Why the Churches are failing today!

                                                           Dr. Richard Nielsen D.D.  D.B.S.

Step into any Church today and look around, what you’ll see is a group of people milling around and talking to one another. If you eavesdrop on their conversations, what you will here most of them talking about is any and everything except the Bible. A quick glance at the Bible will tell you that the original Church was gathered with “one accord and singleness of heart.”

  (Act 2:46)  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

 Does that sound like what is happening in the above chatter?

 Most of the Churches are not telling you what the Bible really says. (Why do you think we have so many denominations?) Those that have taken the time to read it for themselves don’t question the practices of the modern Church, as they should. There are many things most Churches don’t want you to know!

 So, Why are the Churches failing today?

 Many have asked “What has happened to the Churches today? They seem to be losing members at an alarming rate.” Well, some have chosen to move on to the Mega-Churches (More and better entertainment.) and others have decided that what the Churches teach is not the same as what the schools teach.

 Many schools today, teach that Evolution over millions of years is a fact! That contradicts the Bible that says

“In the beginning God created…” Scientists have accepted Darwin’s theory over what the Bible clearly teaches.

Some might say, “The Bible says that God created all this in seven days, but it isn’t clear how long those days were!” So, they may believe that Darwin and the Bible agree. They say Darwin just goes into more detail explaining how God did it.

The problem is not whether Darwin is right or wrong, the main problem is whether they believe that God really exists!

Many people today have come to the conclusion that God doesn’t exist. (After all aren’t most of the leading scientist telling us the same thing the schools are teaching?) Or at least, they don’t want to believe that He exists, that way they can do as they please and don’t have to answer to anyone for what they do.

They don’t want to be bothered with the possibility of life after death. They accept that you live and then you die, nothing after that exists, this is what they truly believe.

So, for them this is their religion, which is just one of many that are out there today. Webster tells us that the meaning of religion is:

 religion n. 1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usu. involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code for the conduct of human affairs. 2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion. 3. the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions. 4. the life or state of a monk, nun, etc.: to enter religion. 5. the practice of religious beliefs; ritual observance of faith. 6. something a person believes in and follows devotedly. 7. Archaic. strict faithfulness; devotion. Idiom. 8. get religion,a. to become religious; acquire religious convictions.b. to resolve to mend one's errant ways. religionless, adj.

What really has happened is that our Churches today have turned into entertainment centers and social clubs. The Churches are accepted into our society and relative few people are attacking them. This gives us the disadvantage of being without persecution and without persecution there is no reason to be defensive. 

 We at “Church of The Way” feel that it is time for the Church to get back to full participation of all the members. After all, in the early Church every member’s life was on the line for his or her beliefs!

I wonder, how many today would be willing to put their lives on the line for what they believe?

The writers of the book “ Pagan Christianity” Frank Viola and George Barna have written a book that pretty well summarizes the beliefs of this Church. The following is a review, plus a few excerpts from that book.

Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning? Why do we "dress up" for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, choirs, and seminaries? This volume reveals the startling truth: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is not rooted in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles.

Many Christians take for granted that their church's practices are rooted in Scripture. Yet those practices look very different from those of the first-century church. The New Testament is not silent on how the early church freely expressed the reality of Christ's indwelling in ways that rocked the first-century world.

 Most of what present-day Christians do in church each Sunday is rooted not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles.

 One of the most troubling outcomes has been the effect on average believers: turning them from living expressions of Christ's glory and power to passive observers.

Why does the pastor preach a sermon at every service? Why do our church services seem so similar week after week? Why does the congregation sit passively in pews?

 The authors uncover the problems that emerge when the church functions like a business organization rather than the living organism it was created to be. As you reconsider Christ's revolutionary plan for His church-to be the head of a fully functioning body in which all believers play an active role-you'll be challenged to decide whether you can ever do church the same way again.

 The authors are basically saying, that the church, in its contemporary, institutional form, has neither a biblical nor a historical right to exist.

 The "church building" concept is foreign to Jesus’ idea of what the church is for.  It has "stalemated the functioning of God's people since the 4th century," and "There does not exist a shred of biblical support for the church building." buildings cost American churches $50-60 billion annually.

Pulpits, altars, clergy vestments, clergy, nuns, stages, sermons, performance-oriented worship, "sacred relics", buildings named after saints, and such are borrowed from pagan traditions, not from the church of the New Testament.

-- Making preaching the center of church gatherings has no biblical precedent.  Christianity "still has not recovered" from John Calvin's insistence on leading worship services, himself, from a stage.  Luther and Calvin believed each believer had access to God through "the preached Word" -- something the writers say is not a biblical idea.

The order of worship now defeats involvement of all the believers, and instead focuses on a few talented people, in the face of the practices of the New Testament church.

-- Protestant churches get the old familiar "order of worship" from the Catholic Mass.  And here they quote Will Durant, who says the mass was "based partly on the Judaic Temple service, partly on Greek mystery rituals of purification, vicarious sacrifice, and participation."

"The Pastor:  Obstacle to Every Member Functioning"

-- "Tithing and Clergy:  Sore Spots on the Wallet" is a fun follow-up chapter.  They don't see a biblical basis for tithing to an institutional church, or "tithing" at all, for the Christian. 

-- We don't need Bible colleges.  Never did.  We've inhaled far too much of Athens' approach to knowledge, and the point of knowledge, and misapplied logical tools to the Christian life.

-- And don't get them started on the biblical basis of youth ministers.  Actually:  DO get them started on the biblical basis of youth ministers.  It won't take long:  There isn't any.

-- Also, feel free to get them started on "Sunday School", dressing up for church, worship "pastors", pews, the idea of "sacred spaces", and the "church fathers", who they treat less as all-knowing guides, and more as believers who imported their paganism to re-interpret the meaning of the church.

-- Most modern church-people misunderstand how to read the Bible.  They impart qualities to it that aren't biblical.  They don't pay attention to context, and miss the point, and widely apply particular verses that were written for specific situations in a specific context.

The point is that what we consider proper "church" has more to do with surrounding cultures than what Jesus had in mind.

Jesus was a revolutionary, and a "negative" one at that, to those whose first interest was enforcing their version of religion.  They got pretty mad at him.