Choosing a Church, Part 4 - Evangelism Implosion

When considering which church to attend, we must ask ourselves what a church should be. What is it’s primary purpose? I’m not even sure how it happened, but somewhere along the way our view of church has been turned upside down. The fundamental reason of church has changed over the years. The age of stadium evangelism has had a definite affect on the church and brought us into an age where most churches have an evangelistic, salvation message every Sunday morning so that the congregation can sing “Just As I Am” and the altar call can be given. I know the motive for this and I’m not trying to condemn anyone or make light of sincere conviction. The only problem is that we can be sincerely wrong.

We were missionaries for 10 years, so I definitely realize that reaching the lost is our goal. I can also say without hesitation that the church was NEVER intended to be an evangelistic tool. The church was established so that the saved could come together to worship, be strengthened and edified, and prepare themselves for war. The church was meant to be a retreat or a “sanctuary”  for a battle scarred, war torn people who were on the front lines every day of their lives. They sacrificed all they were and all they had to reach the lost in the world around them.

In Matthew we find the commission to the church to “GO, baptize, and teach” or disciple people, if you will, and all of that is done as you are GOING. As we “go out into the world”, which most of us do on a daily basis, we are supposed to take every opportunity to tell people about the object of our faith. Our message is the same one that John the Baptist preached, “REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” We have the same message that Jonah preached to Nineveh, “REPENTANCE”. We have the same message that Jesus preached, “…unless ye REPENT, you shall all likewise perish.” God help us, this is not an easy task. Jesus also said, “ If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” Matthew 15:18,19 Have you ever wondered why they hated Christ? There were a number of reasons, but one of them was His message. When you tell someone to repent or they are going to perish, it infers that they have something to repent of.(sin) When you show someone their sin, they become angry. We have a nicer, gentler message today, that takes part of the truth and twists it, but doesn’t ruffle any feathers. The new message is this, “God loves you(which is true) and he understands you.(true) All you have to do is ask Jesus in your heart and you can go to heaven to be with Him forever.(not exactly true) When we leave out sin and repentance, we not only leave out the key to justification, we take away any reason for the world to hate us. That works out great for us, but not to good for anyone that we are trying to reach. Battling with Satan, and having the world hate them was why meeting daily and fellowship with the brethren was so important to the first church.  

Today, in our churches, we have become friends with the world. The church is “culturally relevant” and “seeker friendly” and many(not all) have become nothing more than glorified social clubs where believers come together with unbelievers to mingle. One would never want to offend the other. The message of the gospel is LOST.

When choosing a church, I recommend finding one that is fulfilling the great commission, the way Jesus instructed His disciples to do it. I’ll be really specific here. They need to be going OUT to reach the lost, not inviting them in every Wednesday for pizza and games.  Find a church where people are living out their faith on a daily basis. When our church has visitors we welcome them with open arms whether they are saved or lost. I’m not saying that the lost should not be welcome in churches. What I am trying to say, is that the church needs to carry out the purpose that it was intended for, in the way that Christ instructed for it to be carried out. When we start leaning to our own understanding, we get into trouble.