is untrue. We forget we have an unutilized resource; the Congregation members. Unfortunately, they are looked upon more only as our funders and donors. They are used for only one purpose and that is to invest in the church through their offerings and tithes and go home happy believing they have done a big service for God. Unless we are willing to break this myth and release them out, revival will remain a jargon. If your congregation members are resembling dry bones, it is probably because we have sucked them dry. It is time to revive the dry bones as we see in Ezekiel 37. Do we have enough tears to wail and do something about the millions who are going to Christless eternity?

A repeated cry of David Livingstone was, ‘‘Lord, when will the wounds of this world’s sin be healed?’’ But are we grief stricken in prayer? is a million-dollar question. Do we soak our pillows, as John Welch did, in our soul’s travail? The scholarly Andrew Bonar lay on his bed on a Saturday night in Scotland, and as people below tramped the streets from the taverns and shows, he used to call from his tortured heart: ‘‘Oh! they perish, they perish!’’ Alas, brethren, we have not so learned Christ. Many of us know only a slick, tearless, passionless, soulless round of preaching, which passes for the minister’s office these days. I urge you to do retrospection in the light of this blog.

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Unending spiritual pandemic!

The recent pandemic, Covid-19 swept the entire nations. The symptoms and effects were the same irrespective of the geographical location. Symptoms of the first and the second waves were almost similar for people across the world. Any particular disease for that matter, its symptoms and severity remain same irrespective of wherever people are situated. Similarly, in this blog, I want to point out a spiritual pandemic sweeping the Churches today and that is 'spiritual complacency'.

The urgency of the gospel still remains ineffective. You can disagree with me, but the facts and statistics don't lie. We are constantly focusing on crowd control, crowd retention and financial stability in Churches. As I always comment, we measure the success of the Churches by the “ABC method” i.e., Attendance, Building and Cash. As long as this is satisfying, leaders are happy. If you refer to the 2011 Christian census in India, the Christian population was 2.3% and now it is said the Christian population is 4.9%. However, the percentage also includes Catholics who need salvation. Their percentage is approximately 2%, which means we are still close to only 3%. I am not just focusing on the increase of percentage, but my problem is growing spiritual complacency.

What are we doing with the crowd, who come week after week and go back home comfortably? Rather I would say, we make them comfortable with spiritual activities without sensitizing on Christ’s Mission. Psalmist remarks, "The horse is prepared for the day of the battle...", Psalms 21:31. What are we preparing for, with the congregation who are with us? Don't tell me it is to get them to heaven. I understand spiritual maturity, spiritual carefulness is necessary, but the moment one finds the Savior and becomes a disciple the Holy Spirit takes control of the person (Acts 1:8) and the anointing leads, teaches and guides him/her through the way as said in 1 John 2:20,27. He already qualifies to inherit the kingdom of God. But the goal of the Church is to go out, reach out and win the perishing souls. But is it still done with all urgency? Leslie Newbigin states, "the church is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave, but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship.".

Jesus called people not to just follow Him like the three jokers. He is not interested in people who want to follow Him without owning a responsibility (Luke 9:57-62). Jesus was not excited because He got people who can be added as a follower. Jesus was always emphasizing to go and tell the goodness of the Lord and not to sit and be a worshipper without following the mission. This is the purpose of the Church in all its priority. F. Lincicome states, “God never intended His Church to be a refrigerator in which to preserve perishable piety. He intended it to be an incubator in which to hatch out converts.”.

Do not forget many who were healed by Jesus urged to follow Christ and recorded in the New testament, but  Jesus, emphasized and ensured to send them back. One example is the demons possessed man in Mark 5 :18. It says, 'As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged him earnestly that he might remain with him.'  but mark Jesus' response in verse 19 "Jesus did not let him but told him, “Go home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.”.  And are you aware of the outcome dear people? It is recorded in verse 20,  "the man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.".  Would you say an Amen for it? How many of us have guds to send people out? Many are careful to hold him/her to be a kindergarten student of their Church /fellowship all their life. Would you want to treat this serious disease? It is time we abandon the selfishness and start revolutionizing people God has given in our hand.

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