Church?

I'm utterly done with modern churches. I think what we have come to see as a typical modern church today was what probably started out as'seeker sensitive' "churches." What were those seekers actually seeking? Most of these churches, if I didn't see the $12K+ flashing, multi-color, programmable marquis that gave the church's hours and said, "Jesus will be here at 6:30 Wed. night," out front before I went in, I'd never know I was in a "church" at all. Even the ones that can't have all that because they are small and don't have the funds, are trying hard to catch up. They have all the Church Growth Formula books, colored lights, and the right paint colors. Ask me how I know.

They look and feel like clubs. There's no real difference except the whole family goes and there's (usually) no alcohol or drugs... maybe, and they see themselves as morally superior for punching the Sunday timecard again. The music "ministry" is doled out to anyone who has a flair for music or can carry a tune. They have "worship practice" as if there is such a thing, and half the time they get a mic and bloviate on their great spiritual understandings, as if they are fulfilling some kind of great calling, ignoring the fact that they were drafted by a "ministry team leader" who was desperately seeking to fill the menu with the just right items in the first place. The same guy plays secular music in a garage band the rest of the week and think it's cool, man.

Then the peddlers set up their booths to sell coffees and snacks, bottles of water with little Bible related lables slapped on them. They hark Bibles, covers, book marks, pens, highlighters, book lights, shawls, lap blankets, handbags and backpacks, little tins of mints, home decor, you name it; all with cutesty phrases and generally poorly paraphrased scriptures that have been satisfactorally bastardized so as not to offend anyone who is still participating in their prefferred sinful behaviors. All these are printed artfully on their items for a nice virtue display so they can leave it sitting, arranged carefully so as not to look too artificially placed in their seat-- THEIR seat-- before church starts, so no one else can sit in there while they wander around and "fellowship" until the right song plays. These vendors charge about 25-50% more than anyone else would dare try to get away with on the "secular" market.

The people in these "churches" have justified what they're doing, found like minded people with whom they share their weird ideas, excused it all, made it acceptable, until finally making it a requirement to qualify as a good church. The first question people ask when they move into a new community about churches is almost always, "Where is a church with a good kid's program?" or "Where is a church with good music?" It's all about how THEY feel. What can this church give to ME? What about, "Where are they studying God's Word?" Or "Where are the churches that are seeking God's presence?" "Where's the church that is still a light on a hill?"

You can have all that child care/club atmosphere. It may have started out with good intentions back years ago, but the thing's gone off the rails. There was a church in Lake Worth, TX that had a big sign painted right on the wall of their building out front with their church motto on it, that pretty much summed up what's wrong. It said:

"The Church With You In Mind."

Nuff said. I get it.

Now, the pastors think they need more and more accoutriments, then they need more and more money to pay for them, so they hark for more and more butts in the seats, so they have to please more and more people -- or paying customers, as I like to call them. Then they have to keep making more and more excuses as to why they let this crap continue. I guess they must wake up every morning and go down the list as to why this is happening under their noses, and why they should continue doing it. They probably have to override a lot of personal conviction to decide to continue it all again yet another day. They've invested so much time, energy, and money they are unsure how to untangle the web. So few ever jerk the slack out of themselves and see it, and put a stop to it. So very few.

I'm out. I've been out a long time now. How hollow and numbing! Screwtape would be proud. I'll never go back. If I wanted to associate with that trashy lot of Godless, self indulgent meat sacks I might as well go to the real club and get the real buzz from real alcohol. There's a reason they call alcohol "spirits." In the world, it's all faked to replace the Truth: Spirit, soul and body. Now the so-called allure of the godless world is faked by churches to replace the One True God.

This is what I want: 2Cor. 2:17 (Amp) "For we are not, like so many, [like hucksters making a trade of] peddling God's Word [shortchanging and adulterating the divine message]; but like [men] of sincerity {and} the purest motive, as [commissioned and sent] by God, we speak [His message] in Christ (the Messiah), in the [very] sight {and} presence of God."

Be Godly. Be the church. Jesus preached The Kingdom of God and repentance. When you find a church that reflects that, get in it. If they never sing a note, if there's crying babies and fidgetty kids, stay there and contribute. Power up. Reach the lost. Don't settle for entertainment.