The Church: Who we need to be

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

This sermon is a follow up the last week's sermon, "The Church: what it was, is and is becoming.

About a year ago I had the privilege of hearing Dallas Willard speak in person. Dallas is one of the key Christian leaders today. He is a professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California who has also specialized in the the area of Christian spiritual formation. Read whatever you of what he wrote, and if you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do it. Here is his website.

Anyway, that day Dallas was talking about the human soul and he defined it as "that part of us that integrates all other parts." (He explores this some in his book, Renovation of the Heart). I was fascinated by this and discussed it with him a bit, and have been thinking it through ever since. I also mention in my sermon that Paul Grout has been saying that "our current manner of living is destroying our soul." So if our soul's are being destroyed by contemporary life, then we are losing our ability to integrate life--we are becoming more animal-like and less human. It is no wonder that human nature is degenerating, which is the fulfillment of one of the three prophecies I discuss in the sermon.

Pollster George Barna discusses what he believes are "four common barriers to transformation, including lack of commitment, unwillingness to fully repent, confusing activity for growth, and failure to engage in genuine, accountable community." Read it here.

If you google around the statistics related to Christian faith in the USA, you find a lot of interesting stuff. One fact is that those who self-identity as Christian are decreasing by 1% a year, and this while the population is increasing each year, meaning that there are less of us, by percentage of our society, each year. This is one reason our influence is waning. Despite the prevalence of mega-churches (more now than ever, and larger ones each year), there is no county in the USA where the percentage of Christians has grown.

Without a major spiritual revival, this will not change. The purpose of these two sermons was to help us understand what is happening, but to also left up what God is doing in the midst of it. During the era when Christendom reigned, the church got all entangled with the culture and the world and the government. It brought power, but power often corrupts. God is not taking us to a place where we have the opportunity to reexamine what we are, what we seek, and what we are called to. It is a good thing.

All this leads me to seek out from God, what this means for me and for the congregation I serve. Status quo no longer makes it. Being busy doing good things, no longer accomplishes much, if it ever did. Society is redefining normal; we need to "understand" (listen to the sermon), what God deems normal, and commit to it.

Do not fear. Rather, seek Jesus and the spiritual transformation only He can provide, and you will be fine in this post-modern, pre-Christian era. You will be fine, but you will be weird (in the world's eyes) and you will not remain the same. You will be God's person.

Thanks for digging deeper.