Reviving the Church

     Allow me a foreword before you start reading, please. What I write here may be hard to read, and it may challenge your beliefs, and that is totally fine. You are allowed to disagree with me, but keep in mind that everything I write here is truth, and my opinion only comes into play at the very last paragraph. Thank you and enjoy.

     

     I'm currently studying the book of Ephesians, written by Paul. As I look at the verses I've covered so far, there is just so much to share, but I feel compelled to talk about a certain topic that really made me think about how the church (building) should be acting. I feel that the church (building) today is not the way Paul was referring for the church to be, or how Christ sees the church should be.

     Let me ask you some background questions, just to get the message flowing a bit more. It's early in the morning and I need some mind jogging if you will. First of all, who is the church? It's not the building, it's us as believers. We are called the church. Next, who is the head of the church? Well, in Ephesians 1:22, Paul writes that God has placed everything under Christ's feet and has appointed Him to be the head of the church. So, the church is one big body with Christ being the head and us as believers being the rest of the body, correct? Yes, so lets move on!

     If your body were to get an infection somehow, that would corrupt it, right? If you get a cold, your whole body just feels like trash and you need to either take medicine or wait for recovery. Think about the church now. We are a body of believers, led by Christ. What happens if this body becomes infected? It would affect the church! That's not how it's supposed to be, Christ's body is supposed to be pure and united under Him, that doesn't mean we're perfect, Romans says that everyone sins, but it means that we are not to let infection and corruption into our body.

     What's the corruption, since even all believers sin? Well, the infection or corruption is non-believers. The people on this earth who are not saved, or are not a believer will bring an infection to the church. Why? Because they carry worldliness with them. The church is nothing but Godliness, correct? Well, in chapter 2 of Ephesians, Paul says that the spiritually dead (non-believers) follow worldliness and are disobedient. We have godliness, non-believers have worldliness, and the two of them should NEVER become equal, Godliness is always higher than worldliness.

     Does that mean we can't bring our non-believeing friends to church? Of course not! But there is something that needs to take place. The non-believer who attends church, MUST FEEL THAT HE DOES NOT BELONG WITH THE CHURCH. That is a correct statement, am I right? The body/church/believers are all under Christ, we are all a believing body. Non-believers do not belong in the body for they do not follow Christ. They can go to church and feel that they loved, welcomed, and supported, but NOT belonged. Non-believers do not belong in the body of Christ.

     But then why are there so many fake Christians who go to church. Those people who go to church and "claim" to be believers, but go home and curse their parents out, or do drugs, or go to parties, or commit adultery, are NOT believers at all. They are NOT Christians. They would be described as "lukewarm" by Jesus Himself in the book of Revelation. But then, why do they keep going to church? Well, here comes the hard hitter.

     I believe (this is my personal opinion) that today's churches around the U.S. are so focused on numbers of attendance and making sure that more and more people are coming to their church, that the church itself is failing. We are making compromise, something that Jesus NEVER did, nor the church of Acts. We are sacrificing our Godliness for their Worldliness, and that is what is making the church fail. Modern day churches are so focused on making EVERYONE feel comfortable and belonged in the church that it is actually watering down our church as a whole and filling it with infection. This should not be. The church is a place for believers to gather and disciple one another under Christ, not a place for worldliness to make its way through and infect the church. The church's job (as believers) is to disciple one another, so that we can go out on our own and evangelize to the non-believing world and bring them to church once they are saved! That is what Christ told us to do before He left! "Go out and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..." The church should not be focused on evangelizing within the church. No no, because then you end up with tens of thousands of lukewarm Christians, rather than 100 strong, fighting ambassadors for Christ.