When A Church Makes God Sick Series

Buildings that once housed vibrant congregations, though they are now dead, dot the landscape. I moved to Canada in part as result of witnessing the dearth of congregations in multiple prairie towns. In the summer of 1979, a man drove me to meetings in a number of communities throughout one prairie province. In community-after-community I met with people gathered for Bible study in private homes because there was no longer a congregation in their community. The churches had ceased to exist, the denominations that had once underwritten the ministries of churches were no longer able or willing to expend money or energy to maintain a presence in those communities; and yet, there were people eager to hear the Word of God in these towns, people willing to be taught, if only someone would open the Word to them.

What people in these communities would not support was the stench of death that arose when preachers sounded an uncertain voice concerning religion. No one wants to go into a church where the preacher has a tepid message that fails to either inform or motivate. You know the type: “‘Doctor Sneezedust says…’ ‘But Doctor Rotbrain says…’ ‘You can believe either way, it doesn’t make any difference.’” I know preachers who tell their congregations when preaching on eschatological themes, “I’m a pan-millennialist; I hope it’ll all pan out in the end.” Tell me what the Word says! Tell me how you approach the Word! Don’t dip a toe into the water to see if it is sufficiently tepid to conform to your lack of enthusiasm or knowledge!

Tepid faith, a lukewarm congregation, defines far too much of contemporary Christendom. Evangelical churches remain silent as dead congregations promote the most abhorrent acts in the Name of the Holy Son of God. Tragically, much of Christendom has forgotten who they are and who they represent. I recently read of a multi-faith gathering to bless a new abortuary. The meeting was to include “interfaith blessings, prayers and testimonies about receiving and providing abortion care.” Of course, there will be a reception to follow. [2]

This won’t be the first time religious observers have blessed such abattoirs. In 2015, over a dozen rabbis and ministers came together in Cleveland to bless the Preterm clinic. At the beginning of 2017, a Washington, DC Planned Parenthood clinic got the ecclesiastical endorsement from twenty-something religious leaders. The CEO of that “clinic” gleefully noted, “This confirms the sacredness of the work we do.” [3] Really?

Dr. Willie Parker professes to be a Christian who was led into his work of aborting the unborn through hearing a sermon on the Good Samaritan. Chelsea Clinton claimed that a reversal of Roe verses Wade would be “unchristian.” [4] A Texas abortion facility advises black women to abort their children, using the language of faith to promote their illogical appeal. [5] I must admit that dead churches have a strange way of blessing places and actions. Since when is it right to gather to laud the “good and godly decisions” [6] to take a life.