Is Church the End Result

Posted on December 3rd, 2007 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Blogs.

These conversations make me, as a full time staff member, very nervous. People need to be dedicated to their church. But when is enough, enough. Throughout the last few years, we have begun to create programs and meetings and more services and expect true Christians to show up to everything we plan.

One website states “Get Connected to God by attending one of our worship services”. So is that it? Is that how we grow closer to God? By attending a worship service? How can we not see that we are moving back into a “work for your relationship” religion?

Are we trying to build empires on every street corner? We make mention that if only people were more dedicated to the church, everything would be great. Dedication would be great, but who is dedicated to whom? Are we as ministers helping the “whole-life” of our members or only trying to get them to work together to build larger churches? Are we as pastors helping our members become more dedicated to God or to our church?

Tough questions. These are not easy to answer. But if we want Acts 2 revivals to take place, I believe this is the place to start.”One of the lessons from this letter that I found most impressive was that Paul, like Jesus, was less concerned about religious ceremonies and completing a checklist of activities and events than he was about people being tuned in to God. Not once did he rant about being present at church every week or completing specified amounts of activity. His message was profoundly simple: stay in touch with God and follow your instructions as they are provided. It’s all about deepening your relationship with God, not about consistently engaging in your routines” (George Barna, Revolution, pg. 94).

2 comments.

Bobby Sparks

Comment on December 3rd, 2007.

The site looks pretty good. BYW I noticed that your comments posted on another site got no response.

Brian Sparks

Comment on December 5th, 2007.

There is a problem that is occurring within church work in all associations. The post-baby boomers are beginning to take control. This is nothing to fear, but each generation has had rebels. These rebels did what they felt God was leading them to do.
With a lot of the blogs, they are giving out two arguments. #1 There is an unhealthy fear of the older generation. Same something wrong to the wrong pastor and your ministry will be over. This is not exclusive to the ABA. I see it a lot in the BMA and the SBC. I’ve seen one pastor pressured out of the local association (BMA) because he didn’t wear a tie while he preached. While attending TBI, we knew who’s hand to shake and who to make friends with. Because if you failed, your name would no doubt end up in the Baptist Monitor.
#2 The second and more apparent argument is over scripture. Is the scripture complete in telling us what is right and wrong? Or if the scripture was being written today, would somethings be added to it? For example, marijuana is a God-made plant used for medicinal purposes (and clothing for you hippies out there). The Bible doesn’t state anything about using drugs (as far as my little knowledge is concerned). Is marijuana only wrong because it is illegal (some countries it is legal), is it wrong only outside of reasonable medicinal uses, or is it wrong because of cultural ethics? This specific area seems to be a moral grey. Just for the record I believe it is wrong due to ethics. We have much better means for medicne to use something that ends up destroying so many lives. But the argument is over scripture.
My recommendation is focus on issue #1 because #2 will never be worked out until #1 is taken care of.

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