I was talking with my mentor last night. We were talking about the church and it's rejection of the truth of God's Word. Man in his limited wisdom has decided that his own intellect is above God's and he believes that he can create the model that draws people into the church. As we have seen over at least the past 20-30 years, the massive decline of individuals attending church, man's ways and ideas do not work. Seeker, Emerging, and whatever other models that are out there with many titles will never work, because they come from man. In all of these models something is always lacking. They seem to focus on only one or two things. What is good for one church will never be good for another. Now the leaders of these churches had good intentions, and they must of prayed for guidance, but concerning the ways of God, His Word already had everything laid out. If man took time to pray and consume God's Word, and live His Word, and operate in the fullness of His Word, there would be no thoughts to "Church Models", the concern would be about training new pastors and leaders to lead the huge number of unchurched people coming into the church.
Having a house in order is all that is needed. The order is fairly easy. Jesus stated two things to start, one: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind." Matt. 22:37. To do this means your total being, all that you have, all that you do, your completeness in life must all be directed to God. You make Him the source of all things for your life. You honor him, and worship Him with your life. Complete and total obedience to His Word striving to be holy as He is holy. Something that is not heard much in churches anymore.
The second item: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Matt 22:39. Love God, then love those around you who ever they are. The church was all about this in ancient times, and it grew because of following these two statements from Christ. In Acts 2:42-47 "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Quite different to the philosophy of the church of today.
In today's church in America, there is not much "awe", and there is hardly any "miraculous signs and wonders". Why, man ideas rule the church. Man thinks he knows better how to run the church than God. Man's prayerlessness and disbelief of the total Word has caused him to not know the truth even though it is in front of his face. We might scare people away if something real spiritual happened. When a prominent pastor who created a movement in the church in the 70's and 80's by his "style" of church found that many of the 10,000 + people attending his church in a survey wanted more meat than the milk they had received for years stated in a conference I attended that, "it is time to go back to the drawing board." You could see that again, he and his leadership were looking to themselves to rework the church to what the people wanted. Yes, they were going to offer more meat, but on their terms. The church was created by asking people what they wanted in a church, and that is what they got. In time it was found to be lacking. Good music and light preaching to make you happy and allowing you to continue in a carnal lifestyle only produced emptiness with a Holy Spirit tugging on you to want more of what a living God can offer. More was not found. Why wasn't the church offering what was needed in the first place?
There is a stirring happening. People want more. The church in general is not offering more. These churches will die. New churches will rise up in the ashes of the churches that refused to believe in the Word or follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Something needs to change. With every year, church attendance declines. With ~92% of 16-30 year olds being unchurched, I guess you can say that the church models of today, do not work. But what is funny, many church leaders refuse to change. It is like a basketball coach I know. For the past 5 or 6 years he has a play that he has his high school girls practice and practice and practice. He calls the play in every game. It never works. The other coaches know him and his play. They know how to defense against it. His team would be losing the game, but this coach was going to make darn sure that the girls ran this play right. Even when people close to him told him the play didn't work, and I believe because of his pride he thought he would make it work, he would not change. His program has never grown or gotten better. Actually, in the beginning he had one good season, but never went all the way. This sounds like many pastors and church leaders and their churches. We are going to use this model even though it has been proven not to work. Just because one church or two had success with it, they think they can use it too and have the same results. Statistics and history show, only one model works. The church model in God's Word. Why don't we get it? We are blinded from the truth. Worldliness has crept into the church so much that we think we in our own minds think we can do anything using our own intellect, we are our own gods. Change will only come when we return to the ancient ways. When we return to that first commandment of Jesus and believe and follow the Word of truth. One way or the other we will bow down. God's Will, will be done in the church for His people. I would rather be walking with Him than against Him.
