A personal moment of grief…
One of the longest running sources of grief in my lifetime has been the deterioration of the corporate church I have watched over the last twenty years. There is no way I can describe for you the pain it has caused me to watch churches and spiritual leaders who I believe once loved Jesus and were fully devoted to Him become apostate churches and apostate leaders.
I have been accused many times of speaking out against the church and against the brethren, yet, it was never my desire to hurt either, it was my desire to honor God, speak what He told me to speak, and bring warning against the deterioration of the corporate body in an effort to turn the tide back to true unadulterated devotion to Christ. I never wanted us, The Body of Christ and the corporate church, to be where we are today – churches emptying and closing and with attendance of churches at a record low in America. I have cried many tears over this problem, still do, and the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual pain has been almost unbearable at times over the last twenty plus years.
I watched a special news cast regarding the continuation of the television series “The Bible” which is currently airing the second part, the New Testament, “A.D. The Bible Continues” on Sunday nights. This television program is the most watch show in television history. This means people are interested in the Bible and drawn to God, perhaps even seeking faith, yet it has been proven recently and made known in the media that church attendance in America is at an all time low. I write about why that is and have been warning about it for years – you can find the writings on this blog [GodsTruthInLove.org] in the achieves under “Spiritual Remnant” – Believer are leaving the corporate churches in droves.
During this news special I watched, they interviewed the pastor of the largest church in America, with some 33,000 plus people in attendance weekly – Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. They asked him why he believed church attendance in America was at an all time low despite the fact that people are obviously interested in the Bible and seeking faith. Sadly, this man’s answer was right on target and what I have been exhorting churches to stop for years, the pastor stated that the reason was because people had been hurt so badly by churches that they were leaving churches but not their faith.
We must learn to disagree without wounding or killing one another. Jesus never killed or wounded those He disagreed with; He merely gave them the truth and then walked away from them.
Spiritual leaders more than anything or anyone else have been the cause of the deterioration of the corporate church – may God forgive them, forgive us, and heal the grief caused while at the same time restoring His Church to what He always intended it to be.
Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:
This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.
Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV
11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.