Crazy, huh? Do churches really say that? Yep! They sure do.

I’ve been in some. I’ve even worked in one.

What’s church all about, anyway? Take a poll at work today: “What is church to you?” What surprised me was that most people didn’t have a clue. To hear them describe it, I’d have thought they were describing a club or social organization. “It’s a place I go every Sunday morning;” “It’s where the preacher does his thing;” “All my friends go there;” “Donuts;” “They help people there;” “Committees;” “Great kids’ programs;” “Makes me feel good because God wants me there . . .”

Hmmm . . . could it be that we’ve bastardized the church, cut it off at it’s knees, castrated it? Do we even know what “church” means anymore?

Between 1990 and 2000, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism, as well as several other religions, posted record growth well over 100%, according to a City University of New York study published in American Demographics magazine. Christianity didn’t follow suit; in fact, the number of Americans who call themselves Christian declined by 9% of the population.

The U.S. Center for World Mission estimated in 1997 that Christianity’s total number of adherents is growing at about 2.3% annually. This is approximately equal to the growth rate of the world’s population. Islam is growing faster: about 2.9% and is thus increasing its market share. At this rate, Islam would surpass Christianity as the world’s main religion by 2023.

Most churches today have so many “Christian” activities going on each week that it would kill the average person to engage in them all. These aren’t “evil” activities, but you know the type — to be a “good” Christian, you have to attend three services a week, sing in the choir, work in Sunday School, go on church trips, attend church “fellowships,” tithe, tend to the immediate needs of those around you at church and have a daily “quiet time” (interesting name, I wonder what that means?). “Discipleship” is generally defined as a program, as opposed to a lifestyle.

I believe I’ve heard it referred to as “consumer Christianity.”

Not bad for a social club, but for a church, well, the most graphic response would be, “it sucks!” (can you say that when taking about church?). Church is, well, entertaining, IF you’re into religious entertainment. But, the downside of going to this type of club is THE attitude that seems to make most people who do not go to church or have stopped going to church want to regurgitate their last meal. You know, the holier-than-thou one. The one that says we’re better than you. The one that inclines us to look down our nose at “them” (“them” being defined as someone not like us).

Could it possibly be that Jesus had something else in mind?

Where does the priority to reach the unreached come in? Should we not be adopting a “wartime” lifestyle to evangelize, plant churches and support those who are actively engaged in these things? What would happen if, rather than find new ways to entertain ourselves and have more things to buy, we went from being a consumer in a Christian culture to being a participant in God’s global project?

Ever hear of K.P. Yohannon? If you haven’t, you probably don’t want to. Yohannon has noticed that American Christianity is so entertaining and information-centered that the Christian life has been transformed into an exercise of having more of both of them (entertainment and information). Church is now measuring its effectiveness and growth by the same means that purely worldly and secular entities do. The church pushes entertainment and life improvement. If Jesus doesn’t keep us interested and make us more successful, most of us have little interest in following him.

Drats! I just hate it when I get wound up like that!

I stumbled across this today:
So here’s what I want you to do . . . Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering . . . Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Ponder that . . .