Carl Thomas dot net

Fear Wrapped in Pride

I have jumped off bridges, repelled out hotel windows, had guns thrust into my face, been robbed, jumped, on the wrong end of a beat down, was in a helicopter crash, and seen hell.  I know what scary is.  Church planting can be one of the scariest adventures of your life.

Church planters fall into two categories, those who want to see the Kingdom of God expanded and those who want to lead a big church.  These two ends are at odds with one another.

If the church does not grow, it may be the death of the planter.  If guests do not return, the person who invites them may not invite another.  If people don’t come, they do not give.  If people are offended they may not come back.  If people are pushed too hard, they might stay home.  If a guest comes and we do not live up to their expectations, they might not come back.  If I don’t look like mega-church down the street the people will write me off and not come back.If I remind them of any bad memory or any stereotype of boring church the people will not think that my church is cool and they will not only stay away, they will tell other people to stay away.  If I don’t grow to a certain number in a certain amount of time, I will never be a viable church.  If I don’t . . . then calamity will befall me, my congregation, and my call.

But if I can get them to stay in church they might get saved.  Therefor I must do whatever I can to get as many people as I can to come to my church and keep them coming back. Simple, right?

Wrong!

This whole thought pattern is based on two distinct lies.

1. If God transforms people to the point that they are different than the world, the lost will be turned off and not get saved.

2. The Holy Ghost is incapable of drawing anyone.

Here is how those lies manifest.  The church planter looks around his religious church and sees the hypocrisy and rightly discerns that even the world can see that this is not a real New Testament display of Christianity.  The majority of visitors spot this right away and leave.  Fear of being found out to be a fake grips the planter.

The church planter then changes the church service to match the true lifestyle of most Christians.  This is marked by carnal desires, compromised living, and a lack of the presence of God.

Once they decide to stop acting like they are a people different from the world they begin to tell people, “Hey, lost people of the world, we Christians are just like you.  We have the same issues and the same desires.  We have the same divorce rate and the same vices.  The difference is that we don’t live feeling guilty about that.  Come to our church and we will teach you how to live without the conviction of the Holy Ghost.”

Sure enough, the world is looking for a way to live free of the conviction of God.  The church grows.  This leads the planter to feel that they were right all along and that folks in traditional churches got it all wrong.  Those old churches are only for religious believers who don’t care about the lost.  This pride further blocks the conviction of God.

The Truth

The truth is that the Lord has set up a pretty good system for winning the lost.  He saves people, they live sanctified lives.  Through sanctified living and the anointing of the Holy Ghost, the believer delivers the Gospel to the lost.  The lost are convicted at their sinfulness and seek to have what the believer has, assuaging the Holy Ghost conviction through power over sin.

The Apostles won the lost not by becoming like the world.  They won the lost by showing the world that they had power over the forces of this world.  Paul did not preach how to have better sex, he preached that some would be called to never have sex.  Jesus did not preach how you might be rich, he preached that some needed to give up everything.

This may indeed cause some to not return.  That did not seem to bother Jesus.  It should not bother the planter if it is his desire to see the Kingdom expanded.  If it is his desire to build a large church, you might want to employ other means.

The Answer

The hypocrisy that people rightly see is that the majority of the church does not have any power.  The baptism in the Holy Ghost was the main part of John the Baptist’s message, it was the final message of Jesus, was the sign of the birth of the Church Age, was the message of the Apostles.  But since ministers today have no power they preach a powerless gospel.  They have finally brought their church expectations in line with their spiritual lives.

Church leader, get your folks baptized in the Holy Ghost.  Preach the baptism, pray for healings, seek prophecy, don’t forbid tongues.  What your church needs is more presence of the Holy Ghost, not more sex.