I appreciated your article. I’ve been doing a fair bit of thinking about this over the past several years, and I’ve come up with 7 main issues (though there are probably more!):
1. The way we do church. We need to reassess and reimagine this. Is it a place where believers come to be trained to use their gifts? Is it a place where believers can use their gifts? Or is it primarily a place where believers come to sit and listen and go home?
2. The Gospel we offer. We don’t understand the true Gospel and we’re offering the wrong thing. Also, we see salvation as a one-time prayer rather than a moment-by-moment salvation over the whole of our lives. What is the definition of eternal life? (Jn. 17:3) What is true salvation? (I Pet. 1:9) What are we saved from? (Mt. 1:21) And what does that mean? What is God’s wrath against? (Rom. 1:18) What is the gift of God? (Rom. 5:17) What does it mean to confess Jesus as Lord? (Rom. 10:9-10)
3. The role of the Holy Spirit. We have sidelined the Holy Spirit and not known His power to save. What do we want and need the Holy Spirit to do for us? Have we studied all that He is and all He has promised to do for us? Do we truly need Him – and feel our need of Him?
4. The role of prayer. We pray so little. This is presumption in 2 ways: thinking we can do God’s work without the power of God and thinking God will bless our efforts without spending time wrestling in prayer. How can we build faith? How can we turn from self-reliance to God-dependence? What should we really be praying for?
5. The philosophy of worship. We don’t engage the whole person. We haven’t learned to love God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and all our strength. Are we willing to think through together and discuss and pray over and earnestly seek what this means?
6. The mission to the culture. We don’t engage the culture at the points of need, challenging the issues of our day. I think it was Martin Luther who said, if we don’t confront the culture on the pertinent issues of our time, we are not preaching the Gospel. Do we have a vision for mission and for bringing the Kingdom of God to earth?
7. The lack of true discipleship. We don’t have a strategy for this. What does it mean to disciple the nations? What are all the things that Christ has commanded us? How do we teach those things to believers?
Thanks for writing this article. It was good to read that you are thinking through these things, too.
Rebecca, thank you for your thoughtful response. I am with you in all of this. For me, the first issue is the one that catches my attention the most. I think we have too narrow a view of church. I believe, and I'm sure you agree, that church is not just what we do on Sundays. The Sunday gathering is just an expression of the church. I do think that we could allow more room for people to use their gifts on Sunday, but it's also helpful to remember that Sunday is not the only opportunity for the church to use their gifts. In fact, a lot of the gifts listed in Scripture are easier used outside of a Sunday gathering. Anyway. Maybe this can be the topic of a future post.
Excellent article! I appreciated your thoughtful tone that both encouraged and challenged believers to broaden their view of the purpose for which Jesus established and commissioned His Church. Thanks much, brother. And keep writing!
Thank you for the encouragement, Doug! I definitely want to keep writing. It's a matter of making time to do it. But I started this substack precisely with the goal to write more.
I appreciated your article. I’ve been doing a fair bit of thinking about this over the past several years, and I’ve come up with 7 main issues (though there are probably more!):
1. The way we do church. We need to reassess and reimagine this. Is it a place where believers come to be trained to use their gifts? Is it a place where believers can use their gifts? Or is it primarily a place where believers come to sit and listen and go home?
2. The Gospel we offer. We don’t understand the true Gospel and we’re offering the wrong thing. Also, we see salvation as a one-time prayer rather than a moment-by-moment salvation over the whole of our lives. What is the definition of eternal life? (Jn. 17:3) What is true salvation? (I Pet. 1:9) What are we saved from? (Mt. 1:21) And what does that mean? What is God’s wrath against? (Rom. 1:18) What is the gift of God? (Rom. 5:17) What does it mean to confess Jesus as Lord? (Rom. 10:9-10)
3. The role of the Holy Spirit. We have sidelined the Holy Spirit and not known His power to save. What do we want and need the Holy Spirit to do for us? Have we studied all that He is and all He has promised to do for us? Do we truly need Him – and feel our need of Him?
4. The role of prayer. We pray so little. This is presumption in 2 ways: thinking we can do God’s work without the power of God and thinking God will bless our efforts without spending time wrestling in prayer. How can we build faith? How can we turn from self-reliance to God-dependence? What should we really be praying for?
5. The philosophy of worship. We don’t engage the whole person. We haven’t learned to love God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and all our strength. Are we willing to think through together and discuss and pray over and earnestly seek what this means?
6. The mission to the culture. We don’t engage the culture at the points of need, challenging the issues of our day. I think it was Martin Luther who said, if we don’t confront the culture on the pertinent issues of our time, we are not preaching the Gospel. Do we have a vision for mission and for bringing the Kingdom of God to earth?
7. The lack of true discipleship. We don’t have a strategy for this. What does it mean to disciple the nations? What are all the things that Christ has commanded us? How do we teach those things to believers?
Thanks for writing this article. It was good to read that you are thinking through these things, too.
Rebecca, thank you for your thoughtful response. I am with you in all of this. For me, the first issue is the one that catches my attention the most. I think we have too narrow a view of church. I believe, and I'm sure you agree, that church is not just what we do on Sundays. The Sunday gathering is just an expression of the church. I do think that we could allow more room for people to use their gifts on Sunday, but it's also helpful to remember that Sunday is not the only opportunity for the church to use their gifts. In fact, a lot of the gifts listed in Scripture are easier used outside of a Sunday gathering. Anyway. Maybe this can be the topic of a future post.
Excellent article! I appreciated your thoughtful tone that both encouraged and challenged believers to broaden their view of the purpose for which Jesus established and commissioned His Church. Thanks much, brother. And keep writing!
Thank you for the encouragement, Doug! I definitely want to keep writing. It's a matter of making time to do it. But I started this substack precisely with the goal to write more.