Jeff's Insight

Blog about Christianity and Culture

church

Too Many Gods

By Leave a Comment

Some Christians in our culture worship many gods. This can be wealth, personality, doctrine, and many more. The passive nature of our church leads to worshiping gods. If we are not active in the great commission and centering your life around Jesus many things fill the gap. What do we value and how do we value it.

A big issue in our culture is the cult of personality. We don’t look at these people as human that can make mistakes. Once a leader in the church declares something as true people go along with them. They put the relationship to the person above the Truth. Everyone is bound to the truth regardless of personality or authority.

Another one of the gods people worship is wealth. They put success as a measuring stick of holiness. Wealth is shown as a reward. This is a trap. Wealth is viewed as an end instead of an opportunity. Living with Christ is the only real measurement of success.

If a church doesn’t have a central goal people will create there own. The goal should be equipping people for the great commission. When this isn’t the goal then we put practices and doctrine in place of the great commission. Soon these practices overshadow the One in which the church was made for. At this point we create gods. A truth we fail to see is that inaction can lead to this. We get so comfortable in the world we created that we forsake the real world. Not good.

The solution for this is to put Christ at the center of our church. Our goal is not to bring people to church. It is to make people part of the Church. This sounds like the same but it is far from it. Church attendance doesn’t increase Christianity. It may increase church income though. The latter part is us leading people to Christ to be part of His Church. Let’s not create gods in place of the one true God.

Fear To Preach

By Leave a Comment

We are living in a culture where we are afraid to preach the truth. Also teachers are afraid to turn away potential church goers. Teachers are in a constant state of fear. They give milk to the congregation because it is universally accepted. We don’t preach what is needed and what is relevant to convict us. Many people run to the darkness cause they are afraid of the light.

There is not an equal correlation from conviction to not accepting Christ. Church leaders are afraid to preach things that convict people. People who are not Christians don’t know the Truth. I’m not talking about preaching from generally held truths. One example: not to worship a carved image. That is not a cultural problem. One the other hand, worshiping Hollywood celebrities is a far too common practice. Church leaders do not get relevant in preaching out of fear of turning off people to Christ.

I have discussed in past blogs the problem of giving milk to the congregation. Many times the reason is also due to fear. Something substantial always has backlash. There are many church leaders who try to convict a pastor for the substance. Job security, unfortunately, is tied to given people what they want to hear. The job of the congregation is to make disciples. A pastor’s job is to shepard the congregation. His job is not equip the congregation for outreach. The pastor shouldn’t appease the lowest common denominator but to lead their flock.

Unfortunately, even Christians don’t like the truth. Anything that rattles us to the core we are afraid of and hate. We should constantly be rattled. Every time a pastor preaches we should be rattled. Our leaders should recognize this and understand it. We cannot truly change the culture and the world when we can’t preach convicting messages. Church should make us feel good about ourselves. It should make us equipped, to strip away all the filth we see in the Light of God.

Truth in the Details

By Leave a Comment

Many times teachers in the church leave out important details in passages in the bible. They connect verses from different passages that create a different narrative. It is easy to take a small verse and add your own context when you are teaching the gospel. Also it is easy to put a small verse on a projector for everyone to see. What is convenient isn’t always right.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB) is the best example to use for this post:
“‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'”

This verse is the most predominate verse for the prosperity gospel. People think that that this verse is talking about all of creation. Also they think you will have a life that will be materially blessed. The pastor can use this verse and bend it to their own narrative. This verse is lacking details. When you read something with pronouns you have to ask yourself “Who is ‘you?'” “You” is referring to a reprisal of a time of judgement of Israel. Huh.

If you read a verse that needs more context you have to quote more verses. Pronouns that are not clearly defined need to be defined. Don’t define it by your own biases. Let the bible do it. Prosperity gospel is a by product of not showing the details of a biblical passage. It is destructive and leads people astray. The worst thing you can do is use the bible incorrectly to manipulate people.

Lacking details makes it very easy to use Scripture Hopping by linking small verses together. In church you have a topic that has multiple verses attached to it. It is like a river. One flows into another and creates the current that the preacher wants you to see. If individually the verses doesn’t highlight your point don’t use it. This is done many times in ignorance and laziness.

This is a big issue in the church. Be on guard by reading the whole passage when a teacher gives you a verse. If it alone has nothing to do with the topic disregard it. Do it to not be manipulated. I’m not telling you to disregard the truth in the bible. I’m telling you to disregard the false connection the teacher is guiding you toward. Also please read my older post, Scripture Hopping, to add more context to this important issue.

The Disparity Gospel

By Leave a Comment

Too often we look at the differences between each other’s lives. If we see a great disparity between you and someone else you make a judgement. This judgement could either be you are doing something right or wrong. This is vanity mixed in with the prosperity gospel. This disparity eventually makes us live is despair.

The disparity gospel starts with the prosperity gospel. Your vision of success is based on earthly wealth. It can be vocational, financial, and physical. If you acquire this wealth you start to believe that you are being blessed for your faith or your works toward God. You begin to enact a sliding scale to determine what wealth equals what view God has of you. This sliding scale leads into the disparity gospel.

Many times we have this ideal view of a Christian. This person doesn’t struggle with anything and has a comfortable life. People believed they are rewarded for their diligence and holiness. This person has 2 and a half kids with a great career without challenges in life. There is nothing wrong with success but there is something wrong with this false equivalency. A horrible person can have the same lifestyle.

After we look to this ideal person we start looking at our own life. We can never compare to this fictitious person in our head. We see a great disparity between our life and the life that we believe should be rewarded for holy works and faith. One truth remains. We are never guaranteed a great life. Thru Jesus we are guaranteed and eternity with our Creator. Looking at other lives and seeing prosperity only creates despair in your own life.

Satan doesn’t want you to live a holy life. A life that honors Jesus. A hard life, in some, leads to the disparity gospel. It draws the focus away from our Creator. It takes away from the mission we have in this world. The people who have the prosperity of the world (many times) are not filled with a Christ centered life. When life attacks know that your true treasure lie in heaven.

The Church Game Plan

By Leave a Comment

The church many times gives us milk instead of solid food. We should be on mission to always have a game plan. We need to have a practical plan to address our own shortcomings as well as reaching the world. The church cannot impact the world when every Sunday we are learning the word “is.” It is unfortunate that we are getting taught basics about Christianity. We let our pastor do the evangelizing instead of doing it ourselves. If we want the world to change we need a game plan.

Every Sunday we need to be equipped in church. We need teaching that is practical and applies specifically to our daily lives. When I visit church I hear messages that are at an elementary level. It is basic truths that every Christian should know. What we should be doing is confronting our own sin. The sin that hinders our ability to reach out and be an example in the world. We are not putting on the Armor of God in our daily lives when all we here is how to become a Christian.

The best place to game plan our life is in small group. First you should have a place where you are accountable for your sin and shortcomings. This should be primary. Sin hurts us from being the beacon to the world. If we act just like the world then the world will win. Secondly we need to study scripture that prepares us for the struggles we face. Satan is unrelenting. So, we need to be very active in boosting our weaknesses.

We need to constantly thru the week be connecting to fellow Christians. Struggles usually turn into patterns. These patterns end up turning into addictions. We usually don’t look to sin as an addiction but it really is. Accountability partners helps stops these patterns. Without this game plan our greatest weakness will grow to define us.

Our culture will get worse and worse. Without a game plan the darkness will easily destroy the church.