Theology - The Word of God

Today I had an interesting conversation with a 20 year old friend of my daughter's. She was lamenting how bored she was with her church and wanted to know if she could tag along with our family next Sunday. Of course we were thrilled to hear of her interest in our church, but I had to inquire why she was thinking of abandoning her childhood church for something new.

She said that she attended a Lutheran church in her neighborhood and that the congregation "was getting old"! I queried her further and she told me that all of the stuff that her pastor talked about was boring and she wasn't getting anything out of it. I asked her what he typically preached about. She said that it was mostly platitudes about being good and helping others. I asked her if he ever preached out of the Bible and she replied, "Well, he may use a Bible verse somewhere in his sermon, but generally no."

Holy cow! How can that be? What on earth would a good pastor use to preach on other than the Bible? It seems that this story is being repeated more and more these days. Many mainline denominations are slowly shrivelling up and "getting old". I will make this bold assertion. The Word of God is not being preached in many of the churches in our country. I have had the opportunity recently to visit several large churches and a few smaller ones, as part of my training with the Training Center at East Valley Bible in Gilbert, Arizona. It's pretty amazing. There seems to be two directions that these churches seem to be headed.

First, there's the mega-church. They can really fill the building up. It is really a testament to the felt needs that people have. Without being rude, the sermons that were preached in those big places were "sermonettes for christianettes". They did mention the Bible, but for the most part, it could have been an EST meeting from the '70s or a giant rally for some political cause. It got everyone on their feet and and evoked plenty of amens, but the message was puerile. It was incredibly entertaining and the crowd left satisfied that they had heard a great message. Did they?

The other path that some of the churches that I have visited are taking is the "avoid the Bible and anything convicting, because our church has lost so many members" route. This seems to be the path of many mainline denominations. Most of the folks that attend are people that have a "mid-western" mentality. In other words, they go to church there, because they've always gone to church there. The pastors here seem to be attempting to run some sort of a Lions, Elks or Rotary club, except for the cross prominently, (or sometimes not so prominently), displayed up front. These poor fellows don't have the charisma of the super-pastors that lead the mega-churches, so they are left with the more mature congregations that necessarily shrink with age.

Why is this happening? I believe that the church will always be a force in the community. Look at the Acts church. Acts 5:13 But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. This passage comes right on the heels of the untimely deaths of Ananias and Sapphira. They were confronted with the truth of their sin and were dropped in their tracks by God himself. Interestingly, though the local community didn't want to have anything to do with them, they were respected and held in high esteem.

So why is the modern church so maligned? I submit that God's church is still out there doing it's work and is respected in those quarters that it exists, but for the most part, at least in America, it doesn't exist! God's word is not preached. Sound doctrine has been replaced with programs and video entertainment.

Look at how the word of God is supposed to be preached in our churches. Ezra himself saw it this way: Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel. First, he studied the Word in order to PRACTICE it! Isn't that a novel idea? How many of the our modern day churches have blown up because the pastor was involved in some less than honorable activity and through his sin, the entire church was given a black eye? Next Ezra preched the Word! Another novel idea. Think about it. In those days, the people would travel from miles around and plan to spend the day, sometimes in the hot sun, listening to the teaching from the first five books of the Bible! When Ezra read the law, it wasn't as a prop to make a point for some inane story. Nehemiah 8:8 says it this way, "They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading."

Ezra preached as an expositor. He went to the Word and was a facilitator rather than a story teller. Now with all due respect, I don't have anything against a good story from the pulpit, but when that becomes the backbone of the worship service, something is wrong.

I invited my daughter's friend to church with us next Sunday. In spite of the expository teaching and the direct and challenging manner that our pastor delivers the Word, our church, in spite of ourselves, has grown to over 800 in three years. In spite, I say, because he teaches on such controversial subjects as men's role in the family, women's role in the family, God's predestination and election of some to salvation, sharing the Gospel with our neighbors as the primary duty of our lives, etc. We never take up a "collection", very rarely talk about money and we are 25% over budget. I wonder what is going on?

His servant,

D. L. Culiver