First, there is the
sin of partial obedience. Urbanites
fear selling out to Jesus and attempt to walk in partial obedience, which is in
reality total disobedience. These
churches do a lot “for” God instead of being in a personal relationship of total
obedience “with” Jesus. Because the
emphasis is in doing, these churches measure spiritual growth by what one does
rather than whom one is in Christ. These
churches become cultish, exercising a “salvation by works” instead of by
faith. These churches commit the sin of
partial obedience, which results in the withheld presence of Christ and leads
to spiritual suicide. In First Samuel
15:12-23, we read: “Early in the morning
Samuel got up and went to meet Saul ….When Samuel reach him, Saul said, ‘The
Lord bless you! I have carried out the
Lord’s instructions’…Samuel said to Saul, ‘Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.’ ‘Tell me,’ Saul replied. Samuel said, ‘Although you were once small in
your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord
anointed you king over Israel. And he
sent you on a mission ….Why did you not obey the Lord?’...’But
I did obey the Lord,’ Saul said ‘I went on the
mission the Lord assigned me….The soldiers took
sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in
order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at
Gilgal.’ But Samuel replied: ‘Does the Lord
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of
the Lord? To
obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of
rams…Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he
has rejected you as king’ (NIV). God does not honor partial obedience. Until churches get real with God and walks in
full obedience, God will withhold his spiritual blessings and the individual
church dies. Churches are committing
suicide through partial obedience, and when the sin is pointed out, like Adam
and Saul, the finger of blame is pointed at others.
Second, there is the
sin of prejudice. You simply cannot
go to heaven with prejudice in your heart. For near twenty years now, I have worked with
people of all races and cultures and have a real heart for multi-cultural
ministry. My good friend, Rev. Dennis
Hall, once asked me what event transformed my life and made me want to be
reconciled with people of other races. I
reflected on his question and came to realize that this is how God works in the
life of every Christian. If we allow God
to do his work, he removes all prejudices and causes us to seek reconciliation
with our brothers and sisters of all races, ethnicities, and cultures.
This is exactly what John is
addressing in First John 2:9-11. “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in
the darkness. Whoever loves his brother
lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the
darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going,
because the darkness has blinded him” (NIV).
If the Church is to ever win this
world it must first seek forgiveness for the prejudice that separates it so
severely on Sunday mornings, lest the multitudes of churchgoers miss heaven
altogether (First John 4:19-20). Churches
are not only segregated by race, culture, and traditions, they are divided by
denominational blindness. I am reminded
of the Presbyterian Church down the street that refused to participate with the
Baptist church I served as pastor. One
of the elders told me they only participated with three other Presbyterian
churches, and that they sure would not participate with a Baptist church. If we have a personal relationship with Jesus,
he will convict us of all prejudice in our lives and lead us to seek forgiveness.
Prejudice knows no racial boundaries and
no race or culture has a monopoly on it.
Prejudice is of this world and not of God. America’s churches have proven this by developing
denominational prejudice, often voiced by mean spirited pastors.
Third is the sin of
personal preference. Urban churches are
dying, not for the lack of people, but because the membership holds onto its
sin of personal preference. Humanities
carnal nature causes people to develop personal preferences with no biblical
basis. We all have them. I prefer a certain style of music, preaching,
and worship and you have your own preferences.
Urban churches, much more than rural churches, must desire to worship
God with people who have dissimilarity preferences and be willing to let go of individual
preferences in order to worship with people of other cultures, ethnicities, and
social status. Is God so limited that he
can only be praised with hymns, southern gospel, or contemporary praise? Is God so small that he cannot hear the litanies,
the benedictions, and the free prayers lifted in a multi-cultural
gathering? Does God require a
traditional organ and piano, or will he accept worship coming from a praise
band with flashing lights and a smoke machine?
God is large enough and creative enough to receive worship from all
cultures and in a multitude of styles and format. God has no preference; he only wants to be
worshipped – truly worshipped. Churches
that do not truly worship God will die, not because God wills it, but because the
church commits spiritual suicide.
Fourth, there is the
sin of “religious capitalism.” In
most churches, there is a desire to reach people to grow the church. The capitalistic mindset seeks to operate the
church by selling religion for self-gains.
Capitalism is only bad when it feeds greed, and greed is the root sin
imbedded in religious capitalism. It is
the exact opposite of what Jesus modeled in his incarnate life. Jesus did not reach people to grow the
synagogue or the denomination. Jesus
reached out to people to meet their need.
While the ultimate human need is spiritual, Jesus loved all people and
met their human need in order to meet their spiritual need. Through meeting the individual’s need, Jesus
touched the spiritual need within the person.
Dying churches, perhaps out of desperation to survive, reverse Jesus’
model at their own spiritual and very real demise. These churches forget that the greatest need
of a person is to have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ; these
churches seek people to “come” to their church and help them grow. The motive is for self-preservation, to bring
money in to pay the power bill, mortgage, and pastor. The need for survival blinds these churches
to the model Jesus lived out, a model of true servanthood. To further complicate the issue, these
churches often accept people into their membership who have already helped to destroy
other churches, ignorantly speeding their own death – by suicide.
Dying churches must look inward to find the answer to their
failure. It is not the fault of society,
of a godless culture, or the changing times.
Churches die because church members allow sin to remain in their lives
and slowly poison the church. Full
repentance is the start of revitalization for dying churches.
