Podcast Episode #454
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Is your church aligned with God’s intended mission for her? A post by Sam Rainer serves as the basis of today’s discussion on warning signs that you might be drifting from God’s mission.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- You may recognize some of these warning signs in your church.
- Do people in your church talk about what they are doing or what God is doing through them?
- Too many of our churches are not in a celebratory state.
- It’s taking more people to reach fewer people evangelistically.
The eight warning signs we discuss are:
- The chatter is all about people and not Jesus.
- You no longer celebrate God’s mission in a worship service.
- The percentage given to missions out of the budget is shrinking.
- Church leaders do not speak about the lostness of the nations.
- New believers are perceived as disturbing the peace of the body.
- There is more of a focus on the older generation than the younger generation.
- Few care about the persecuted church.
- It takes more to win less.
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Feedback
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Resources Mentioned in Today’s Podcast
Hey Thom, Found the article interesting. I don’t understand the second point: “You no longer celebrate God’s mission in a worship service.” Could you expand upon that point.
Thanks,
Jesus’ mission to the church was revealed to us through the Apostle Paul. This mission is two fold; save the lost and grow the saved. It’s not one or the other. You’ve got to have both to have a healthy church.
I am sure this statement will not go over well with many, but I fear the modern church is becoming more like the world in order to attract the world. In the process of attracting the world it seems the message is being shaped to so as not to offend the world. For example, it is not uncommon to see the word “repent” seldom if ever used in sermons. I believe we will all agree, if there is no true repentance, there will be no true conversion. It seems to me that the emphasis revolves around getting a crowd, not that crowds are bad, but the emphasis should be on PREACHING THE WORD and not on unoffensive, humorous, entertaining messages that only tickle the ears. Sorry for beating a dead horse here, but this is such an important matter, that I feel, must be emphasized. I believe the following statement will prove true in time, “The more like the world the church becomes, the less influence the church will have over the world.”
It is a delicate balance isn’t it? We must be faithful to preach the whole counsel of God,while presenting it in a manner that effectively reaches the human heart.
Personally,I think the gospel is offensive to the world, always has been. Thankfully,our job is to proclaim,the rest is not up to us.
I would add prayer becomes primarily health and comfort based. All prayer requests are about blessing surgeries and keeping us safe on vacation.
Congregational prayer meetings are ignored. The mindset is, “We pray during Sunday service, so we do not need to meet to pray at other times.”
Repentance does not happen, no one wants to talk about their sins. Sin is something the people out in the World do, we don’t struggle here in the church.
Discipline does not happen. Sin is ignored so church goers don’t get upset.
Evangelism is thought to be, “I invite folks to come to church.” Personally telling people about Jesus is not done on a regular basis by members.