What is the church in Amercia perpetuating

What is the church in America today perpetuating ?
A work of faith, hope and love or of works, man’s wisdom and worldly success ?
My experience with the last three churches that we have attended is that we are not perpetuating a work of faith, hope and love...What the Bible refers to as the ‘gathering of the believers to be built up in their faith and equipped for ministry’ does not appear to be the vision of our local bodies. And if it is the ‘stated vision’ it is not being lived out in real, everyday life of the church body.
The current state of the body (the local church gathering) is that of a group of indistinguishable people who meet once or twice a week to sing some songs, hear a non-threatening, uplifting and user friendly sermon that uses a few verses of scripture (some from translations that are unworthy to be called the true Word of God), to visit with already established friends and then return to their normal lives for the remainder of the week.
Looking from the outside in the church has lost its focus on its first love and become luke warm. The advent of church growth philosophies and their resultant ‘successes’ have created a leadership dilemma wherein the majority of ‘ministry’ time is spent in dealing with strategic issues related to administration, logistics, business operations and fund raising. These seem a far cry from what the Bible instructs leadership to do – teach, preach, encourage, exhort, rebuke, love, pray for, build up in the faith, equip for ministry…love one another.
We even operate churches like corporations now with executive pastors and pastors of administration, strategic church growth experts, church growth conferences, on ad infinitum so it seems !
And our children suffer (remember they are the future of the church) as they see the apparent disconnects between what we say a living faith is and what the body actually does – the paradox which has become the church. It is no wonder that study after study indicates that upon their coming of age and leaving home our kids ‘leave’ the church in greater number than those who continue to participate.

So, what can be done to reverse this trend ?
1) pray that the church of the living Lord would see where it has stumbled and strayed
2) humble ourselves and seek God’s face for direction and courage to find the narrow path that leads to life
3) hold fast to our faith and live our lives as bond servants
4) exhort leadership to
a. get back to the body’s first love – the Lord Jesus Christ
b. lead the body to repentance and a humbling of our pride
c. stand firm on the foundation which is the Word of God
d. encourage the church to grow in faith, hope and love
e. cast off the tyranny of man’s wisdom that has infiltrated the body
f. live life as a bond-servant

We serve a truly wondrous Lord who loves us with an everlasting love…He desires to be our Shepherd, our Counselor, our Hope…and He longs for His bride (the church) to be faithful and steadfast…to long for its first love…

Body parts...

Body parts…
As believers, we are all to be a ‘part’ of the body of Christ – some the eyes, some the hands, some the ears. Do you know what part you have been called to and gifted for ?
In our day we seem to have people who are gifted to be one part of the body but they either don’t know what part they are or they want/desire to be some part that they are not gifted to be. The healthy functioning of the body of Christ requires that we all know where the Lord has called us to participate – and He has called all of us. Without this knowledge and the active exercise of each person’s part we are ineffective and our light becomes dim.
I believe that my part is that of the foot – in terms of functionality, the foundation of the body. Without the feet you can not stand firm nor can you move forward. Without the foundation there is no basis on which to build – and the foundation is the Word of God. Those that are called to be the feet are those who earnestly desire that the body be fully equipped with the Word of Truth. As well as encouraging and exhorting (and sometimes rebuking) the body to have a sound biblical basis for living their lives, for performing their ministry, for touching lives. To sum it up we want the body to hunger for God’s truth and live it out loud…
So, what part of the body are you ?