When Church Works

I heard one person describe church as something that most Americans go to three times in their lives: when they’re hatched, when they’re matched, and when they’re dispatched.

That’s how it is for a lot of people. When they typically go to church, they don’t understand what’s going on. The messages don’t make sense to them. The music seems to come from another era altogether. It doesn’t seem to be helping them or addressing what they’re facing.

So, they don’t want to be a part of the church. It’s not something they’re really interested in.

I don’t think church has to be that way. I think it can be vibrant. It can be exciting. It can be innovative. And it can be enjoyable. Yet at the same time, it can be thoroughly biblical. It also can impart knowledge and truth and help change our lives.

That’s why, as I’ve often said, the holiest moment of the church service is when God’s people come away changed people, doing what they can to turn their world upside down.

Also, I think one of the reasons that so many churches are ineffective or falling apart is because they’ve strayed from God’s original plan. We can find clear principles in the church as Jesus originally set it up and as the early believers applied them, turning their world upside down.

The church began and was maintained by Christ’s power, and it worked through His principles. It was the Spirit of God working through the Word of God in the hearts and lives of the people of God.

I think it’s wonderful when someone looks at the church and sees different ages, different cultures, different tastes, and different ethnicities with one thing in common: Jesus Christ. That, to me, is what people should see in the church today.