...I Want to Provoke Action

I want to give you a series of quotes from Erwin McManus' book entitled "The Barbarian Way." This book has been on my favorites list for some time. I do not want to simply provoke thought. I want to provoke action in the Body of Christ.

"We build churches that become nothing more than hiding places for the faithful while pretending that our actions are for the good of the world. Or we choose political and secular vehicles to try to advance our culture values, strangely attempting to make unbelieving people act like civilized believers." [p. 109]

"I am convinced that even now there are multitudes of followers of Jesus Christ who are sick and tired of the church playing games and playing down the call of God." [p. 114]

"The most civilized churches have really no practical concern for people outside their congregations. The brokenness of a lost and unbelieving world is not enough to inspire the painful changes necessary to make the church relevant to the world in which we live." [p. 123]

Relevance - something relevant to a task. Increases the likelihood of accomplishing the goal. When we consider the relevance of the church then we must ask ourselves at least two questions: 1) What is our task? 2) What will allow us to accomplish this task?

The church has been left on the earth with the task of increasing the kingdom of God (i.e. - Evangelism). We are to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ so that the lost may be saved. With that being said, what will increase our chances of accomplishing this goal? As a whole, a lot has to change?

The church has primarily moved into the same mindset as the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' day. We have tried to protect the faith of our forefathers. We have done this through legalism, social order, and traditions. Why then are we surprised to see the world in the shape that it is in? Why are we so shocked to see the darkness advancing? We have been called to be children of light in the darkness but we are primarily meeting in a lighted building shining our lights into each other's eyes.

Do you want to know what the primary form of evangelism is in most churches? It is inviting people to church. I'm not really sure why we do that because most of the time the people we invite are very uncomfortable in church. They see the church as dogmatic, political, and stuffy. They haven't encountered the unconditional love of God. Let's just be honest here. Most churches think that they are relevant because we have loosened up on the dress-code that was in place. In other words, we are casual and therefore we are relevant.

I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I have served as the pastor for PBC for 10 years now and I love what God has allowed me to do. We have made a lot of changes over the years. Some of these changes were made to ensure that we were following after the will of God. Others were made so that when those from the outside do come in that they feel welcome in our midst. However, there is much more that we could do to see the lost in our community saved. We have to remind ourselves of the task and ask what will help us accomplish the goal of covering the earth with the glory of God.

I'm not here to hand out bullet points on how to make the church relevant. The reason for today's blog is simple: I want to provoke the church to action!!! I want us to make the changes that are necessary. God wants us to do more than just gather in a holy huddle trying to encourage each other through the week. It is our "job" to go out into the world every day and destroy the works of the enemy.

Who's with me? Let's unchain our faith and believe God for the impossible. Let's impact our communities. The time is now!!!