Church As We Know It: A Platform Built On The Wrong Foundation
There seems to be a paradox in our Christian faith. Faith is defined as hoping for something yet unseen and in that hope, in essence, we do see. It’s a seeing into a realm not fully visible and yet, once we believe, it’s as if the invisible becomes, in essence, visible. It’s a heart and mind thing. It’s a real living union with a Person in the depths of their being.
Yet, in the Christian community, we often preach from a platform of what is seen. Almost everything that is relayed to us is formed out from a basis of need. Here is what we hear, “We need more volunteers because our programs are not sustainable without you”. In that whole mindset, the lack of people taking initiative for a program they didn’t sign up to maintain for a lifetime, has become a bar to somehow set our level of faith towards. What I mean is that, most leadership heading up a certain organization that meets in that one particular building, are now seeing the people who attend as either cold or hot, mature or immature, followers of Christ or not, based on action towards a seen need. If one meets that need, they are now known for their faith being real and active. This is mostly to the exclusion of the individuals personal life or their reaching out via their faith and love outside of the organizations walls (the deeds done in secret). The reason it is to the exclusion of one’s personal life is because most leadership teams do not have time to personally rub elbows in close relationship with those who walk into their doors. Need-based activity, it seems, has become the bar for whether you are truly a Christian.
We hear it (this angle) every single Sunday without fail. I can walk into any building that organizes a corporate meeting and hear it within moments. “If you truly love God and desire to be a disciple of Christ, you will come on Wednesday’s and attend one of our classes that our leadership team has decided you should take. You may sit in our class and listen to our words and if you come to each one and finish our sessions, we will recognize you as a person of faith.” Of course I am being a bit facetious....or am I? It’s exactly what I am hearing in the sternness.
How about this one for the win? “I am going to be completely clear with you about money. We need it. And the Bible says you are to tithe”. (And as the word “tithe” is spoken, it is spoken very clearly and forcefully). “You are to tithe, which is exactly 10% of everything you make before you pay your bills. It is biblical and our building has needs and if you are obeying God and giving us your tithe, we can buy that new equipment we’ve always wanted and we can upgrade our building and put on a better show and make you more comfortable.” Ooops.....those last 8-10 words may be a little more of a clearer thought as to what I actually hear.
EVERYTHING (and I do mean everything), is based on a platform of seen need. A need based on the needs of a huge building that eats up God’s precious resources and finds excuses to make the needs of a building or program, the bar or standard for Christian faith.
How about another one I hear too often, “Do not forsake the assembling together as the manner of some,” or something like that. Because you do realize, dear child of God, that our life in Christ begins only as a successful church program begins. Think of the grins on faces when there’s been a good worship jam. Think of the proud heart that comes when people have come up for an alter call or filled out those volunteer forms.
Can I ask what would happen if all the buildings that we call churches would disappear or no longer be available? For me personally, nothing would change. My hope and my faith are founded upon the Rock that is Christ Himself. The saints of old realized this precious truth and hymns are filled with words such as, “on Christ the solid Rock I’ll stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.” “Rock of ages, cleft for me. May we hide ourselves in thee.”
Yet, in the Christian community, we often preach from a platform of what is seen. Almost everything that is relayed to us is formed out from a basis of need. Here is what we hear, “We need more volunteers because our programs are not sustainable without you”. In that whole mindset, the lack of people taking initiative for a program they didn’t sign up to maintain for a lifetime, has become a bar to somehow set our level of faith towards. What I mean is that, most leadership heading up a certain organization that meets in that one particular building, are now seeing the people who attend as either cold or hot, mature or immature, followers of Christ or not, based on action towards a seen need. If one meets that need, they are now known for their faith being real and active. This is mostly to the exclusion of the individuals personal life or their reaching out via their faith and love outside of the organizations walls (the deeds done in secret). The reason it is to the exclusion of one’s personal life is because most leadership teams do not have time to personally rub elbows in close relationship with those who walk into their doors. Need-based activity, it seems, has become the bar for whether you are truly a Christian.
We hear it (this angle) every single Sunday without fail. I can walk into any building that organizes a corporate meeting and hear it within moments. “If you truly love God and desire to be a disciple of Christ, you will come on Wednesday’s and attend one of our classes that our leadership team has decided you should take. You may sit in our class and listen to our words and if you come to each one and finish our sessions, we will recognize you as a person of faith.” Of course I am being a bit facetious....or am I? It’s exactly what I am hearing in the sternness.
How about this one for the win? “I am going to be completely clear with you about money. We need it. And the Bible says you are to tithe”. (And as the word “tithe” is spoken, it is spoken very clearly and forcefully). “You are to tithe, which is exactly 10% of everything you make before you pay your bills. It is biblical and our building has needs and if you are obeying God and giving us your tithe, we can buy that new equipment we’ve always wanted and we can upgrade our building and put on a better show and make you more comfortable.” Ooops.....those last 8-10 words may be a little more of a clearer thought as to what I actually hear.
