Why Our Current System of Church is So Listless (Rev. 3:14—17)


For decades now I have attempted to convince those who insist the way our churches function today is God’s plan is simply not true. I began realizing it several years ago, but only today did God give me, what I believe is the most powerful argument yet against our current system of practicing church. I argued for many years that Paul, almost always referred to the “church in your house,” in his letters; and that is true. Those who presented the counter argument made no attempt to deny that fact, but they simply concluded (incorrectly) the current evolution of body of Christ into the monstrosities we like to call the church was natural. They argue it is the natural evolution of anything that is as important as the church to grow into something better. What utter, unmitigated foolishness. The most disgusting and least biblical argument I have ever heard is that the mega-church and many mega-denominations can do so much more for missions and their communities than can the small home church. That’s much like Gideon’s excuse that he was not the man to do God’s work because he was from a small, insignificant family in Israel (Judges 6:15). Both arguments hold water like a three hundred gallon barrel with a two hundred gallon hole in it. All one has to do is read the story about Gideon’s misadventures with the mighty God of Israel to grasp his complete lack of understanding about God’s way of doing things. He began with 22,000 men and ended up with 300. And those 300 men were divided into three groups who killed 120,000 mighty swordsmen from the Midianites, Amalekites, and sons of the east in one battle. We may logically ask, “Why did God tell Gideon to send home 21,700 warriors and engage the enemy with only 300?” The bible gives us the simple but powerful answer. It was so only He (God) would get the credit for the results. I’d like to humbly suggest the one thing that has been the Achilles heel of the mega-church in America is the proclaimation of its leaders that it needs to be mega to do mega things for the kingdom of God. It has thus, more times than not, left God’s will lurking in the shadows while it demonstrates how much man can do without Him.

Listen and listen carefully. It seem obvious to me the major reason our current system of practicing church is such an abject failure is that it both ignores the biblical admonition found in I Corinthians 14:26-33 and it requires man to invent and perpetuate the one man circus we have come to call weekly sermons, the highly ineffective monologue (the ancient Greek’s way, adapted by the church in 386 A.D., to present man’s philosophy to the masses). Rather than God speaking through His prophets (note the instruction in I Cor. is plural) each week as the church meets, man speaks from his own vain imagination, which he has had to diligently train in order to continue performing his one man show week after week, month after month, year after year, and sometimes for decades. And, even when current brain research confirms it’s the absolute worst way for man to learn, we continue the practice. I have wanted to ask for clarification or add a comment countless times while listening to countless preachers preach countless and mostly boring sermons for the past 38 years. Several times, when asked to fill in for a missing preacher, I have asked the audience to feel free to interrupt me and ask for clarification about anything I say in an attempt to get a dialogue going. Most congregations have looked at me like I was crazy.

I suggest the thing that made the first century churches so alive and vital to the welfare of the communities where they functioned was simple. When they met, they got messages from God because they expected God to speak through His prophets during those meetings; and strangely enough, He did. I’ve discovered most churches I have been in for more than a couple of week’s have had several men who were just as capable as the “senior pastor’ of speaking on behalf of God to His people. I have also discovered, much to my consternation and dismay, those men are seldom allowed to share the wisdom God has given them for the most obvious of reasons. Men who have spent years in school acquiring a degree, a certificate of ordination, and the weight of the mighty seminary or Bible College behind them are too intimidated by anyone who knows as much or more than they do about God’s word to deal with it effectively. Unfortunately, most seminaries and bible colleges apparently spend most of their time teaching their students how to manage a church than how to listen to God’s voice and study His word. I say that because of the fruit those colleges bear. I have been in hundreds of conservative and liberal churches in 38 years, and I can testify from experience that few of them had men in the pulpit who had much wisdom to preach that came from God’s word.

The number who download their messages from the internet is becoming an epidemic of epic proportion. The number who develop a topic and then use a few verses from God’s word to support some vain, humanistic philosophy has, for my entire Christian life, been in the overwhelming majority. I was dumfounded to learn recently that it is a commonly accepted practice for contemporary preachers to go to the internet, download a good message, memorize it, practice using good speech technique, and deliver it as if it were a message God gave them in their own quite time of bible study. Seminaries are even teaching their graduates how to tear up at the appropriate time to really get the attention of their listeners.

The simple, sublime truth I pray churches in America will one day come to realize is that God’s churches function better when a group of ten to twenty couples get together around a table or in a living room of someone’s home and allow God’s prophets to speak. I have personally been in such settings many times in the past 38 years and can attest to the incredible learning that takes place in those settings. Probably, most of you reading this will consider my comments nothing more than an annoying puff of smoke. Unfortunately for the church in America, they are solemn words of truth (I Cor. 14:26-38). Paul ends his instruction on the topic with these sobering words, “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.”

So, consider ignoring anyone who presents an argument against God’s intended plan and purpose for His church. Stop listening, for any extended period, to the vain ramblings men pose that violate the clear teaching of God’s word on the subject of the church. If you are attending a mega-church, you don’t necessarily have to leave it. Just make sure to get into a small, intimate bible study with a group of men and women who love God and who study His word diligently. They might even come from the church you attend. Just refuse to rely on one man’s speeches from a pulpit week after week to be the sole source of your learning about God, His plan and purpose for your life, and His church. There will likely be at least two or three men who are the prophets spoken of by Paul in any small group that starts as the result of anyone seeking to engage God’s original plan for His church. Let them be the real source of your learning. You’ll be amazed at how blessed you will be and how quickly you will grow in the grace and knowledge of God and His word. And don’t try to convince the “senior pastor” of the church you attend that you learn more in your small group than you do from his weekly sermons. He’ll not likely appreciate your honesty. His vanity will, more likely than not, get the best of him. He may even try to figure out how to get you excommunicated from “his” church.

I will close with the following; “Thus says the Lord, ‘It won’t be long before the true church, as it exists in America today, will have to go underground. It will have to meet in homes or private facilities that function as something else during the week. The time is soon coming when government, even in America, will control what preachers can preach. It has already begun in many communities. That will require those who refuse to bow the knee to Baal (the spirit of anti-Christ) to begin meeting secretly. They will continue to preach in the streets, which will result in many of them being arrested and imprisoned for extended periods of time. Finally, once the anti-Christ has gained sufficient power, he will begin executing those who defy him.’”