Check Up For The Church - Ministry/Fellowship – The Physiology Of The Local Church

Human Physiology is the science of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of normal humans, their organs, and the cells of which they are composed.

Anatomy and physiology are closely related fields of study. Anatomy is the study of form, and physiology is the study of the function of the human body.

Today in our third installment of our series called Check Up for the Church, we will be looking at the physiology or the function of the local church assembly of the Body of Christ.

What are we seeing today? Examination

There is some debate as to whether technology has given us more time or robbed us of time. Today people seem to be busier than ever before.

An article on cbsnews.com testifies that this “busyness” has opened up a market of services where people can hire others to help them with some of the most mundane tasks imaginable.

Lloyd Garver writes, “In today's busy world, there are people who do all kinds of things for others that everybody used to do for themselves. There is a phrase that we hear more and more these days: "I have a guy who does that for me." I'm not just talking about people who will mow your lawn or shovel your snow or do your taxes. Today, you can hire someone who will organize your closets, or stand in line for you at the bank, or choose an anniversary gift for your spouse, or play catch with your kid while you watch TV.”

Garver writes, “Recently, I learned about another "Don't Do It Yourself" service: in the Philippines, if you're too busy to pray, you can hire somebody to do it for you.”

Not only are people busy, they are overwhelmed. Sociologists use a couple of different terms to describe what causes people to feel as if they are weighed down by the circumstances of life:

Saturation – In the lives of many there is too much. There are too many things to do. You are told you must watch your cholesterol; monitor your blood-glucose; avoid eating certain foods; get your exercise.

The other day an Associated Press report stated “Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police.” And the sentence that immediately followed said, “An FBI spokesman said, "Parents and children have nothing to fear."”

Our lives are saturated. You’ve got to raise your kids; help them with their homework; attend their sporting events; study material from your job; familiarize yourself with this process; go to this seminar; attend this meeting; check up on family members; do church ministry. Someone said, “Makes you want to jump off the world.” The lives of many feel saturated.

Then there is a second term sociologists use is: Amplification – This term refers to problems that were before considered “small problems;” they are now amplified. The proportion or scale of things is much bigger. Molehills are now mountains. The Arab proverb, “the straw that broke the camel’s back” does so frequently. “That last straw” is just too much to bear. The last nerve is picked and people are going postal over the little things—“I shot him because he looked at me the wrong way.”

Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock uses the term “information overload” to describe too much information and an inability to grasp it. Someone has coined the term data asphyxiation. David Lewis of the International Stress Management Association originated the phrase "information fatigue syndrome." This barrage of data to which we are constantly exposed, carries a cost, both physically and mentally.

We also live in a consumer-driven society. It is buy, buy, buy and if you have no money it is charge, charge, charge. Most people are as the commercial says, “in debt up to their eyeballs.”

Have you ever overheard a conversation between two or three women about there they shop for groceries?

“Yeah girl! Safeway has the best deals! They have the reddest meat and NY Strip Steak is on sale the weekend for only $7.95 a pound!”

“You may like Safeway but I like Shoppers—they are the best market around. They have the cleanest stores and I know my way around. If you need some help just ask any of the employees are more than glad to serve you with a smile.”

“But Safeway has a Starbucks in it! I always got to have my Café Mocha while I shop.”

Today this kind of consumerism has invaded the church. Many of us have heard conversations like this:

“Girlfriend, my church, Mt. Pleasantness has a choir that can sing . This week they are in revival all week long with a preacher that’s come all the way from Texas.”

Her friend says, “But you ain’t heard a mass choir until you’ve been at New Promise Church”