EVERYTHING (and I do mean everything), is based on a platform of seen need. A need based on the needs of a huge building that eats up God’s precious resources and finds excuses to make the needs of a building or program, the bar or standard for Christian faith.
How about another one I hear too often, “Do not forsake the assembling together as the manner of some,” or something like that. Because you do realize, dear child of God, that our life in Christ begins only as a successful church program begins. Think of the grins on faces when there’s been a good worship jam. Think of the proud heart that comes when people have come up for an alter call or filled out those volunteer forms.
Can I ask what would happen if all the buildings that we call churches would disappear or no longer be available? For me personally, nothing would change. My hope and my faith are founded upon the Rock that is Christ Himself. The saints of old realized this precious truth and hymns are filled with words such as, “on Christ the solid Rock I’ll stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.” “Rock of ages, cleft for me. May we hide ourselves in thee.”
Jesus met a woman at a well. I’m not sure where this well was located. The disciples had to go into the city to find food while Jesus waited there. So maybe outside of the city? I can tell you that it wasn’t in a building called a synagogue or church.
Jesus sat there. And a woman came out to fill her container. And it was there that He revealed Himself to her. He revealed Himself and openly shared who He was with a woman who didn’t even go to a synagogue or church. She was despised, a sinner, shunned by Jews and maybe even her own people. And He gave her the best heartbeat of the Kingdom of God. “But a time is coming - indeed, it is already here - when the real worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and reality, for the Father is looking for just such worshipers. God is a spiritual Being, and His worshippers must worship Him in spirit and reality.” John 4
My own personal walk with Christ has been a long journey. When God revealed Himself to my Dad through a man my dad worked with as a plumber for the government, my Dad gave his heart to Christ and also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Unknown to my Dad, God, at the very same time, had been speaking to my Mom’s heart and He revealed Himself to her through a phone call from a lady my Mom knew and she told my Mom about her need for Jesus. When my Dad came home to tell my Mom about his newfound experience, my Mom told him that she as well had found Christ and asked Him to come into her life. Both became followers of Christ having never really had much knowledge of Him at all. It wasn’t in a church that they found Him, He found them right where they were. He desired them as they were. He led them and guided them. It wasn’t an easy journey as I remember it. All that they did (were led to do) in the following years was at great cost. The first church they decided to attend that wasn’t Catholic, was found to be teaching things that were upsetting. Halloween was celebrated there and a person dressed as a devil for a play came through the sanctuary and it disturbed my Mom on the inside. The plays, the funniness, the seeming lack of seriousness for God. The show. My Mom & Dad were new believers, hungry, they truly desired to get to know God and thought they’d find it in church. But that wasn’t the case.
Then my Mom heard about a little gathering that met at the local YMCA on Friday nights. (We lived in Indianapolis back then.) It was a little gatherings of believers and the man who came to minister God’s Word drove there all the way from Northern Indiana. I remember going there as a little girl. (After my parents came to Christ, my two younger sisters and I also gave our hearts to Christ because my Mom shared about Him to us. We all received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I was 7 and my sisters were 5 and 4).
This Friday night group was the best! I remember it well. The worship was real and the presence of God was real. A simple guitarist led with a heart of love for God. A man spoke who preached Gods word as it is. There was no programs or children’s ministries. There was no coffee and cake. There was no light show or fancy tech equipment. It was people coming to meet with God and to grow in their faith and be taught directly from Gods word with no angles or agenda. No agenda! Imagine that? Offering could be given in a box somewhere to help for the cost of renting the building and to help for gas for the preacher who came....all done in love without any preaching of tithing or begging for money. Can you imagine?
As a little girl, I enjoyed this meeting very much. I was there. I was a part of the main meeting. I heard God’s Word taught. I saw the people being prayed for and the laying on of hands. I heard the prophesies and the visions people shared. I had visions here and there and also had words to give from Gods heart. It wasn’t passive at all. It was all of us coming together to contribute, to encourage, to share the gifts of the Holy Spirit and grow in the presence of God.
