Is your church healthy?

Are you happy in your church?   Even if your answer is a resounding 'Yes', your church may be unhealthy for you.

Here are some signs of an unhealthy church.

1. Formalism.  People come, following the order of worship, say hello, then go home. Where is the building up and the encouraging of one another?  Is there so much order that the Holy Spirit is quenched? Can anyone stand up and share what God has just done for them, or does he have to make an appointment with the pastor before he can share the Lord's blessings? I know this is not possible in a large church, but the large church structure should encourage these and not obstruct them. 

2. Power in the hands of a few. Whether it is the pastor or elders or deacons, it doesn't really matter. Any group can abuse its members.  Is there accountability in the leadership? Who does the pastor or elders give account to in the local church?  Many I've seen are a law unto themselves. Some spend the church's funds with little accountability. I've seen a pastor who sends people to an expensive training course because it is run by his friend, and he justifies it by stating that this is the best course available (btw it happened to be a pilot course where no one has attended before).  

3. Open discussions. Does your church handle open discussions well? Can members raise issues so that it is discussed openly without getting personal? In some cases, people who dare ask questions are targeted later and accused of causing disunity.  Are questions raised are always seen as threats or criticism of the leadership or pastor?  The inability of the leadership to handle genuine criticism is telling you that it is an immature church. If the pastor cannot handle difference in opinion, he is an immature pastor. If a member cannot openly place issues on the table for discussion without getting verbally attacked, we have an immature carnal leadership.  These are the traits of a cult and not a church. 
The body of Christ has many parts and each has its function, and we must respect each other enough to acknowledge the difference in viewpoints instead of squashing every question raised as a challenge to the leader's authority.  I see more respect of each other in private corporations than in a church.

Is the leadership activities clouded in secrecy? Are they open to discuss deacons and elders meeting decisions or do they hide such discussions from the church?  

4. Bullying in the church.  Does the leadership , especially the pastor, bully members into submission? Do they threaten them with excommunication or God's holy displeasure if they don't listen to the pastor?  One elder I know personally threatened to excommunicate another member because he dared to question the eldership's handling on an issue. How arrogant! Jesus calls leaders to serve, not to lord over the flock.
Do you hear summons that put down people in the church (preachers who use the pulpit as a sniping weapon are cowards and abusers).   Do they take responsibilities away from someone who rocks the boat, and push them into cold storage by treating them as if they don't exist?  If you find your pastor or leaders doing this, you can be sure they're wolves and not shepherds. A genuine shepherd will try his best to reconcile with the sheep, not attack it from the pulpit.

5 Is the church leadership balanced, i.e. made up of people who are not just 'yes' men? When there is a problem, there will be different viewpoints put across and prayerfully discussed.  Has the pastor surrounded himself with Yes-men so that everything he decides gets done his way? Are the leadership made up of buddies of the pastor only?  I find this a really good sign that it is an unhealthy church.

6. Are the leadership godly men? How is their prayer life and do they really know the bible? When I say 'know the bible', I mean understand the spirit of what Christ teaches and not just the accumulation of knowledge. Do their lives show it?  
In contrast, I've seen churches run by professional people - business men, accountants, doctors, engineers, etc. These highly esteemed people (in the world's eyes) are assumed to be godly Christian. This may be true or may not be.  I've come across godly doctors as well as worldly doctors.  If the church places these professional men who are not godly men into leadership, guess what? In a few short years, the church will be run like a worldly organisation - strategy meetings, committees, marketing department, communications officer, fund raising manager, etc. 
Human wisdom has replaced dependence on God. Before long, it will just be another 'club', and members come to be entertained each Sunday.   

7. Spectator worship services. This is where the bulk of the church watch the performance of the band up front, and later watch the performance of the pastor up front. Then they pay for the entertainment though the collection plate, shake hands with each other and go home to their TVs and computers.  Observe the degree in which the audience participates. Do they come with the express intention of worshipping God? Or is it just a routine thing that every good tradition?

8. Emphasis on anything other the Jesus Christ.  Listen to the messages and announcements. What do they tell you that the church is interested in? Fixing the broken toilets? Better air conditioners? Get together meals? Holiday programs?  Managing your finance programs? Improving your self-esteem courses? Medical needs of the church members? Instead, how often do you hear announcements on - discipleship, evangelism, supporting those in need?   Are most of the prayers focussed on inward activities or on bringing people into the kingdom of God?

9.  Inward focussed church vs. outward focussed.  Are the activities of the church self-sustaining only i.e. for itself only?  Does it have any impact to the community where the church is located?  If it is self-sustaining, it just keeps the members coming to pay its bills and has no impact to the community. A Burger King restaurant has more value to the community than the church. You may as well not have a church there as no one will miss it. These churches are not the salt of the earth.  The real world is outside the four walls of the church building. Whatever happens inside is to prepare the believer to serve outside. If it only serves itself, it is worthless.

