The Church the Social Club?

The Church – The Social Club?

By: Rapsodie Adams

 

Today the body of Christ is being bombarded with more winds of doctrine than I expect can be numbered.  What is being called the church is looking more like a social club.  The church has become an entertainment park, where there is much entertaining… big names, vacation parks and luxury cruises.  People are demanding more and more of the world and less and less of the doctrine of God.  We, the church, have allowed the world to come in amongst us and change the house of God into the world.  We have compromised the Word of God.

Once I was asked by a Pastor what I thought the church was lacking.  Quickly and without thinking the power of God spoke, sharply and decisively. “Teaching, the church has a lack of teaching.”  When the majority of the churches are not preaching against sin and teachers are not permitted to teach against sin; when they are not to draw a Godly line in the sand and forbidden to teach what God has said is immoral.  Where does that leave us?  Where does that leave our children?  Where does that leave the lost, in the world?  We now have a people who know how to be amused, but not how to make a stand for Christ in the middle of that amusement.  With eyes to see we would admit the error of…having let our children be entertained into going to church.

If we are going to follow Christ in these last days then we are going to have to stop following man.  I have heard Christian people say to me “Oh, I know he or she does and says some things that are not exactly right (according to the word of God) but they are my friend, or family member, or even one of the leaders in the church.”  We can see they are compromising the very counsel of God for man.  So we ourselves compromise the word of God to keep fellowship with the ungodly.

We can see, and have seen, the Church looking more and more like a social Club than the Body of Christ.  Ask yourself, would Christ be selling his wares in the place he comes to pray to His heavenly Father and to read the Holy Scripture, the place of worship and praise, a place set aside for lifting up and glorifying God?  Do we really believe that we are not profaning this Holy place we have set aside for God?  Have we really been blinded as to what we have done?  I am not saying that we should not fellowship with each other.  What I’m saying is we should not be using the Church as a way for personal gain or for entertainment; pushing past trinkets, tee-shirts, books, C.D’s, marquees of next week’s entertainment; how about advertisements to come join them on Monday night, not for fellowship, for football.  Don’t forget Wednesday night we will be showing the movie (insert what-ever title), which must be a real good movie because last week it played at the secular theatre.  Remember, one of Jesus’ first ministry acts and one of His last was the cleansing of the Temple (John 2:13-22, Matt. 21:12-17 and Mark 11:15-17).

The church (building) is a type and shadow of the Church (Body).    This vessel, the church (building) and what it represents is also what we the church (body) will represent.  If the church building is full of the world then we the church body will be full of the world, but if the church building is full of prayer, worship, devotion, praise; full to the top and over-flowing with the truth and revelation that only the Holy Spirit can bring, then the church (Body) will be likewise.  Did not the Lord Himself say that He would be coming back for a church without spot nor wrinkle (Eph. 5:27)?  Which one of these two scenarios looks like the glorious church the Lord is coming back for; the one full of the world or the one full of the Holy Spirit.

In the church I also hear a lot about what is relevant.  It is suggested that we can only reach the non-believers with what is relevant to them.  What is relevant to them?  The answer is quite clear, it is the world.  So it is said, we must reach the lost with the world.  Let us stay with this thought of relevance, but let us go to God for His counsel.  In God’s word we read this about the world, “God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  I don’t believe that there could be anything more relevant to man than that.

We will never reach the lost with the world and I know this to be the God’s truth for if it were possible to reach the world any other way, God would have said so in His Holy Scriptures.  What God does tell us is that there is only one way to the Father and that way is through the Son.  I have to wonder, do we really believe we can entertain lost souls into heaven?

We have only to look at Scripture to see that it is not entertainment that we are commissioned to go and do, but we are to go and preach the Gospel.  The Bible says we are counted as sheep for the slaughter (Rom. 8:6), that we would be hated by all men (Matt. 10:22/Mark 13:13), we will suffer persecution (John 15:20).  But the church seems to be striving to get the worlds love.  Under a false pretense that the devil has given them, they believe by doing worldly things to win the worlds love this will bring them into the church.

At first glance, it would appear that they are right and people are coming to the church by the thousands, but by entertaining them into the church (building) there is no conversion and without conversion there is no chance for them to enter into the Kingdom of God.  Without conversion they cannot be the Church (The body of Christ) and they have been given a false sense of salvation.  They believe because they are in the church (Building) they are saved.  Do we really believe that God, in all of His wisdom and all of His knowledge of the beginning from the end, has left out of His word, how in these last days we are to bring the lost into the Kingdom of God?  I do not read anywhere in God’s word where there would come a generation that can only be reached through what is relevant to them.