Later, my parents attended a Tuesday night meeting in a home in a city about 35 minutes outside of Indianapolis. Now I LOVED these nights. It was people greeting you into their home. It was older teens taking younger ones like me under their wing. One older girl would bring me little gifts like chapstick and gum and I looked up to her so much. The atmosphere was warm and loving. Who wouldn’t love worshiping together in simplicity and hearing a sincere message that had no agenda or strings attached or programs to have to volunteer for. Children were all included and I loved being included!! This is where my love for God’s people began to form. This is where I came (as a young girl), to see the beauty of Christ and doing things His way. The yoke was easy in His Presence, and the burden was light. Home life and life in general was tremendously hard. The spiritual warfare my parents faced as they grew in their faith was real and in your face. I saw it firsthand. I experienced it all first hand. I learned to resist the devil who tried to scare me as I personally grew strong in faith, first hand. Let me tell you something. A little girl can grow strong in faith in an atmosphere of the real living Presence of God in simple meetings with hearts set on knowing and loving Him alone. In the lack of agenda and programs, there was freedom for us all to grow and grow and grow. I memorized verses like crazy. I read the Bible in my spare time all the time! I prayed. And even as our lives as a family took a religious turn when we joined an actual church that wasn’t healthy in my older teen years, my parents could not shake the true and solid foundation that came with a real walk with God. Religion tried hard to shake the Presence of God out of me and turn me into a blind follower of pretense and formula’s and agreement over doctrine, but the Holy Spirit fought it off for me as I continued reading my bible and praying and walking those corn fields as a girl.
So can I tell you that when I got married, and gratefully attended a church that genuinely believed that home meetings were very important to the growth of Christian life, I and my husband opened our home for meetings like what I experienced in my young years. And I loved it! Even as a host and all the work involved in that, and all the conflict of people being people, I loved each night people could come and we could read the Bible together and love on each other and eat and have coffee.
Even as an old girl now, I still love these little gatherings of believers in homes. There is NOTHING like them anywhere. You can NEVER duplicate this kind of experience anywhere no matter how hard one tries. There will NEVER be the growth in Christ that one longs to see apart from Christ Himself leading His sheep. We push and shove these little groups away because we have these big buildings and one can never justify the expenses that they incur. Children’s workers are never truly satisfied sequestering children into cold rooms. Nursery workers hate baby-sitting. But what if babies were held and loved on in a room with their own Mom there who can be a part of a gathering of believers. How about children enjoying each other in the freedom of a home where there is love and fun? A place where it’s real and people are real and one can observe Christians loving God and being real Christians. Children are always watching. How about a place where you pitch in to help each other and if one has a neighbor in need or there are multiple needs, you can go and help one another. There are needs met in more ways than just external. Just so much life!!!!
I am looking for anyone willing to step off the platform of need-based, so-called Christianity, to the genuine call of the heart of God in the freedom of His Holy Spirit where all God’s people can live and move and have their being in Him and not be conformed to the patterns of this world and the thought-pattern that it’s OK to establish our own “Christian” rule or preach from a platform of keeping God's people contained. It’s a no go. And until we realize we are spinning our wheels trying to establish our own Kingdoms here on earth, the lost will continue to be lost. Real Kingdom work is only truly blessed and fruitful so far as Christ is allowed full reign. For without Him, we can do nothing of any real Kingdom value. But apart from Him, we can accomplish a really good, needs-based show. And it stops right there.
No one can deceive you when you are in genuine union with Christ and you know Him and you are filled with the knowledge of Him through the Word of God. And neither can you be satisfied with anything other.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.”
Jesus sat there. And a woman came out to fill her container. And it was there that He revealed Himself to her. He revealed Himself and openly shared who He was with a woman who didn’t even go to a synagogue or church. She was despised, a sinner, shunned by Jews and maybe even her own people. And He gave her the best heartbeat of the Kingdom of God. “But a time is coming - indeed, it is already here - when the real worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and reality, for the Father is looking for just such worshipers. God is a spiritual Being, and His worshippers must worship Him in spirit and reality.” John 4
My own personal walk with Christ has been a long journey. When God revealed Himself to my Dad through a man my dad worked with as a plumber for the government, my Dad gave his heart to Christ and also received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Unknown to my Dad, God, at the very same time, had been speaking to my Mom’s heart and He revealed Himself to her through a phone call from a lady my Mom knew and she told my Mom about her need for Jesus. When my Dad came home to tell my Mom about his newfound experience, my Mom told him that she as well had found Christ and asked Him to come into her life. Both became followers of Christ having never really had much knowledge of Him at all. It wasn’t in a church that they found Him, He found them right where they were. He desired them as they were. He led them and guided them. It wasn’t an easy journey as I remember it. All that they did (were led to do) in the following years was at great cost. The first church they decided to attend that wasn’t Catholic, was found to be teaching things that were upsetting. Halloween was celebrated there and a person dressed as a devil for a play came through the sanctuary and it disturbed my Mom on the inside. The plays, the funniness, the seeming lack of seriousness for God. The show. My Mom & Dad were new believers, hungry, they truly desired to get to know God and thought they’d find it in church. But that wasn’t the case.