10. Prayer meeting attendance. What percentage of the church attend the corporate prayer meetings? Granted that there are home study groups that do double as prayer meetings, but where are the rest?  Do you see all the elders and deacons there? I know of one pastor who refuses to announce the prayer meeting because someone else (he doesn't like) is leading it.   How petty!  Prayer meeting attendance is a good sign of the health of the church. 

11. What happens after the church worship service?  What do most people in the church talk about after the service? Lunch? Entertainment? Do they talk about the word of God, or some blessings they have received?  Do they talk about people whom they have encouraged or brought to Christ?  What topics are people interested in? There is a lack of conversations that focus on Christ or the bible.  This is a good sign of the heart of that particular church.  Most conversations I've observed tend to focus on trivia and superficial matters - weather, cars, movies, sports, food, etc.  These churches have degenerated into a country club of 'do gooders', like the Scouts. This is not what church is about. 

12. Social gathers replacing fellowship.  Many churches organize meals after the the church worship service and call them fellowships. Are they?  Usually it is just a gathering of friends catching up with each other. This is a social function, not a fellowship. Genuine Christian fellowship involves encouraging each other, sharing scripture with each other, praying with each other, supporting one another, sacrificing for the sake of others.  Can you see any of these happening in the social gatherings we now call 'fellowship'?  These gathering are no different from old friends meeting up together for lunch or meetings in country clubs.  

13. Here is the acid test - have you grown in your love of the Lord and in holy living as a result of the ministries of the church you are in? Notice I didn't ask if your knowledge has increased. Have you grown? Do you love the Lord more, and by implications, do you now love other Christians more?  Have you changed to be more like Christ after sitting in your church for 5-10 years? If your answer is a negative, you need to seriously examine your relationship with God, and you need to discern if your pastor is ministering the word of God or merely putting on a performance every week.

If you find yourself in one of these toxic churches, consider looking for a real church ...and thank God if you can actually find one near you.

Today's evangelical gospel is a fake

I’ve been attending evangelical churches all my life, and have been trained in various methods of personal witnessing. The most popular one I've used is the 'Four spiritual laws'. I've also used tracts from different writers. I've listened to evangelistic sermons and attended crusades and evangelistic meetings.  I've read books on how to witness and do personal evangelism.

But one day it dawned on me that the gospel message I've heard, and used to share with others is actually not the gospel of the New Testament. I certainly could not see Jesus nor any of the apostles using such methods.

Basically, today's gospel message can be summed up in these points:

• God is love and love everybody
• All men are sinners
• Jesus Christ paid for your sins
• You must ask Jesus into your heart to be saved.
• Follow this suggested prayer  'Dear God, I'm a sinner, I confess I've sinned, I ask for your forgiveness, Please come into my heart' 

And then the evangelist pronounces 'welcome brother, you have been born again'.

It may not be exactly these words, but that's basically what most evangelist does.  (There are a minority who do not preach this superficial mechanical gospel but they are rare and far between).  

So what's wrong with this method?

Well, a few things.

• The bible never taught that sinners must ask Jesus into their heart. The often used verse in Rev 3:20 was written to a disobedient church, not to the unconverted. There is not a single verse or teaching in the bible that a person has to receive Jesus into his heart to become a Christian.  Yet this has been the core teaching of today's evangelical churches.  When did we depart from the gospel?  I think sometime in the 19th century when numbers of converts became more important than how genuine is the conversion. Then the 20th century saw the mass market American style crusades and evangelistic meetings springing up, Are there people converted through these? Yes definitely. But for every genuine conversion, there are scores and scores of people walking away from the decision thinking they are Christians when they have not been converted. These 'converts' then fill the churches, bringing with them their worldliness and pagan ideas.  This is the modern day equivalent of the conversion of Constantine during the Byzantine Empire - masses of pagans joining the church.  We don't need revival meeting in the churches, we need evangelistic meetings.
• If you ask a Baha’i person to ask Jesus into his heart, he will do so sincerely. Then he will go back to his religion. The reason is that he has been taught that all paths to God are right. Christianity is one path, Islam is another. Hinduism is another, etc.  This is the major flaw in this method. The evangelist do not bother to find out what the seeker's background is, and whether he truly understands what he has heard. Does he even understand the Christian concept of God? Of holiness. What sin really is? It's more than just putting yourself on the throne of your life as some have put it. 
• Confessing "I'm a sinner" is not repentance.  Every sane person will agree that he is not perfect, and have done little wrongs in his life. Repentance requires conviction of sin first -a person must realise that he is a vile rebellious sinner before God. This conviction of sin is the work of the Holy Spirit and doesn't come from a person's logic. Without this work of the Holy Spirit, confession is just a head knowledge of sin. When convicted of sin, the sinner realised that he, personally, has wilfully disobeyed God his whole life and he deserves God's punishment. Agreement that people are not perfect and have sinned is not conviction of sin.
• God is love. This is true. God loves the world. Yes.  God loves the sinner. Careful here as this conveys a message that can be easily misunderstood.   The sinner, in his state of rebellion, is under God's wrath.   Psalm 5:4-6  For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.   The sinner who dies without Christ, is going to be thrown into the lake of fire. So telling a person that God loves him, can be misrepresenting the truth because you have not told him the 'unpleasant' news - hell is waiting for him also.  Many evangelist avoid this altogether in an attempt to be 'win-some'.  If this is true, then Jesus was not win-some as he often warns people about hell.   The wisdom of this world is certainly not God's wisdom. If you tell someone that God loves him, he can walk away with the message in his head that God loves him even though he has just rejected God's Son. A half truth is no better than a lie.
• Pronouncing a person a Christian after saying the sinner's prayer is presumption. You do not have a right to make such a pronouncement until you see the fruits of conversion. Has his life changed?  Are there new principles evident in this life? Don't mistake the new birth for zeal. An unconverted person can be zealous in church activities, maybe even wanting to go into full time ministry. 

