Knowing and Doing

I want you all to know that there are more than just ten identity crisis' that the church experiences today such as lack of vision, greed with money the church has and fighting over it, misinterpreting the Bible and preaching incorrect doctrine, lack of church discipline, improper church government, the churches treatment of ministers, ministers who abuse their office, and so on and so on.  I feel like I have beaten this horse and need to move on.  So here goes the last installment of this series (gasp!!): IDENTITY CRISIS #10:  Accountability.  We are no longer accountable to each other in church and we are ok with that.  Church Membership is taken lightly as I have written before, ministers don't know who they are accountable to, believers continue to live according to the world and are adapted to its sin and dwell in that sin, and the list goes on. Case Study:  We live in a democratic country where we experience freedom and liberty based upon the dreams of our forefathers, wh...

Will the TRUE Church Please Stand UP!!! Identity Crisis #8:  We, the body of Christ, have evangelistic RABIES!!!  We bite too much and don't listen.  (Chapter 23 of Religously Transmitted Diseases by Ed Gungor) The proposal here is that when we think of evangelism, we still have the title of being a "Bible thumpers" hitting people over the head with God's Word to knock some sense in them.  This is our evangelistic bite into unsaved folk.  We are in such a hurry to get people to make a decision to know Christ, we have become rabid, not loving and engaging them with the gospel.  We have created many evangelistic programs to endoctrinate us with an gospel presentation outline that is not personal, but quick and short.  And when we get started, we rabidly want to finish as fast as we can spouting that we have presented the gospel.  Many times have I been rejected by this method, because I have talked AT someone.  Throwing it out there with no meaning or explanation. I am ...

Dear Readers: I know you are probably thinking "Will this series ever end?" However, I have been inspired by God's Word, Holy Spirit, and your comments. These factors are truly forming a reformation within myself and others in the way I look at the TRUE Church and the way we should be discipling those that are sheep in the flock. It doesnt matter if you are in a city or country church, anywhere a group of believers gather in Jesus' name, that is the church. In San Diego, it can be Church on the Beach, or in Plano, TX, Church under the tree, or in Waco, Church under the Bridge, or First Baptist Church, Dallas, or Travis Avenue in Fort Worth, we should all have the same mentality about church and following Jesus leadership and plan as He has set before us. Worshipping God and Equipping and Making Disciples. Love God and Love Each Other!! I know I am going to make someone upset on this particular blog....so here goes!! Identity Crisis #9: Most churches today are...

IDENTITY CRISIS #7: The church is making SHALLOW DISCIPLES!! We live in a Christian tshirt and bumper sticker culture in church. Most are Christian's on the outside but not on the inside. We are Christians only on Sundays. That is all that is required of us to attend church and maybe Bible Study and we are checked off for the week. #1: With his practical, positive, unpretentious, and down-to-earth teaching style, he has grown the church to an attendance of nearly two thousand each weekend. What is the "growth" focus on? Physical growth, not spiritual. This is the key to the downfall to many pastors and churches. Some pastors like this one his ridden on the coattails and success of the physical growth of the church. The idea is that when you have critical mass, you can really do something. Like what, build more buildings, hire more staff, go on more trips, etc. I even had a pastor tell me once that physical growth equals spiritual growth. You get one as a resul...

The continuing saga of this blog..........wow!! Did I tell you that I have been a part of churches that suffer from these crisis'? Each one suffered because of their incorrect focus. I believe that when we do not focus on the head of the church, Jesus Christ, and the blueprint for church found in the Word of God, we will not succeed. "By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." 1 John 2:3-6 (NASB95) We are told to keep His Word and walk as Jesus walked. If not, John calls us liars, living in falsehood, working against God's Will which is not the truth. Identity Crisis #6: We have treated the church as...

Identity Crisis #5: The church has misunderstood what church membership is. One of the fallacies of church life is counting the number of people present in Sunday School and worship to show what "we" have. A common question among pastor's is "How many are you running?" By doing this, we are identifying numbers as success so that we have created a "faithfulness equals attendance" mentality, which in my opinion is a WORKS salvation. Don't get me wrong, I am not presenting a case for NOT going to church.......hear me out!! Membership then is reduced to attendance and giving, not anything else. This is a major crisis. If you are a believer and you are following the Great Commandment that our Lord taught, "Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength" then "love your neighbor as yourself"; you have a desire to worship the Lord corporately and to be around God's people in something that God created for worsh...

Identity Crisis #4: The church has been transformed by the culture of the world. It has been too long that we have opened God's church, the body of Christ, to the culture of the world. The following examples I give you are from experiences I have had in my own life as part of a church. I have understood pastor's say that they are CEO's of the church. Since when has God called you to a high paying salary, a private jet, greediness, selfishness, and a holier than thou attitude. We are supposed to live the life of a servant, teaching and preaching God's Word humbly, and applying that teaching to ourselves as well as teaching doctrine, theology, and application to the congregation. Paul writes in Philippians 2 that we are to have the same attitiude of Christ...."humility and obedience", so we, pastor's, are to model this to the congregation and the community. Instead of preaching "you" to the crowd, we need to be preaching "we"....be...