On
any given Sunday, the routine is the same:
He gets up out of bed early, makes his coffee, and sits down desperately
trying to hear a word from the Lord. He
knows that soon he will have to break away from this relentless pursuit to get
ready to go to work. Go to work! When did it become just a job? When was it just a means to meet the needs of
his family? It didn’t start out this
like this. When he was a young man, his
heart burned within him to preach the Word of God. He was convinced that even if the past
generations had not completely reached the masses, he had such a special
anointing from God that he would
reach them! God had chosen him to speak the eternal truths of
heaven. He felt it! God was going to use him to bring about a
revival. He had often fantasized about
it, and how it would all play out. Yes,
other churches were ritualistic, cold and even dead; but not his church! They would burn with a passion for Jesus and
operate with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Then it happened! A church was
available, he went and preached, he and his young wife prayed, and God gave him
his church. He couldn’t believe it! It was actually beginning to take form, just
as he had imagined. The first Sunday came,
and the people were kind to him and patient, yes, very patient. However, six years into his new pastorate,
and he was still waiting for revival.
He’s still waiting for some type of indication that the religious
traditions and “churchy” events would
metamorphosis into something real, something tangible, and something powerful,
but it never happened! He needed a
change! Perhaps, as the Bible says, he
was just the one who was to plant the
seed and someone else was to water
it. Yes, that must be it! So, he petitioned those over him in the Lord,
and he resigned his church and took another one hundreds of miles away.
This
was a new phase in his life and ministry; surely this would be the church where
he would tap into the passion of his original call. His wife was unhappy with him, because now
she was farther away from her Mother and Father and the rest of her
family. They didn’t know anybody in this
strange new city. However, four years
later, and still no great revivals! The
process begins again, and now after 21 years in ministry and five different
churches, in five different cities, the passion has died. Drudgery has taken the place of passion and
joy, and just being able to meet his mortgage payment on any given month, is
victory enough. Now, here he sits, early
on Sunday Morning, trying to hear
from God! But,…. Nothing! How he wishes there
was some way, some means, which he could support his family and leave the
ministry. He often fantasizes about
meeting someone who recognizes his natural abilities and offers him a wonderful
paying job. Oh, he would still go to
church, of course! But he would do
whatever ministry he could do, from the safety of the security of stable income
and a time clock that actually turns off at the end of the day.
Time
to go! The people are expecting him, the
pastor, to give them some fresh new word from the Lord! Not that it matters he thinks, they won’t do anything with it! So, he gets out an old sermon he preached
three years ago, gives it a new title, revamps it a little and gets dressed to
deliver “God’s Word.” As he leaves for
church, he can’t help but wondering, “Where’s the power?”
|
This scene would seem silly if it wasn't being lived and played out all over America every week! Pastors who started out with passion are now
apathetic as they week after week, simply try to survive. In fact according to
recent polls, the pastoral ministry is quickly becoming an “endangered
species.” Consider the following
statistics, gathered from the web site “Life Line for Pastors.”
What do these alarming statistics show us? The pastoral ministry is in trouble! Not only is it in trouble, but these
statistics show us two additional problems that is just as alarming. First, when the “heads” of the local Christian congregations are feeling so empty
and devoid of passion, what is their preaching and teaching of the Word of God
like? It’s a relatively simple
concept: “If the gas tank is empty, the car isn’t going to move!” Perhaps there is a direct correlation between
the “emptiness” of the pastoral
ministry and the ineffectiveness of
the American Christian church. If the
pastors of our local fellowships don’t have anything to “give,” then the members of our local fellowships are receiving nothing of spiritual depth and
spirituality. The members are not
challenged, because their pastor’s aren’t challenged.
Secondly, these statistics show us something as
equally alarming as the previously mentioned two issues. This issue can be summed up in a question, in
fact the question of this book. “Where
is the power?” Simply put, if the
pastor’s of local congregations are feeling burnt out and looking for an “exit”
door, then how powerful can their church’s ministry be? Since the Christian Church’s ministry is
constantly involved in “power-encounters” with the flesh, the world, and most
importantly, the enemy’s kingdom, without power, there can be very little
effectiveness. NO-POWER = NO-EFFECT! And given the fact that most of our churches in
America have many empty pews, and given the fact that many “outside” the church
view those of us inside the church as out of touch and ineffective, then we are
DESPERATELY in need of power! We are in need of the power that was intended
to be the “norm” for the Church of
Jesus Christ. However, looking at the
emptiness and ineffectiveness of the Church in America as a whole, one is
prompted to ask: “Where is the power?”
Recently I have begun a kind of new hobby. Nothing really exciting, but nonetheless, it
has been kind of interesting and certainly quite telltale of what the Church of
our Lord is busy doing, and more importantly, what we are NOT doing. I have begun reading church “signs” and
advertisements in newspapers and bulletin boards. WOW!
What an education I have received in this little fascination of
mine! Most of the advertisements for the
local churches around me are usually about:
Church dinners, rummage sales, music concerts, community awareness
activities, special guest speakers (brought in to keep those who are already in
the church, “pumped-up” and “plugged-into” the church!), etc. Now, while there is nothing intrinsically
wrong with any of these things, I have yet to see a sign advertising for
community wide church repentance, or praying for healing over the things that
divide the church, or a meeting to focus on unity and what we have in common
(Jesus) and ignoring what we differ on.
Nope, not one sign like that! Many
churches, who have been strategically placed within our cities, are doing
absolutely NOTHING in encountering the strong-holds of the enemy within those communities! And the very saddening thing is, that if
those churches DID finally encounter those true spiritual strongholds, there’s
a very good chance they wouldn’t know WHAT to do, or have the POWER to do it
with! Now, this is not a “rant” against
the church, there are enough within the world who are doing that! Rather, this is an attempt at helping us
within the church to see that we have a “Power Problem!”
This fact came to bear very strongly upon me a few
years ago. At that time, I felt a strong
burden to have our church contact the area Christian churches within a 5-mile
radius of our church. We wrote a letter
informing them that they were not alone, we were praying for them, and we were
asking God to give them souls for their labor.
Basically, we were encouraging our Brothers and Sisters in the Lord
within the perimeter we had established.
The first thing that shocked me was the fact that a lady in our church
who works with demographics, determined that there were 256 Christian churches
within a 5-mile radius of our church!
Are you hearing what I am saying?
Two hundred and fifty six churches besides our church, within a 5-mile
radius in Knoxville Tennessee!
The second thing that was a bit shocking was some of
the responses we received from the pastor’s of those churches. There were many who thanked us for our
prayers and concern, and informed us on how timely this encouragement was. However, one sticks out vividly in my
mind. The Pastor had written us to tell
us that he was sitting in his office contemplating leaving the ministry because
of burn out and depression, when he received our letter. He informed us that he began to cry, and
realized for the very first time, he was NOT alone! WOW! Such
a simplistic act that had such God-timed results! He also informed us that he would NOT be
leaving the ministry. At this news, we
rejoiced! However, as much as we
rejoiced in this wonderful news, I was immediately struck with some overwhelming
questions. “If there are these many churches within a 5-mile radius within
Knoxville, why were there still homeless?
Why was there still prostitution?
Why were there still hungry? Why
were there still meth dealers? Why were
there still strip clubs?” Well, you
get my point!
The answer is quite simple, yet quite alarming. The Church of Jesus Christ in Knoxville
Tennessee, for the most part, is POWERLESS! We have the “churchy” things down pat. We
have the “religious” things down
pat. But we do not have the “Jesus” things infused with power down
pat! (end of part 1).
No comments:
Post a Comment