Sodom & Gomorrah Pt. 1: A Byword For Depravity Series

“The Church is here for one reason just as Jesus was, and why the Holy Spirit was sent, to glorify God in Christ Jesus, and show His glory. John Piper says it well: “This is our final destiny. Beholding the glory of Jesus, we will shine with the beauty and love that he has. The church he promised to build will find its final destiny in reflecting to one another the glory of Jesus, so that our enjoyment of him will be all the greater because of the manifold manifestations of it in the shining members.”

Now I see us doing all of these things to some degree, and I bet if we met together everyday in the way mentioned in Acts we would be doing it all the time. Over time though the church has started meeting less and less. In many of our lifetimes, the church may not have met everyday, but many of you can remember having church services twice on Sundays, and at least once during the week. Three times as much as now.

Lloyd was telling me that when he was in Haiti, people would be going to church at 4 in the morning for a morning service everyday. But of course they’re poor and have nothing better to do.

So I got to thinking, what has replaced church in Christian’s lives over the centuries? If we look at Scripture the two major factors that Jesus talks about getting in the way of following Him are money and the things it can buy, and pleasure, including the sexual pleasure that was rampant in Sodom and Gomorrah. Basically self-gratification.

Do we work harder than people did 50 years ago? I don’t think so. Are there more family obligations than there were 50 years ago? Well families are more scattered now, they don’t do as much together, but typically families were much larger back then, but church was a family affair.

There are only two things I can think of that have legitimately gotten in the way of more church, economics (money) the need to work more, and more desirable alternatives, namely media, like TV, movies, video games, internet, and sports.

Kids and adults played sports back then, people had meetings, people worked two jobs. The difference was what they did in their spare time. Churchgoers today generally don’t know the Bible as well as they used to, some of that is because they don’t read it at home. Some of it’s because they are not getting taught as much. The church can offer stuff but it doesn’t mean people come.

Our church in Mission had a Wednesday night prayer time. In a church of about three hundred, a good night would see 15-20 people, so about 7% of the Sunday attenders. Here we have a prayer night every Wednesday, and we average about 5 or 6 people, again that would be about 7%. Both groups had very few younger people.

Now I am not trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone. Hey I spent thirty-five years doing my own thing. But I’m just trying to understand what has happened to the church, and is there a way we can reverse some of what has happened?

Now here’s where the dreamer comes in. I’ve only talked to one other person about this, and they think I’m crazy. But I am willing to put on two or even three church services each week. Our regular Sunday morning and one or two others where we would just sing together without a set schedule or praise team, pray together, I would give a short message from the Bible, we could read it together. No need for organization, ushers, bulletins for each service.