Why Can't I Go to Church?

In our day and time it seems the most common transition into a witnessing scenario is after a conversation has been started with someone to ask them if they "go to church" anywhere. It is an easy and simple enough question that quickly garners an idea of where the person stands spiritually by their response. If they respond, yes I go to "such and such" church, you make a quick calculation about what they believe based on the label or brand of their church. If they say no they most likely give you a reason why without you having to ask. Such reasons might be they work every Sunday, they used to go but they haven't found anyplace they like, or that the church is full of hypocrites. Instantly, we feel we know how to respond back to them now. Typically, we tell them they need a better job so they can have off on Sunday, that they need to try your church because you know they will like it, or you get quiet because you don't know how to defend the people sitting in in the pew. There is a problem with the question we ask and with the response we give to their answer.

First, you can't go to church because you are the church! No where in the New Testament does the word church mean a building. In Acts, the Lord added to the church daily those that would be saved. Buildings don't get saved people do. When the Apostles wrote letters to the Churches at Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippians, they were writing to the people who followed Christ in that city. A building cannot read a letter. You are the church. You may be the church that meets at "such and such building" or be the group of people who themselves by a certain name to identify you in the city from other groups of people meeting in other places but you are still the church.

In our wrong use of the word church, we have created a subliminal flaw in the people. By calling the building church over and over we create a in people a sort of disconnect that relieves them of responsibility and accountability to be the church. It reinforces the spectator mentality that has become too much the norm in our day. When you gather together as the Church where do you meet. The church is a group of called out individuals. We want to always turn ourselves into a building but the command of Jesus was to go into all the world. We are called out of sin and out of every nation and ethnos to be a people of God who go into the world and preach the Gospel, make disciples, teach the commands of Christ, feed the hungry, set loose those that are bound, to literally be the redeeming person and action of Christ to all peoples.

Maybe the next time, after you start a conversation with someone, say did you know I don't go to church anymore? When they look at you funny and ask what you are talking about you can tell them that you are the church and Jesus Christ lives in you to go about doing good. By the way, what can I do for you? Think about it and see if your witnessing needs a radical new approach. And let's not go to church or have church, but let's be the church out in the world.

Starting with a few

What a beautiful sight it must have been on the day of Pentecost when Peter stood up and preached and 3,000 people were saved. Today, we are so easily enamored with preaching to people in large numbers, yet it is not the large numbers that are nearly as important as the individuals we follow up with in small numbers. Jesus dealt with large crowds. So often that he had to slip away to find rest and refreshing. Yet the crucial part of his ministry was the small group of disciples that he poured himself into on a daily basis. Peter, the mass group preacher, was nurtured in an even smaller group of three. Today, we have many preachers who preach to the same large group each Sunday but don't have individual fathering/mentoring relationships outside of the pulpit during the week. The Pastor without individuals in fathering relationships or disciples so to speak produces a church body that is program oriented and not people oriented. Jesus told some fishermen in Matthew 3, "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men". In other words, come spend time with me in a regular relationship and I will pour myself into you, with my expectation being that you will become just like me, a fisher of men. Maybe today, we labor and strain so hard to produce big numbers that we have forgotten the importance and priority of dealing with people in small numbers. Lord, challenge our hearts to see individual faces and lives and not just covet a crowd. Help us to become disciples and disciple makers. Let us rise up as spiritual fathers and really see lives changed and a world won for Christ.

Welcome to Discipleship Path Ministries

The command in the gospels to "go and make disciples" is quite clear. While we want to celebrate true discipleship where we find it, our heart breaks for those who give their life to Christ at a church altar call and shortly thereafter cannot be found. While many churches to a great job of helping new believers activate their new faith, there are too many "stillborn" new births in the kingdom of God. The other side of this coin is the number of believers who have been attending church for 5, 10, even 20 years and are petrified to pray out loud in front of others for simple things like opening a small Bible study. There are people who have been Christians for 20 years and there are people who have been Christians for one year 2o times. It is time to encourage churches to make discipleship the core of the ministry not "one of the programs" available. Sort of like the old Charlie Tuna commercial, I believe the world is looking for churches where lives are being transformed and leave a good taste in our mouth when we interact with them in everyday life, not just for people who wear the label of Christian and look good on Sunday. We look forward to your thoughts and will have more for you soon. God bless.