From "French Fry Church" to a Church on FIRE!

Welcome to the most happening church. Built for consumers. Made to satisfy. Something for everyone. Asking very little. Accommodating your time. Your comfort zone. Your appetite. Like McDonald's french fries right out of the fryer. Perfectly salted. Amazingly warm. With all the satisfaction of nourishment.

And then they’re gone. And you’re back at home. Let down. Your stomach is groaning. Your face feels funny. Like fat, little trolls have taken over. Morphed out of formerly healthy cells. Stabbing you with tiny, little spears. (I know results may vary. That’s mine!)

Yes, you’ve technically eaten. But you’re all the more malnourished.

Woah! Wait! What are you saying?

No. I'm not equating Micky D's and their fabulous, fatface-inducing fries with the real nourishment found in church. God is alive and ever-present in His Word and Sacrament. I am saying that it is possible, and on an epic scale happening, that many of us are confusing being merely exposed, with being disposed. Many of us are like those cursed Pirates of the Caribbean who partake, but do not receive.

Let’s face it. We are a consumer culture. We consume food. We consume entertainment. We consume clothes. We consume time. In each instance there’s a product. It promises momentary satisfaction. Then it’s gone. We’re little to no different from before. We don’t expect to be. On to the next.

We expect this of products. The big question is: Do we expect this of God? Have we put Him into a consumer package?

Let’s be honest. I am challenged. I have reduced faith and church activity to a “product” to be consumed. There for a limited time. In a limited place. With a limited people. And when done, on to the next.

How about you? Here’s a quick test. When you think of the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, is it confined to a particular context? That time? That place? Those people?

Have we reduced the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to a package?

If we truly believe it was the Holy Spirit who acted, and the Holy Spirit is always present to us, what keeps us from continuing to live in that power wherever we are? What keeps us from recognizing this very moment as having every bit as much power as any other? What keeps us from seeking to live it in our marriages, homes and parishes overflowing to the world?

In our churches is it clear that the success of each and every activity has the purpose of our being more genuinely alive in Jesus Christ? (Rom. 6:11) This is not just a feeling. “You shall know them by their fruit.” (Matthew 7:16)

As a result of your church activity:
How much more are you intentionally and actively making your home a disciple-making culture?
Do you spend more time doing church activities than you do talking and praying with your family at home?
Are you actively and naturally evangelizing and giving testimony? (Rev. 12:11)
Are you living in the truth that you’ve been blessed to be a blesser? Is this revealed in your bank statements and calendar?
Are you evidently building the Kingdom wherever God has you? (Matt. 28:18)

I'm speaking to churches that:
Are more interested in being filled than in what is filling those who are there.
Reduce discipleship to being a good person.

Pull punches on life saving truth because it’s unpopular or inconvenient (2 Tim. 4:2).
Are more interested in another program than faith as a way of life.
Perpetuate the holy hot-tub instead of sending disciples into the world.
Are more interested in periodic words than in genuinely, passionately, joyfully living it.
Only accommodate the lowest bar instead of raise our eyes up to the heights.

I want to be part of a church where people are being taught, encouraged and challenged to live it out, engaged in transforming the culture around us. Where this is being modeled in an exceptional and engaging way by the pastor and his team.

I want to be part of a church that knows what it's about, a specific and ultimate kind of success revealed by Jesus Christ. That recognizes, like academics, business or sports, there is a criteria for success with discipleship. We didn't create it. But our faithfulness is measured by it.

I want to be part of a church that is not about accommodating the low-bar. Not worried about how I feel. That’s not afraid to bring it.

This is love, desiring the greatest good of another. A doctor doesn't pull punches with a sick patient. Neither should pastors in dealing with a sick church bloated on a diet of spiritual consumerism. So insecure. Without anchor. (Matt. 7:21) A boat forever tossed about by waves of the new, next and greatest entrée promising to satiate the spiritual-consuming beast. Only to leave me all the more drowning. Fatigued. Bewildered. Hungry.

I want to be part of a church whose eyes are being constantly raised up in faith-filled receptivity to what is truly revealed and faithfully required of a "community of missionary disciples."

And even if "many leave" (John 6:66), I want to be counted among those who will say with Peter: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life." (John 6:68)

I’m tired of the hurt. The confusion. The brokenness. The anguish. The tragedy. And all else that pronounce our world to be tripping over the low-bar set by our churches.

The epic M.O. of “church”, the capacity God gave to reach down from the heavens into this earth, to love people back to life, ought not stand for “Missed Opportunity.”

I want to know and live for my life’s purpose. I want my Savior. More than consuming, I want to be consumed. I want a Holy Community lived corresponding to the Holy Communion we receive.

Lord, let Your church arise!

[If any of this speaks to you, accept the LiveITChallenge.eventbrite.com. You are church. Become the difference you want to see.]