Have You Ever Noticed?

Have you ever noticed that churches that seldom preach the gospel seldom have conversions to Christ?

Let me take that to the next logical step.

Churches that don't preach healing don't see very many people healed.

Why is this? It's because your faith usually never rises above your own revelation of who God is. Here's the corollary to that: Your faith will usually never rise above your pastor or your church's revelation of who God is either.

God longs to display His glory in our midst - but we run the danger of becoming like the people in the city of Nazareth who's faith, or lack there of, was so woeful that the Bible says "Jesus could not do many mighty works there".

Why was that the case? The Bible says they were "offended" at Him. Not offended in the sense of having their feelings hurt and becoming bitter (as stated in a post below) - but offended in the sense that they couldn't put it together how this carpenter, whose family and siblings they were well acquainted with, could possibly be able to do the miracles that they had heard He was doing in Capernaum.

In many ways today - we are like Nazareth. Not only has the familiarity of the Gospel bred contempt, but many have decided that God doesn't move supernaturally anymore and healing and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for another bygone error. Their limited revelation of God has had the same effect on them and their churches as it had on the people of Nazareth - Jesus couldn't do many mighty works there, and furthermore was "amazed" at their unbelief.

When we lose the demonstration power of the Gospel that we were intended to operate in (healing, miracles, Gifts of the Holy Spirit) all we are left with is a half way Gospel message that requires us to extract or re-explain large portions of scripture such as "By His stripes we were healed".

What we are left with? A crippled Gospel. A Gospel of words that lacks the manifest power of the New Testament God that we see operating in the early church.

Churches with a crippled Gospel are then forced to go one of two routes - either become like the recreation director of a retirement home who is constantly saying, "Isn't this great - aren't we having fun?" (Translated - 'aren't we smart - our doctrine is superior to everyone else') while the residents bored out of their minds are pretty much a captive audience because they are financially invested there and don't have a whole lot of other exciting choices, or, churches go the route of offering yoga classes, bowling leagues and line dancing in order to try to stir up interest in folks coming to church.

However churches that will operate in what Paul describes as 'demonstration power', will not need to resort to gimmicks. Jesus will be the main attraction. He is the One who fills us with Living Water that satisfies our longings and cravings.

Churches that will preach and teach that God heals today, delivers today and still does the miraculous today, Hebrews 13:8, will see healing, deliverance and miracles because God always honors His Word.

As Petra used to sing concerning Christians: There's too much talk and not enough walk.

Let's show this world how awesome Jesus Christ is!

Heartbreaking Statistics

In America we are closing 7 more churches a day, than we are opening. - Charles Arn

The United States of America remains the third largest unchurched nation in the world!

In 1900 there were 27 churches for every 10,000 Americans. In 1950 there were 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans. In 1996 there were 11 churches for every 10,000 Americans. -George Gallup

Evangelical churches have failed to gain an additional 2% of the American population in the past 50 years. In other words, we are not even reaching our children! - George Barna

Estimated America Unchurched Population - 195 million (January 1996, Gallup Princeton Religion Report).

Half of all churches last year did not add one new member through conversion growth. - Charles Arn

During the last 10 years, the combined communicant membership of all Protestant Denominations has declined by 9.5% (4,498,242) while the national population has increased by 11.4% (24,153,000).

-ASCG Journal of Church Growth

House Church Blues

(Excerpt from, Building Blocks of the Church: Re-examining the Basics)

"The house church idea is not a new one. It finds its roots in an overemphasis of the fact that the New Testament churches frequently met in homes. In some parts of the world, such as China, it is a spontaneous God-ordained movement. In most Western countries however, these "churches" are generally populated and promoted by discontents and reactionaries who had been either hurt or disillusioned by the excesses and failures of the Charismatic revival.

At the outset, however, it must be said that the New Testament did meet in homes, but not exclusively so.

The first problem with this line of (house church) thinking is that it is strongly and negatively influenced by the bad experiences and frustrations in established churches. This is experiential theology in reverse and it works as follows: 'Because authority is abused in some churches, we will have no authority in ours. Because there is an over-emphasis on money in some, we will not participate in any form of giving. Because theological training has opened the door for some ungifted men to enter the ministry, we will not have anything to do with anyone who has a (theological) academic background. Because some full time ministers are lazy and abuse their privilege, 'we shoot paid preachers.' Because some sermons are boring, we reject all forms of formal preaching and teaching.'"

A Letter To Pastors

This letter was an open letter written from Dr. Opal Reddin shortly before her passing in 2005. Her hope was that Assembly of God ministers would heed her warning. I had Dr. Reddin when I attended Central Bible College and I can say not only was she easily the best professor I ever had - she was a lady who KNEW the Lord.



Friday, October 21, 2005 10:31 PM:

From Dr. Opal Reddin:

"As you have opportunity, please tell any and of our all of our A/G churches that I for one see Rick Warren and his deceptive "Purpose Driven books and practices" to be the gradual downfall to each church becoming involved. Some of my reasons:

1. His SHAPE, Jung-oriented spiritual gifts tests destroy the very meaning of "spiritual gifts", and hence all Pentecostal churches will become redundant. Those taking them as having any degree of value will find (too late) they were grieving the Holy Spirit. This is one of the main hindrances today to people receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

2. His "Gospel" excludes repentance as a necessary step toward salvation, and it IS necessary, according to Jesus. Warren's "Gospel" is "another gospel" of works," No wonder the Catholics and homosexuals feel at home in his pastor's conferences!

3. Every one who signs the covenant of membership is in the process of disobeying our Lord's commands to swear not .

4. Every A/G minister and memory should read Who's Driving the Purpose Driven Church? by James Sundquist and Deceived on Purpose by Warren Smith.

For these and other well-considered reasons, I plead with every A/G church and member to avoid Rick Warren's beliefs and practices in every way possible. We must get back to the things that brought the manifest presence of God into our midst, when gifts of the Spirit convinced unbelievers of their need to repent and get right with God. The Full Gospel will still bring sinners to salvation, and saints to full obedience as we anticipate our Lord's return in Glory.

Signed,
Rev. Opal Reddin, D. Min. Distinguished Prof. in Biblical Studies
Central Bible College