What do you think about Church?

Recently, I conducted an online survey with simple questions about church and asked friends on Facebook to take the survey.  Only 22 people responded to the survey, but I think it gives us a clear picture of the status of several things.  See below;

1. What age group do you fall into?  36.4% of those responding were between the ages of 27 and 35.
2. Which type of music do you like best? This was a tie between "Modern rock/Contemporary" and "Gospel" both having 36.4%
3. Where do you feel most relaxed?  An overwhelming 45.5% responded "Home" while only 4.5% responded "Church".
4. Do you attend church at least once a week? 81.8% responded "Yes"
5. What denomination best describes you? An overwhelming 77.3% responded, "Southern Baptist"
6.  Do you enjoy your time at church? (Be honest) 72.7% responded yes
7.  What do you like most about church? 68.2% said they like the "Message/sermon" best
8. What do you dislike most about church?  This is one that is interesting to me.  Above, we so many things that participants like about church, but the number one thing they dislike the most about church is, "The lack of sincerity with 56.3% of the vote.
9. If you could change anything about church, what would it be?  This was a short essay response with only 11 out of 22 participant responding.  See below for what they had to say;

1.	First off, am I really middle age? :-) #8 is the hardest question to answer. I really enjoy my church (Brushy Creek, Easley). While it is not perfect i believe most are sincere, the music is uplifting and glorifying. The preaching is by the Book. Dislike the most about church... let the lost see Christ's love in us. Keep the rules/regulations (dress right, look right, smell right, etc) in the middle school.	Fri, Oct 15, 2010 3:45 AM	Find...
2.	That I could go everynight, or at anytime I needed to just go in and pray at the alter. Open doors 24-7 but I understand why we can't...thiefs & vandels. And NO I am NOT catholic.	Thu, Oct 14, 2010 10:27 PM	Find...
3.	the pastor	Mon, Oct 11, 2010 11:00 PM	Find...
4.	The way some people act like they are better than others but then again i guess you find that everywhere!	Mon, Oct 11, 2010 6:32 PM	Find...
5.	Staet earlier on Sunday.	Mon, Oct 11, 2010 5:53 PM	Find...
6.	Matthew I can not answer #8. There is nothing that I dislike about church and being there. Dont know that I would change anything, I do wish more people would yield to the Holy Spirit and His call.	Mon, Oct 11, 2010 5:23 PM	Find...
7.	Nothing	Sun, Oct 10, 2010 7:12 PM	Find...
8.	i would change the messages the pastor preaches. sometimes it seems like the preacher is just talking and not really preaching from the bible.	Sun, Oct 10, 2010 6:05 PM	Find...
9.	the church as an institution instead of as a place for healing,salvation,and worship	Sun, Oct 10, 2010 4:37 PM	Find...
10.	To stop worrying about the small thing, God will take care of those.	Sun, Oct 10, 2010 11:17 AM	Find...
11.	Get more people in the church, have the people already in church be there for God, not for appearance.

It appears to me that we are not successful in our presentation of the modern day church.  It's clear to me that most people don't feel like their needs are met by the church as indicated in Questions # 8 identifying the lack of sincerity.  How do we fix such a problem?  We know now that what one of our major problems as the church is, now let's work to fix it.

What Changed?

What Changed?

So what changed for me?  Well, after my life changing experience with Christ (church people call it salvation, or being saved), God granted me a passion to see lives changed for him.  I wanted people to see that God loves them no matter what they look like, how much money they have, what they wear, or what color their skin is.  I wanted people to know that God loves them even when they've played Church their entire life.

