Today's Church
Church
was a place that welcomed me and my family on Sundays when
I was young. When I was saved later in life, I attended every church service I could
find in my area not only to hear more about Jesus, but also for the opportunity
to sing praises to Him.
Seeking help for Kristin from hundreds of churches in nine counties over several years has exposed the vast majority of 'churches' today to be little more than weekly performances to collect money that welcome people who are likely to enhance the performance and/or pay for it, and shun those who are likely to be unwelcomed by the audience or have some other dampening effect on the collection.
In the Bible, church - ekklesia in the original Greek - of course is not a place but a group of true Christians who gather to use their God-given gifts and resources to glorify God, as well as serve each other by loving one another sacrificially as Jesus demonstrated and commanded:
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).
The true church is the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. She is beautiful, vibrant, obedient, courageous, and somewhere in the world. We desperately tried to find her for many years, but failed.
We also failed to find the best soldiers for Christ. Most militaries have special forces who receive the best training and deploy to the toughest battles. The militaries of USA and UK, for example, have the Navy Seals Team 6 and the SAS, respectively.
The graduates of the most prestigious seminaries in USA see themselves as the world's best-trained troops for Christ, yet the vast majority of them whom we met turned out to be cowards who were afraid of demons and declined to fight them, while those who claimed to be gifted for spiritual warfare turned out to be hypocrites at best and wolves in sheep's clothing at worst. The lone American pastor who sincerely tried to help Kristin had never attended seminary.
1 Corinthians 15:19 laments, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable," yet most pulpits today tell people to believe in Jesus primarily not for what He did on the cross 2,000 years ago to save them from sin and hell but for what more He can do to provide them with a more comfortable life on earth. Even those who preach the true Gospel avoid the topics that will hurt their revenues. For example, Jesus warned, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:25), yet when is the last time your pastor preached against being rich, which risks losing their offerings?
The common rebuttal, "There is no perfect church," is true, but that recognition must not serve as an excuse to accept the status quo. Instead, it must lead to repentance and striving to obey the word of God, which declares, "as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct" (1 Peter 1:15).
And for today's churches to repent, their pulpits must be cleansed of cowards, hypocrites, hirelings, and wolves in sheep's clothing, and the majority of the people in their pews must be exhorted to truly repent of their sins and cry out to Jesus for salvation.