A Church Satisfied With Being a Church

Have you noticed that nowadays churches seem to be about everything but being churches? Let’s see …

We have so called churches with gymnasiums, swimming pools, restaurants, bowling alleys, day care, schools, gift shops, etc. in them.

We have churches preoccupied with teaching everything from yoga to belly dancing. Here in Wichita we had a fellow trying to start a church inside of a strip club… with other local preachers trying to justify said behavior.

Where Did Church Buildings Come From?

In recent years I have continued to run into folks that have believed it was somehow more spiritual to worship God at home alone, or in small groups etc. Each time it seems the persons are coming from a different direction but to the same conclusion that the practice of gathering together in a public building as a congregation of God’s people was somehow inferior to a private, or hidden worship.

They are generally pursuing intimacy and fear losing it.

By way of contrast I have also continued to run into folks that believe that the building was “nothing” and therefore you can do anything with said building that you wish. They have thereby wrapped Jesus’ name around everything from country music shows to strip dancing. Yes… here in Wichita a group recently tried to mingle the worship of God with a strip club!

Locally we are trying to raise enough for a down payment and to find financing to buy our first building… so we have been discussing every aspect of this question for the last year.

Here is some of the rationale often given to dismiss church buildings;

• Organized religion is corrupt. (No one can deny that some, if not most, of it is!)
• Constantine founded modern Christianity in the 300’s AD. (Not true…)
• Church buildings were not used until after Constantine’s edict of Milan in 313AD. (this is a blatant misrepresentation of history!)
• In the first century the church was composed of “house churches.” (Some were in homes… only some… not all or even most.)
• If a local church owns a building, then its work ends up centering on the building rather than saving souls etc. (This can and often does happen. This argument is like saying ‘since some marriages fall apart we should do away with marriage.’ Simply put, it is clearly an over-reaction.)

Will Your Kids Go To Heaven?

Do you want to have a successful Christian home?

"You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)

Do you want your kids to go to heaven?
Do you want your family/marriage/home to be solid?
If you answered yes….. The next question in front of you is:
“Should you choose a liberal or conservative church?” 

Which path gives you the best hope of building a strong family that will lead to your children choosing to be Christians? Today it is common for kids to be raised in a church only to hit teenage years and turn away from the “faith of their fathers!”  Many do not realize that it doesn’t have to be that way… and it is not that way among us.

Our families stay together and our kids become Christians.… Want to know more?

What Denomination Are You?

“If {anyone suffers} as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.” (I Peter 4:16)

We are simply Christians: no more, no less. That’s what Jesus wants us to be.  Wouldn’t you agree?  Have you noticed that churches seem to have a hard time deciding to be content to be just churches? Christians need to be content to be Christians and churches need to be content to be churches.  What does the Bible actually teach us?

Most are unaware that the modern series of divisions that we call denominationalism is actually addressed (in principle) by the Bible.  “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.”  (I Corinthians 1:10)

Come With Us

Come with us and we will do you good for the Lord has promised! A Christian’s offer from 1700 BC? (Numbers 10:28-36)

Since we started a new congregation back in October… we have been going about the countryside and making this kind of an offer to various folks all around us.

“Come with us and help us start a new congregation. We offer you a once in a life time opportunity to step out of the shadows and do something, be someone special!”

Or perhaps, “You can go on doing what you have always done and when your life is done… you will have done what everyone else has… But you could choose to come out and do something special! You could help to place the name of Christ where it has never been!”

We have worded this offer in various ways but it has come down to a special opportunity to start a new work where you are important rather than just being a nameless number in a multitude.

If you worship God among hundreds or even thousands… what will your impact be? Where can you do the most good? Where will your children learn the greatest lessons on their need to take up the yoke of the Lord Jesus? Even your children have a chance to be on the front lines for Jesus!

We make this offer to you… Jesus knows you but we’d like to! 

Jesus will always do you good… Now we’d like to! 

Today’s article is based on very similar ancient offer given by Moses to his father in-law Hobab (a.k.a. Jethro) and some of Hobab’s extended family. It is the kind of offer that a Christian or a church should regularly give today. We’ll look at this virtually unknown offer… made long ago to a family outside of Judaism.

Should Churches Worship Money?

Wherefore Come out from among them, and be ye separate...

"For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Timothy 6:10)

Did you ever begin wondering if “going to church” was about raising money?  In some churches there is a constant drive for the raising of money.  There's a collection for this project. There's a collection for the missionaries in some far away land.  There's a collection for the missionaries in some other far away land.

 Once in Florida I was studying with a neighbor who asked me about our attitude toward money.  It seemed like a strange question.  Well, come to find out, he had gone to church with his wife. . .   (the man considered himself an unbeliever).  During the service they had taken up a collection for the building fund.  To make a long story short, they didn’t get enough money.  The preacher ordered the doors to be locked, with the admonition that “no one is to leave the room!”  They passed the plate a total of three times.

Amongst so many of today’s churches, if you finally make it through all the contributions, then they start up with the fundraisers.  They have garage sales, auctions, cookies, donuts, chili feeds etc. A few years back a law office sent me a letter promising us a large contribution if our young people would be sent out to deliver neighborhood fliers promoting his law firm!