The Cure For The Common Church, Pt. 2

Last week I said, “As a body of believers, this statement is what will drive us, motivate us and focus us for the work of the ministry that God has placed before us. All of us are to be equipped as maturing and growing believers so that together we can execute the cure for the common church.

Ephesians 4:11, 12 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ..."

“Equip” = a medical term in Greek to describe the setting of a bone in order for its healing, to bring completion.

All of that was a challenge for all of us as 21st century Christians, to get into action! And you say “Pastor, why are you so passionate about this? What’s the hurry?”

I’m glad you asked that question! Simply put the world as we know it and experience it today, is experiencing a tsunami of change that is spreading across this country – in fact this sweeping sea of change is something that we have never experienced before! The Ozzie and Harriet world of just a few years ago is long gone – if you haven’t noticed!

These are critical days for Christianity and how we respond and react to this sweeping sea of change within our culture, will tell a lot about how Christianity survives in the next 25 years!

Saint - we’ve got to start to learn to surf, if we are going to survive this tsunami of trouble America is experiencing! What do I mean by surf?

Surf = overcoming the waves of change that are impacting our culture because of the undertow that is destroying the lives of young and old!

Psalm 42:7 “Your vicious waves have swept over me like an angry ocean or a raging waterfall.”

Jude 13 “Their shameful deeds show up like foam on wild ocean waves.”

LifePoint: The church is a counter-tow to the under-tow!

3 Tidal Wave Responses – Which Is Yours?

1. “It’s Not Coming!”

Denial! The refusal to see the world from any other perspective than your limited one!

C.W. Orton said, “Denial is persistent make-believe!”

In denial, the common church knows deep inside that they are not on top of their ministry!

FBC cannot lose its:

• Touch - sensitivity to others

• Text - system of belief

• Tenor - speaking voice

2. “I’m Out of Here!”

Yep, it’s a tsunami, I can smell it, see it and I’m out of here! Folks, this is the bunker response, the barrack-building, trench-digging, wall building activity that comes from dreaming about the past and demeaning the future!

Bunker mania is understandable if there was no ammunition, no strategy or no power! The fact is, there’s no safe bunker where the 21st century church can hunker! The falseness of bunkering makes Jesus a Savior from the world, not a Savior to the world!

Leonard Sweet writes, “Gated churches are designed to keep people in and reality out.”

I think the best way to defuse sin and destroy principalities and powers is not in escaping from it all, but rather to master it and disarm them!

3. “Hoist The Sail!”

Surfs up! Our responsibility as the cure to the common church is to hoist the sails and become as effective as possible with all the sea of change that’s coming our way!

I’m not saying to compromise! But our job as Christians it not to join in with the common churches that are saying, “The sky is falling!”, but instead say, “How can we stop the sky from falling!”

We need to stop popping pills, nashing our teeth and waging our tongues over the future and just be salt and light today!

A conservative German Theologian Jürgen Moltman said recently, “The American Christian’s faith is losing its mobilizing power. Primarily because of its failure to realize that we are moving into the future at a high rate of speed. Many abandon Christianity in America because they find in it no power for the future.”

I ask us, “We are anointed, authorized and gifted, why are we so afraid of ministering tomorrow?”

My Three Fold Challenge to FBC

1. “Get Over It”

I don’t like it that Christians are the brunt of new slams and slurs – but I have to get over it!

I don’t like when Adam Parfrey the publisher of Scholastics Books for Public Schools says, “I know a book that I’d like everyone to stop reading, because it spreads strange ideas about life – the Bible. I wish everyone would snatch every Gideon Bible from its hotel and throw it in the trash.”

Hey, Bible toting Christian - deal with it, get over it or get help!