So with today's gospel, once a person has said the prayer, he is a Christian. Easy as ABC. But what does the bible say?  Put aside everything you have been taught by people and go back to the bible.  What did Jesus and the Apostles teach? 

Let me summarize them into three key points.

"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. (Matt 4:17).  This is the core of Jesus's message. Repentance from sins and ...

Faith towards God Acts 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved"

However Jesus also said "If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also"  John 12:26 (emphasis 'must' added)

So we have 1. Repentance  2. Believe  3. Follow Jesus

The order is not important, they come as a package. It's all or nothing. 
You cannot say you have believed, if you refuse to follow the Lord. Nor can you say you have faith if you refuse to repent.

We need to understand what each means within the context of what and when they were said. Believing in the context of Acts is more than just intellectual agreement. That belief has a cost attached to it - you can be thrown to the lions for your belief. Biblical 'belief' or faith involves the whole person, it affects your whole view of life and how you live it.

Receiving Him means personally acknowledging Him in all His offices - Prophet, Priest, and King as the reformers put it. What this means is that the sinner must receive Jesus in all His fullness - as his Saviour, as his Teacher, as his Master, as his King. 

Many are taught to receive Jesus as Saviour but ignores the rest of what scripture says. You can't accept part of Jesus and reject the rest. No such salvation is offered in the gospel. You cannot just want the free gift from Jesus without wanting him to be your Master also.  
Imagine a prisoner who wants to receive a pardon from the king but refuses to acknowledge his kingship and continues to rebel against the king. Or imagine yourself living in John the Baptist's day, and going to him and telling him you want to enter the kingdom,  but refuse to repent. John will tell you where to go in no uncertain terms.  
Jesus came to save us from our sinful ways also and not just from our guilt of sin. Jesus must be received as He is - that includes all that He represents.

Following Jesus means following Him as a disciple - doing what He did, teaching what He taught, behaving like how He behaved, loving the things that He loved, and hating the things that He hated.  It is a life of devoted obedience, and obedience to God almost always lead to suffering for Him.  None of that easy say-a-prayer-and-you-are-a-Christian nonsense. Salvation is given free to you, but it is also costly because you have to submit to God and lose yourself and all worldly things that you hold dear.  Matt 10:37 "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me"

So the questions to ask a person are: 

• Have you repented (turned away) from your personal sins?
• Do you believe in Jesus Christ and all that he represents - Saviour, Lord, and King
• Are you following or going to follow Jesus in all aspects of your life i.e. are you a disciple?

If these have been explained to him in detail, and he has said yes to all these, then it is an indication of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. Once he realises the glory of God, and the state he is currently in, he will not hesitate to bow before God for forgiveness. If his response is "I'll think about it", he has not been convicted by the Holy Spirit. The work in his heart may have started, but he is certainly not ready.   You can never tell if any of these is genuine, until sometime later when the fruits start to show.  The real heart of the person will eventually reveal itself.  The Christian life is a life of continuous repentance, continuous faith, and continuous walking with Jesus. Conversion is the start of the journey, not the end.

Remember if he goes through a bible class, and read books, and hear sermons,  he can start talking 'Christian talk' without having been converted. He can be involved in all of the church activities including leading bible studies and even preaching without having experienced the new birth. Their fruits will tell, especially how he behaves away from Christian company or in private. But God has not given us the gift to see into a person's heart, so only time will tell if the conversion is real.  Don't assume a person who knows a lot about the bible or who has got his degree from a bible college is saved. I've come across pastors who do not know the Lord although they preach each week.

