Is today's church really about Him? Really?

The following is an excerpt from a Barna Group report.  It got me wondering more about a hunch I have about todays church and it's bent for being trendy.  Is the church too concerned with trends these days at the cost of true spiritual discipleship and outreach?  Interesting how today, what we now call a worship "experience" used to be called a worship "service."  Does it stand to reason then, that Sunday mornings have to be sadly worth the price of admission or risk a poor show?  If you think that is far-fetched I would be willing to bet that the average church-goer does not give financially to their home church except on those Sundays they attend and that points to sadly the equivalent of the Sunday offering being reduced to an admission fee (payment for services rendered).  Has Sunday morning become more about how we feel and less about our Savior and learning Who God is in an effort we get in better touch with our own inner being?  Good grief!  The pastorate does their best by and large yet I can't help but wonder if the tail hasn't been wagging the dog too much in today's church.  Some reports I've read pretty much state that if Sunday morning isn't thorough in making you and I feel better about ourselves it's going to be a challenge to keep the lights on.  I'm fortunate to be part of a church that delivers a healthy dose of scriptural relevance and teaching and I know many attenders are "getting it."  That howver is not the case everywhere.  Now for the report. 
Barna Report:
Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.  When asked what matters most, teenagers prioritize education, career development, friendships, and travel. Faith is significant to them, but it takes a back seat to life accomplishments and is not necessarily perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams. Among adults the areas of growing importance are lifestyle comfort, success, and personal achievements. Those dimensions have risen at the expense of investment in both faith and family. The turbo-charged pace of society leaves people with little time for reflection. The deeper thinking that occurs typically relates to economic concerns or relational pressures. Spiritual practices like contemplation, solitude, silence, and simplicity are rare. (It is ironic that more than four out of five adults claim to live a simple life.) Practical to a fault, Americans consider survival in the present to be much more significant than eternal security and spiritual possibilities. Because we continue to separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a central means of optimizing our life experience.


I find it absurd that a church cannot connect the dots of spiritual disciplines, make them relevant AND in doing so teach how THAT will optimize our life experiences.  To avoid core teachings and principles of Christian living and substitute with the "warm-fuzzies" has a finite life that probably will find a church plateauing or declining before long.  I think people still seek a deeper relationship with Jesus without so much circus.  I'm interested to know what you think.

Little Kingdoms

Ephesians 4:16 (NIV): 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

I love that verse. This and a few others like it are pretty often preached on Sunday morning. It occurred to me this week however that when it's preached, it's generally preached in the context of the individual or individuals within a church rather than the church as a body. Let me explain. We are often called as individuals to work together with other individuals within the church (the "little kingdom"); our body part called to action along with other body parts to serve a common purpose. It takes the proper working of each individual part in the body --saints equipped for service working together with everybody doing their part. The effectiveness mandates the following:

• an understanding of the priesthood of all believers versus a leader mentality
• being servant-oriented and interdependent versus self-centered and self-dependent
• working as a team versus a one-man show
• seeing the body as an organism versus an organization

I think we all get the picture...kind of, but here is where I believe we have grossly missed the the point and in the process, the opportunities set before us:

We've forgotten what makes a church, a church. She has gotten so inwardly focused that its become more about the building (little kingdom) than the community (The Kingdom). We need to change our view of church from that of a building to that of a community. By this I am not talking about a "community of faith" within our "little kingdom." I'm talking about this: Many churches, although distinct in views and beliefs, have the same needs and goals in the community. Since community is a strong element of most religions, this is a factor that enables many churches to come together to work toward a common goal with "The Kingdom" in mind rather than the predominant idea of community that is "the little kingdom." We are frequently encouraged as individuals to get to know other individuals both like us and unlike us and work together, serve together and worship together and do all the things a good "Acts 2" church does. So why doesn't the Acts 2 church take this to the next level? Why isn't the "little kingdom" pulling together more with other "little kingdoms" in the community, each a vital body part coming together to form a large body? Why aren't more churches working alongside other churches so that a HUGE impact can be achieved in their community? If our own church "little kingdom" understands the concept of "whole-body" efficiency within itself then why, why, why is that philosophy not getting across that the local church has failed to serve the Kingdom in an impacting way as a community of churches? Are we that introverted and overly focused on protectionism and even possessive? Do you suppose there is an unhealthy amount of "steeple envy" at work here as well?

The bottom line as I see it is this: the little kingdoms (local churches) do God a great disservice when they fail to come together with other churches in their community to serve the kingdom in a cooperative way that can achieve an impact that by no means within a "little kingdom" can be accomplished by herself; when she fails to do the good she knows in her heart that she can do and the difference that can make in the community. Simply put, the church needs to quit being selfish with her "little kingdom" and get serious about being "Kingdom-focused."