The Counterfeit Church – The Found Ones
I’m sitting on a plane headed back to Fort Lauderdale right now remembering the fresh conversation in my mind that I just had with an elderly gentleman about church and all the churches he’s attended, or been involved in, the problems over the years, complaints and things that he wouldn’t trade for the world. I sit and think about over the past 50 years how much church has changed, especially here in America. Can’t help but ask, is this what God intended for our church to look like? I mean, if God really is who He says He is, and how truly incredible He must be, and there’s a special house that’s His that I’m welcome to go to and hear all about Him, to encourage me and lift me out of my mess, and actually have the opportunity to KNOW Him and who He is…? And He actually knows me? And loves me?... And… I dread waking up on Sunday morning… Why? Where did we go wrong? What questions are we not asking because we’re afraid of the answers?
I walk in through the front, tall glass doors to a smiling face
Someone who shakes my hand and hands me a bulletin of all the upcoming events
and it says who is teaching that day and maybe even a “fill-in-the-blanks” on the reverse side.
I fold it up because I honestly don’t care.
I quickly scope out the room, seeing if there’s anyone I know
scanning my brain violently to remember the names of those I’ve met a thousand times before
people just not big enough in my life to let them make a difference.
I break in through more doors into the sanctuary and frantically look for “my seat”…
the place where I always sit because that’s where I “hear God the best”
that’s where “I can worship the best”.
After the opening song and a quick greeting from the worship leader or a random pastor,
I get to “meet” someone new… again.
More worship from people I secretly judge
because I see their facebook pages and see the stuff they do from Monday through Saturday,
makes worship tough and seem superficial.
Songs of lies.
Then the message… Make sure not to step on my toes preacher man.
In fact, give me some “feel good” stuff that I can take home so I can sleep good tonight
because Sunday is about me.
I need my "forgiveness tank" filled up again too.
God knows I need that...
I accidentally notice shortly after church that the worship leader
gave a cold remark to one of the other band members,
and at that point it’s quite clear that the worship leader
is VERY confident in his abilities and what he believes in
even if it’s not exactly what the church believes
and he doesn’t like a few of the other members.
I could almost feel the tension between the worship team members as they were walking out.
Wonder if that effects anyone trying to worship?
Isn’t someone who has a bitter heart leading worship kind of an oxy-moron?
It became clear to me at that point that the church really depended
on the worship leader for many things to run smoothly Sunday morning
and they had decided that they were “ok” if there were
some SERIOUS issues with the core of who he was
because in this modern day church, Pastors are
reluctant to press discipleship into the leaders
because most people in the church aren’t interested in discipleship.
They just want to be able to lay their head on the pillow at night
and “feel good” about what they’re doing.
So if the Pastor or the accountability person pushes them to look at themselves
or to look at their junk, they’ll bail.
They’re out.
Not interested in discipleship
in change
in the God outside of the box they’ve built around Him.
So it’s just safer for the Pastor NOT to say anything
to the cocky worship leader who KNOWS the service leans on him
otherwise the Sunday morning will fall to pieces.
And he’s made it clear he’s not gonna change
but rather things are gonna go his way.
And trust me
there are plenty of churches out there who WON’T ask the touch questions
so we’re pretty sure he’s not afraid to bail.
So let’s just turn a blind eye to some of the things he does
some of the way he treats other leaders
and how he leads,
and so that way we know Sunday will go smoothly...
So let’s join this church
plan to do a bunch of Outreaches and “reach this city”
because they need Jesus…
Let’s “get them in the doors” and get them saved!!
We’re not really interested in revealing our own junk really,
because we’re leaders
and staff
and members of church
we don’t really deal with junk.
In fact most of us don’t really have junk.
The people out in the city are our primary concern
because they are the lost ones.
We are the found ones
why would we need to deal with us anymore?
We’re found, right?
And that’s the purpose, right?
[Matt 28]
Discipleship is kind of a lost cause anyways
it’s too complicated
gets messy.
We’re here to “seek and save those who are lost”…
Guess we haven’t really asked what we do now that we're the found ones...
guess we seek and save more, right?
We’re not really interested in our own anyways
just give us a small vial of Jesus
a quick shot in the arm once a week
kind of a “feel good shot” to keep us coming back
so we can forget the pain in our lives
sleep good at night.
Kinda sounds like heroin…
"Need my Jesus!"
"Really need to go to church this Sunday!"
Oh don’t worry new visitor
it won’t hurt too bad.
We’re not gonna go to deep
just a quick shot in the arm
the pain disappears for a bit
and you’re right back to your life.
We’re not gonna ask you to change anything
come just as you are.
Join a small group
become a greeter
get involved.
In fact, you don’t have to change a thing about your “private” life either
you know… even the things you put on Facebook.
No one will ask because God takes you as you are
and besides you’d fit right in.
Just look at the worship leader…
Just give us some money
put on a smile
shake a hand
maybe even a hug
and ask your friends to come too
cause I’m sure they’re hurting too…
Is there a part of this day that God actually intended? Is He really the reason we do things? Is He really our motivation? Just because we do things in the name of God doesn’t mean He actually has anything to do with it… When the rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked how to get to heaven, Jesus told him all the things he was already doing, and he KNEW this. If in his heart he would have been satisfied with “doing” all these things in God’s name then he never would have asked. Jesus simply said, “you lack…” Discipleship. He didn’t want to look at himself. All he wanted to do was to “do things” and put the “God” stamp of approval on it so he could feel good at the end of the day. When are we gonna stop “doing” things for God, doing things in church with the “God” stamp on it and start looking at ourselves? When are we gonna go deep? When is the church gonna offer a not a shot in the arm, but rather open heart surgery…? We don’t need a shot in the arm, we need a change of heart.