Am I teaching a gospel of works here? No, never. We are saved by grace though faith. Where many have gone wrong is to assume that the free gift of eternal life has no pre-requisites. It is a free gift, you can't do anything to earn it. However, you need to approach God in the right manner to receive this gift.  A simple illustration is the two thief on the cross. The gift of eternal life was available to both, but only one received it when he approached Christ in the right manner - in humility and acknowledging who Jesus was. Notice that the other thief did ask Jesus to save him too, but it was done in unbelief, and he went to hell. 

Why are today's churches so worldly and no different from the world? 

Here is the root cause. The unconverted have flooded the churches -  fake shepherds and fake sheep inside all our churches. Thanks to modern day mass market methods of evangelism and the false gospel. And no thanks to unsaved pastors preaching a gospel they have not experienced themselves.

This cartoon from 'The Far Side Gallery' says it all.

I hope God has been gracious to leave a remnant in some of these churches - they usually stand out as non-conformists, rocking the boat, and a threat to the leadership of the institutional church. These tend to be pushed out of the establishment as trouble makers. 

You'll find that many who have left the church are not three eyed monsters but sincere believers wanting to do the right thing. The world has no place for these believers - the world is the institutional church.

Recommended book to read -

'Today's Gospel - authentic or synthetic' by Walter Chantry, Banner of Truth.

Man made traditions in evangelical church

Different denominations have their own traditions or practices that have been there for decades.  'We've always done it this way' says the traditionalist.  But do you find these practices in the early church or in the bible?

The two that have legitimate bible support are baptism and the Lord's Supper.  But there are many that we follow each week that have no biblical basis other than that we have been doing them for years. Many of these are not necessarily bad, but if they become a bone of contention in the church and causes divisions, reduce our focus on doing God's work or do not help us edify one another, then they are a snare.

Here are some:

• Spectator worship services - where the pastor or musicians are on one side (the front), the rest of the church are on the other side, passively 'worshipping'. Why should the worship be led by the musicians or pastor, like they are some paid entertainers?  The seating arrangement in most churches promotes this type of worship and actually reduces participation from the worshippers. Contrast this to a worship service in an African mud hut where everyone jumps in to worship.   

• The pastor ministering to the church each week by his preaching (or at very least, gives the impression that he is ministering to the flock).  Shouldn't the ministering be done by everyone and not left to the professional pastor? Why are the elders and deacons mere spectators instead of ministers?   Why is the pastor assumed to have the role of the preacher?  He may be a good pastor of people, but may be a terrible preacher.  I'm sure you know pastors that are better off not preaching at all.  Some pastors think it is their right to preach, but I don't see where that is taught in the bible. Let those who have been gifted by God do it.

• Order of service - why is the worship of God restricted by an order of service? Sing a few songs, make the announcement, have the communion, listen to the preaching, sing the closing hymn, go home.  If anyone deviates from the norm, he is quickly told to fall back in line.  Yes, I've heard the argument that God wants order. But order that is not backed up by a Spirit of worship is no better than a funeral service. We have lost all the spontaneous worship and simplicity for the sake of order.  Look at how David danced before the Lord - he was intoxicated with the spirit of worship. Order is good, but let's not grief the Holy Spirit by our man made formality.  With the modern worship programme each Sunday, how can a member who wants to share a testimony or a word from God do it? Does he have to make an appointment with the pastor for permission before he is allowed to be led by the Holy Spirit to share?

• Communion - why are the communion elements limited to a little cup and some bread or dry biscuits? The early church had a feast which they shared with one another - real food! (That should bring some people back to church ;-)   Why is communion in some denominations restricted to once a month or twice a year?  Didn't Jesus say to do it as often as we meet together?  But man say, lets protect it from abuse. 

• Offerings. Why are we collecting money in offering bags/plates every week right in the middle of the church service?  Let the people give their money some other time. Or do we not have faith that the people will give their hard earned cash if we don't push it in front of their faces? Where are the churches that depend of prayer to God for their supply instead of the obligatory offering plate? This practice seems to be aimed at making the attendee guilty if he/she doesn't put something in. And then someone has the cheek to say 'if you're a visitor, please let the plate pass'. So if you're not a visitor, we'll make you feel guilty if you don't cough up some of your cash :-0  After all we have a whole lot of expenses to pay - pastor's salary, air-condition, new carpets, musical instruments, etc.

• Songs chosen. Some churches only sing hymns, some only sing choruses.  Why do we restrict each other or criticise other churches who don't do what we do?  How many churches have been divided over this small matter.  Let everyone give God glory in whatever form they are led.