Weakened from Within
(given to Frank DeCenso, Jr., 6/29/2008)
The majority of the church has been on a weakening decline for years now. Ideas, that are intrinsically not bad or evil, have crept in. Today we have no shortage of teachers and books about: • how to be good people • how to keep your marriage from falling apart • how to think positively about yourself • how to promote social justice • how to stay financially afloat • how to live a joyful life • etc. Again, those ideas are not bad, but they have supplanted the themes that make the church more of an effective agent of change in the world and with those we encounter: • how to be effective fishers of men • how to effectively pray for the sick • how to effectively intercede for people, leaders, and nations • how to hear the voice of the Father and be led by Him in ministry works • how to be completely devoted to loving Jesus • how to be vessels of holiness, prepared by the Master for good works • how to pray 24/7 • how to effectively fast until God answers, or a burden is lifted • etc. Looking at the life and ministry of Jesus, His disciples, the early church, and those throughout history that have walked in ways of wonder, I have to ask: Whatever happened to sermons on intensive, persistent prayer that doesn’t stop until God intervenes or reveals? Whatever happened to equipping believers to go into the streets or malls or beaches and prophetically walk up to those God is opening the hearts of? Whatever happened to inviting God to come into a church service and waiting until He shows up, in some way? Whatever happened to learning through experience, practice, and the models others have given, about effectively praying for the sick? Whatever happened to the church that can discern the difference between a disease and a demon? Whatever happened to the evidence of power through preaching and proclamation that the disciples were taught and equipped by Jesus to engage in? Whatever happened to believers who properly discerned the need for effective, perhaps groundbreaking and persistent spiritual warfare? I could go on for pages. What happened is that we as a church have been softened, weakened, and ‘lulled to sleep’ by sweet sounding and non-interactive sermons that make us feel warm and cozy. Sermons and teachings that have us believing that living a victorious Christian life means not getting mad in traffic. Ideas that have us looking in mirrors and telling ourselves ‘I am a good person.’ Books that give us steps to living a really nice life.
As Christians, we are here on planet earth to make a difference through partnering with God in acts of love and ministry. Just like the men and women who spend their lives climbing the world’s highest mountains because, as George Mallory said in March 1923, about why he wanted to climb Everest, he replied ‘because its there”, we should be pursuing a life that makes a supernatural difference in our world, because we walk with a supernatural God, and because, ‘we are here.’