Then my Mom heard about a little gathering that met at the local YMCA on Friday nights. (We lived in Indianapolis back then.) It was a little gatherings of believers and the man who came to minister God’s Word drove there all the way from Northern Indiana. I remember going there as a little girl. (After my parents came to Christ, my two younger sisters and I also gave our hearts to Christ because my Mom shared about Him to us. We all received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I was 7 and my sisters were 5 and 4).
This Friday night group was the best! I remember it well. The worship was real and the presence of God was real. A simple guitarist led with a heart of love for God. A man spoke who preached Gods word as it is. There was no programs or children’s ministries. There was no coffee and cake. There was no light show or fancy tech equipment. It was people coming to meet with God and to grow in their faith and be taught directly from Gods word with no angles or agenda. No agenda! Imagine that? Offering could be given in a box somewhere to help for the cost of renting the building and to help for gas for the preacher who came....all done in love without any preaching of tithing or begging for money. Can you imagine?
As a little girl, I enjoyed this meeting very much. I was there. I was a part of the main meeting. I heard God’s Word taught. I saw the people being prayed for and the laying on of hands. I heard the prophesies and the visions people shared. I had visions here and there and also had words to give from Gods heart. It wasn’t passive at all. It was all of us coming together to contribute, to encourage, to share the gifts of the Holy Spirit and grow in the presence of God.
Later, my parents attended a Tuesday night meeting in a home in a city about 35 minutes outside of Indianapolis. Now I LOVED these nights. It was people greeting you into their home. It was older teens taking younger ones like me under their wing. One older girl would bring me little gifts like chapstick and gum and I looked up to her so much. The atmosphere was warm and loving. Who wouldn’t love worshiping together in simplicity and hearing a sincere message that had no agenda or strings attached or programs to have to volunteer for. Children were all included and I loved being included!! This is where my love for God’s people began to form. This is where I came (as a young girl), to see the beauty of Christ and doing things His way. The yoke was easy in His Presence, and the burden was light. Home life and life in general was tremendously hard. The spiritual warfare my parents faced as they grew in their faith was real and in your face. I saw it firsthand. I experienced it all first hand. I learned to resist the devil who tried to scare me as I personally grew strong in faith, first hand. Let me tell you something. A little girl can grow strong in faith in an atmosphere of the real living Presence of God in simple meetings with hearts set on knowing and loving Him alone. In the lack of agenda and programs, there was freedom for us all to grow and grow and grow. I memorized verses like crazy. I read the Bible in my spare time all the time! I prayed. And even as our lives as a family took a religious turn when we joined an actual church that wasn’t healthy in my older teen years, my parents could not shake the true and solid foundation that came with a real walk with God. Religion tried hard to shake the Presence of God out of me and turn me into a blind follower of pretense and formula’s and agreement over doctrine, but the Holy Spirit fought it off for me as I continued reading my bible and praying and walking those corn fields as a girl.
So can I tell you that when I got married, and gratefully attended a church that genuinely believed that home meetings were very important to the growth of Christian life, I and my husband opened our home for meetings like what I experienced in my young years. And I loved it! Even as a host and all the work involved in that, and all the conflict of people being people, I loved each night people could come and we could read the Bible together and love on each other and eat and have coffee.
Even as an old girl now, I still love these little gatherings of believers in homes. There is NOTHING like them anywhere. You can NEVER duplicate this kind of experience anywhere no matter how hard one tries. There will NEVER be the growth in Christ that one longs to see apart from Christ Himself leading His sheep. We push and shove these little groups away because we have these big buildings and one can never justify the expenses that they incur. Children’s workers are never truly satisfied sequestering children into cold rooms. Nursery workers hate baby-sitting. But what if babies were held and loved on in a room with their own Mom there who can be a part of a gathering of believers. How about children enjoying each other in the freedom of a home where there is love and fun? A place where it’s real and people are real and one can observe Christians loving God and being real Christians. Children are always watching. How about a place where you pitch in to help each other and if one has a neighbor in need or there are multiple needs, you can go and help one another. There are needs met in more ways than just external. Just so much life!!!!
I am looking for anyone willing to step off the platform of need-based, so-called Christianity, to the genuine call of the heart of God in the freedom of His Holy Spirit where all God’s people can live and move and have their being in Him and not be conformed to the patterns of this world and the thought-pattern that it’s OK to establish our own “Christian” rule or preach from a platform of keeping God's people contained. It’s a no go. And until we realize we are spinning our wheels trying to establish our own Kingdoms here on earth, the lost will continue to be lost. Real Kingdom work is only truly blessed and fruitful so far as Christ is allowed full reign. For without Him, we can do nothing of any real Kingdom value. But apart from Him, we can accomplish a really good, needs-based show. And it stops right there.
No one can deceive you when you are in genuine union with Christ and you know Him and you are filled with the knowledge of Him through the Word of God. And neither can you be satisfied with anything other.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.”
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