Gup20
Active Member
I think the biggest problem with the church is denominations, organizations, and the business Of church. The hierarchy within any denomination removes, separates, isolates people from Biblical authority and leadership and rather than Jesus being the mediator between God & man, suddenly the denomination leadership becomes the arbiter of truth.
How many dollars that could be used to help the poor & needy goes to church buildings & “church” corporations (not to mention the fraud & abuse in the prosperity doctrine churches).
How different might church look if it looked more like house churches who relied on God as their leader. How might our denominations look if all denominations came together in love & discussed the differences and looked to scripture for the truth of it. But we can’t even show enough love to one another to do that with grace... let alone help the unbelievers.
The biggest problem is that the church is 1000 miles wide and 1 inch thick. We are rife for the great falling away prophesied in the end times. The current church/denomination model puts a greater emphasis on using “seeker sensitive” means to get people to donate ... err... I mean to get “saved.”
Matthew 13:3-8 (NASB) 3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 "Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 "But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 "Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 "And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
The church in the USA seems like it decided that the Matthew 13:5 model of evangelism was best... quick results ... dollars flowing... no depth.
I used to work for a mega-church in the Word of Faith denomination... they literally had a department & programs for addressing the “attendee retention issue.” I literally heard the department head of that program suggest bribing people with money to stay (though that idea was shot down quickly by the finance department). Other ideas that did make it through was more entertaining worship & children’s programs... opening a coffee shop in the church... and better new member engagement to get new people involved in small groups & other programs where they could quickly integrate into a subsect community within the church... relying on the bonds they might form to keep them coming back and contributing financially.
