The Real Issue

The contemporary church has gotten on a side track.  Somewhere along the way it seems to have gotten the idea that pleasing the culture around it was its primary task.  Thus, entertainment has replaced worship and building bigger buildings has taken the place of making disciples.  In many places the church goes to great efforts to avoid identifying itself with any language which might cause the world around it to think it is actually a church serious about Jesus.  And, maybe it is not.

 

I sometimes wonder if the Apostle Paul would recognize the church he spent his life spreading into the world.  And, as a United Methodist, I sometimes imagine that our founder, John Wesley, must have rolled over several times in his grave in dismay at what the church of his prayers has become.  No longer does the Word guide our church.  It seems to be more agenda driven than Spirit driven.  In so many ways it seems to have lost its way.

 

There are many ways the church can be described, but surely it is basically a spiritual community driven by the Holy Spirit.  Surely, its fundamental purpose is to point people toward Jesus in a way that is persuasive and life changing.  Whenever we wander too far from what seems to be the core upon which is was established, problems and heresies abound.  Some may say the problems within the church are far more complex, but a movement away from the simple may be the real issue.