Looking around at our culture, it’s easy to ask, “What’s wrong with this world?” As we observe all the evil and immorality surrounding us, perhaps a better question is, “What’s wrong with the church?” How did we get from “One Nation under God” to a fractured nation where everyone does what seems right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25; Proverbs 21:2; Romans 8:5)?
While we are eager to lay the blame at the feet of Satan, those of us who have fallen for his deceptions bear equal blame. We are the ones who let the devil into the church. We are the ones who thought a little compromise would work a great eternal glory. The world is crumbling because the church is crumbling. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do (Psalm 11:2)?
What’s wrong with the church? For decades, the church has been working overtime to incorporate the trends of the world into the way it operates and worships. The intentions were to attract more unbelievers so more might come to know Christ. While this sounds noble, it misses the point of the church entirely. The church is for the building up and training of believers so they might fulfil the great commission and go out into all the world proclaiming the Gospel of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20). Somewhere we lost sight of the purpose of the church and the results have been catastrophic.
Having lost its mission, the church began panicking over flagging attendance and weakening influence. Instead of turning to God and repenting, we instead dove into the methods and strategies of the secular business world. Instead of pastors, churches now have CEOs and other executives. Multiple campuses and sprawling organizational charts necessitated the need to add Human Resource and Information Technology departments. Soon, there wasn’t much difference between going to a secular job or working 9-5 at your local church.
Looking at the model of the early church, we see a body of believers who gathered regularly to share food while they searched the scriptures together (Acts 4:32-36; Acts 2:46; Acts 17:11). They cared for the poor, sick, and elderly with great compassion and sacrifice. The early church wasn’t trying to attract the world. Their focus was on shining as a light in the darkness of the world. If it weren’t so tragic, it would be laughable to even consider the budget of the early church compared to the multimillion-dollar budgets of today’s monolithic organizations.
What’s wrong with the church is we’ve lost our mission. We’ve abandoned our first love, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Revelation 2:4-5). Material blessings have made us fat and lazy (Revelation 3:14-22). Instead of adhering to the hard truths of God’s Word, we cling to teaching that makes us feel good (Revelation 2:14-16; 2 Timothy 4:3-4). We are weak and ineffective because we no longer seek the God of the Bible but worship at the altar of culture and society. We’ve exchanged the authority of God’s Word for the wisdom of man. What’s wrong with the church is we no longer recognize Jesus as Lord because the sacrifice is too great. If we don’t wake up and return the fear and glory of God to our churches, we will have to face the King and explain why His sacrifice is not worthy of our own.