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Is your church a place where you have to be Republican to fit in? Are those voices allowed to run amuck, making it pretty hard to invite any nonbelieving friend to church because they will be demeaned?
Until churches start to address these kinds of dynamics, the bleeding will continue. It's really sad because we're taking things that are diametrically opposed to the gospel and treating them as central gospel issues.
(I don't mean that being a Republican is opposed to the gospel; just that the way being a Republican is widely expressed right now is opposed to the gospel.)
It really is so much more than the pastor too. The pastor can only do so much. The pastor can be the most decent, faithful, wise, balanced, compassionate person, and if the congregation isn't changing their ways, it can only get you so far.
Christians are so bloody defensive. Nonbelieving people and people who have left the church so often have really important and true critiques but instead of facing the discomfort of hearing them, we disparage those folks.
As congregations and not just as individuals we need to start bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Is your church known for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Or for culture wars?
We need to stop so much trying to get more bottoms in the seats and dollars in the offering plate and start working on the letting God's Spirit work in our midst. We need to stop being drawn to the American idea of "success" and follow God's instead.
God does not care if you have a huge church. But he does care about the maturity and faithfulness of the Christians in it.
We're so terrified of the church dying that we pull desperate stunts to keep it from happening. We focus on outward marketing strategies, popular music, and splashy venues. That centers the brand instead of Christ.
Give me a living room church of people filled with the fruit of the Spirit over a crowd of hundreds of people with superficial faith any day. Give me a frumpy pastor and congregants who care and are sensitive to those outside over a stylish pastor and church.
Give me a church satisfied even if it never adds members, because the work of saving is God's, not ours, and our culture is sick of us trying to sell them something.
Church as brand is inhibiting us. We're scared of losing market share. We're scared to be bold on truth. We bow to those with the deep pockets instead of to God.
We're also scared of losing our friends. Not towing the party line has social consequences, and some of these are hardest of all. It's the hardest for me, for sure.
But the fear of man (or woman) is idolatry.
The love of money is idolatry.
The love of money is idolatry.
And a large number of American Christians are not at all reading the room of what is going on in America. They're arguing over mint and dill and cumin and missing "love your neighbor as yourself" and the fruit of the Spirit.
Love of neighbor and the fruit of the Spirit should flow from a heart transformed by the gospel.
Protecting what's mine as the supreme value in life is not the fruit of the Spirit.
Philippians 2 said "He emptied himself" for us. We are called to do the same for our world.
Protecting what's mine as the supreme value in life is not the fruit of the Spirit.
Philippians 2 said "He emptied himself" for us. We are called to do the same for our world.
And just to clarify: we don't empty ourselves for our world so WE can save it. We do it as Paul indicates, in imitation of Christ's demonstration of humility and love. Because the gospel has transformed our hearts.
