I'm in Ontario, Canada right now, about 15 minutes from Niagara Falls where GW Canada Director Mike Zenker and I had dinner earlier. If you've never been to Niagara Falls, make the trip. It's worth it. Be sure to see it from the Canadian side. I've been here with Melanie and for ministry trips several times, but never get used to how beautiful it is. I speak tomorrow morning at Niagara Celebration Church in Niagara, then at Toronto Celebration Church in the afternoon, and back to Niagara to the same church tomorrow night. Pastor Peter Youngren has led his church into an understanding of God's grace in an amazing way. I thank the Lord for pastors like him who are teaching the pure grace of God to the churches and turning them away from the poison of legalism.
While sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting to board the flight here today, I came across an article in today's edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution entitled, "Faithful Abandoning Church." The first line says, "The revolution has begun. Quietly, maybe, but symptoms are bubbling up." The article goes on to describe how many people "feel something is not quite right in the church." Here are a few excerpts from the article:
Every mainline Christian denomination is declining in membership. Though people are leaving church, they are keeping their faith. They include Bible studies in bars, friends starting their own churches in houses, or congregations trying a smattering of everything -- music of the Middle Ages and the latest rock anthems, Saturday morning and Thursday night meetings. Pentecostals are adopting liturgy and Episcopalians are speaking in tongues.
So they are questioning and experimenting, looking for a way to make church meaningful again. This new movement . . . will have as big an impact as the Reformation. That was the 16th century upheaval when religious thinkers split open the feather pillow that had been the monolithic belief system of the Catholic Church. No one was able to put all the feathers back into the bag and it changed the world.
Somebody asked me recently why I've focused so much lately on the grace revolution. The answer is simple -- because it's what I believe God's Spirit is doing in His church. In my Grace Vine article next month, I plan to write about how we can be a part of ushering in revolution without losing the obvious expression of the love of Christ in the process. I love the church of Jesus Christ and I trust that you do too. That's why we must rise up together in that love and carry the banner of grace to the forefront in the legalistic church world of today's culture.
We aren't against anybody. We are for Jesus Christ and for His church. Like or not, the facts are that people are leaving their local congregations in droves. They aren't tired of Jesus. They're just tired of the religious rat-race that they've been told is the Christian life. Thank God, they know better and aren't turning away from the Lord. My prayer is that those who see the legalism and smell its stench of death in the church world will band together to keep the grace revolution going forward. Too much is at stake to give up now.
If you happen to be in a church like the one where I'm preaching tomorrow (Sunday) and your pastor is a grace-filled man, you can thank God for that fact. (It wouldn't hurt to thank your pastor too.) I get mail and meet people constantly who absolutely cannot find a grace filled, gospel preaching church in their area. They are hungry. They want to see a change -- a revolutionary change. I do too and I pray it will continue to gain momentum until Christ Jesus is the only focus of the contemporary church world.
More to come on this ministry time in Canada ...
Mainly through the world of blogging, which, by the way, began for me essentially through getting to know a few people through the Grace Walk Forum, I've come to meet people from coast to coast and around the world who have either left the traditional church and are growing in grace and freedom like they've never known before, and falling in love with Jesus like never before, or are still taking part in traditional church but are finding so much more real love and grace outside of the four walls. Many, as well, are bringing the grace of God from outside to within.
ReplyDeleteI think it's wonderful that while church attendance is declining, it really does seem that a lot of it is due to people truly finally getting to know Jesus!
Much of this can't be measured in numbers and statistics, at least not in the traditional ways, but it really is "church growth" in its purest form - people actually growing in their life in Christ. That's exciting!
I left the church. Once I was excluded for non attendance. The next time I requested my name to be removed from the membership rolls. It is not that I do not believe in church attendance. I truly long for fellowship with True Believers. I long to hear the Bible preached.
ReplyDeleteI long to go to a church, where I am treated as everyone else is treated in the congregation, and to hear the Bible preached.
I want to worship with people who believe as I do,
and I was a Baptist . I attended the church for many many years. I stopped going because it seemed as though the agenda for the church was not preaching salvation by grace, or upholding each other. I have actually been insulted in the church, and I was not doing wrong. Since a teen, I never felt as if I belonged. I am an older female now, and alone. I struggled to go to church for years I was not dating, or misbehaving. If so, their duty was to tell me in private I cannot give much money, although I did tithe for years. Perhaps they thought I made more money than I did. If tithing is such an issue that you don't want the person without the money, something is wrong. I did make half what people usually make doing the work I did. I have had one major feeling in church since I left the church I went to as a youth, and that is hurt feelings because the people in the churches talk over, about you but not to you. I think of church with pain, and an aching heart. I think of my Savior with love and gratitude. Maybe this is what he meant for me. I am not a vessel of wrath of God, or Jesus... merely of people. I am a child of God. He loved me enough to die for me.I am not condemned in His eyes. But I so long for fellowship with God's people without harassment, or insults. I will not pay people to insult and harass me.
I always have been well groomed, good smelling, and I sit quietly in church. It is nothing like that. I am heterosexual, not into criminal activity, and not promiscuous. Even if I were not the above, the Bible does not say love thy neighbor as thyself unless he is the above. The Bible also says for the church , Christians, if they have something against a member for one person to go to them in private and tell them what the issue is, in private. No one has ever done that.
In His Name.