Chewed up and spit out …

Christians today have more available to them to help them live a remarkable Christian faith than they could possibly hope for.

Available are some great, gifted leaders committed to leading them in the footsteps of Christ. There are churches loaded with resources. There is about every kind of Bible you could possibly want or need. There are enough Bible study materials to fill libraries. There are schools to teach you the Bible. There are a vast array of parachurch ministries serving alongside the church to assist in equipping believers. There are more conferences offered to train Christians than you could attend in a year. Technology can bring you just about any resource you need.

Regardless of vast resources, all any Christian really needs to fully live the life of faith God intends for us is the Holy Spirit, a basic Bible, a consistent prayer life, and a sincere love for and commitment to Jesus Christ.

Yet, another pastor is chewed up and spit out.

Yesterday I was reading the stories of a pastor and his wife who planted a church in a major metropolitan area about three years ago. They were passionate about a God-given vision to be the family of God where they were. They worked hard. The people came. They became the “cool” church in that city.

So what happened?

The congregation liked having 10 percent of the people doing the work, and being the “cool” church.

The pastor didn’t like that. They were not being the church God intended. They were not making disciples and serving. They were doing church like everyone else, with just a little more “cool factor.”

So the pastor challenged the congregation to make some radical changes. The congregation rejected the proposed change. So the pastor has resigned to go “do church” God’s way somewhere else.

Another pastor has been chewed up and spit out because he tried to lead a congregation to truly be a biblical body of Christ.

The pastor’s wife wrote in her blog that people like to hear about radical Christianity, they just don’t want to live it out themselves.

That’s not quite true … there are many who don’t even want to hear about it!

There are many people and churches who are intent on living in contradiction to clear biblical teaching about what it means to be a genuine Christian or Christ’s church. No matter how many sermons, no matter the biblical teaching, no matter the power of the conviction from the Holy Spirit Himself, they are fully committed to a mundane intellectual belief, a mundane church experience, a mundane faith. They fully intend for the church staff and a handful of radicals to do the “heavy lifting” and for them to do only enough to appease their consciences.

James spoke to this attitude: “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it,” James 4:17.

So did Jesus: “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws,'” Matthew 7:21-23.

I must say I agree with the pastor’s decision to move on. We squander a tremendous amount of time and resources on people and churches who have no intention of being who God intends for them to be. In the meantime, the lost are dying without Christ.

Maybe you’re a Christian who has been challenged to live a real, radical faith for Christ. What’s your response? It’s not something you have to give some time considering, or get around to later in life. It’s something you do or don’t do. Now.

Maybe you’re a church that isn’t making disciples, or making very few. Are you going to settle for that, or change?

Maybe you’re a pastor serving a congregation you know will never become the church God intends. You’ve tried to lead them in that direction and they reject that leading. Are you going to stay and be part of their rejection?

When reading those stories yesterday, it struck me how it took only three years for a new church plant to become like an old, dead church; for a new family of believers to become inwardly focused and self-satisfied.

And for another pastor to be chewed up and spit out.

May God forgive us!

Scotty