God had blessed our church with an abundance of youth and children on Wednesday nights.  In fact, we ran three and four buses multiple trips just to keep the kids coming.  Many of the kids came from abusive homes, most came from broken homes, and some were convicted juvenile offenders.   I mean, if you wanted a target rich environment for sharing the love of God, this was it!!  But you see, the Devil isn’t really open to God’s people sharing the gospel with people that need to hear it; especially our youth and children.  In fact, he will do whatever he has to do to stop such a good thing, even if he has to use other Church members to do it.  You see, most Christians fail to realize just how significant Jesus’ life on Earth was.  They fail to see that Christ changed an entire culture.  Just look in the bible (if you don’t have one, visit www.biblegateway.com) at the book of John, Chapter 4, beginning in verse 4 through verse 9.   You see, Jesus and the disciples were Jews, and according to the Bible, the Jews despised the Samaritans.  In fact, if a Jew were to be discovered talking to a Samaritan, criminal charges could be brought against the Jew.  But Jesus knew that the Love of God had no limitations and that same love was much greater than man made traditions.   In this passage, Jesus met the Woman at the Well and asked her for water and ultimately proceeded to witness to her.  In that time, no self respecting Jewish man would be caught dead with a Samaritan prostitute.  But again, Jesus knew her need to hear about the love of God.  Compare this passage with what goes on in most churches today.  Seems like we’ve become modern day Jews looking down on the Samaritans.

In my case, most of the leadership of the Church I was in at the time, decided that the youth and children needed a written dress code in order to attend our church.  Simply put, the leadership of the church wasn’t willing to accept the youth and children as they were.  They failed to see, like the Jews failed to see, that the love of God didn’t put limitations on the clothes the kids wore.  In fact, Jesus is quoted as saying in Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  The leadership of our Church felt they weren’t seeing a “Change” in the youth thus the need for a dress code.  Many of us stood our ground and protested the policy with numerous scriptural references with little biblical reference to substantiate the actions of the leadership.  I felt at this time as though God was leading my family and I to move on.  I realized shortly thereafter that I was extremely Spiritually Wounded.  In fact, my whole family was wounded and in desperate need of healing.  My sister had invited us to visit with her and her husband at their church, Golden Corner Church, which met on Sunday mornings in the Walhalla High School.  She insisted that we come as we are and that we not dress up.  As I write this blog, we have been attending Golden Corner ever since and below are some of the things God has revealed to me.

1.       God created the family before he created the church- This is obvious if we begin in Genesis when God created Adam and Eve.  In fact, the Church didn’t come about until many years later, and when it did, the Church was not indicative of a building or structure. I wonder if Moses built a church building every time they camped while in the wilderness?  Many Christians believe that church attendance is essential to Godliness and while important, it does not rank as high as our family.  After all, what church was Jesus a member of while on Earth?  What if, we spent more time with our kids than we did arguing about the paint on the walls?  What would society be like when their generation is in charge?

2.       God could really care less about what we wear to Church on Sunday morning- This became evident to me one Sunday after church.  We went to Ryan’s in Seneca after the service for lunch.  Golden Corner’s service began at 10:00am and was usually over by 11:30 so we beat the typical Baptist crowd by about 30 minutes.  As the usual church crowd began filtering in, I noticed many of the people wearing suits and dresses kept giving me mean looks because I was wearing a tee shirt, shorts, and flip flops.  I wonder if those people have ever read, 1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

3.       God wants us to enjoy worshipping him- Why would God want somebody to worship him out of obligation?  Would you want somebody to go out with you or marry you out of obligation?  Of course not and neither does God.  Contrary to popular belief, it is not biblical that we sing three hymns, take the offering, have a message, and an invitation in that order.  God desperately longs for a relationship with us and wants to have meaningful communication with us.  One of the many ways we communicate with God is through worship.

Now, I don’t mean to lump all Baptist’ in the same wagon.  There are many Baptist churches that come to mind how are actively engaged in community outreach.  I think it is more appropriate that I should equate my opinions to, “traditional church goers”.  I’ll admit, it’s tough to minister to people of different cultures, races, upbringings, and backgrounds, but what exactly do we think Jesus did?  Jesus didn’t care about the Jewish law forbidding contact with Samaritans!  I’ve learned that God’s love is greater far than an old “traditional church goer” like me…

Recovery: The First Step is to Admit You Have a Problem

Growing up a devout Southern Baptist, I learned at an early age there were many unwritten rules that you MUST follow in order to be a good Christian.

1. You could only have a good relationship with Christ if you attend church Sunday morning, evening, and on Wednesday nights.
2. You weren't truly a Christian unless you dressed like a good Christian.  This included suits, dresses, and under no circumstances were you to wear shorts.
3. If the lost want to come to church, they know where it is.  And if they do come, they better wear decent clothes.
4. Only Southern Gospel music, or hymns, were acceptable in Church.  Under  no circumstances were you to play or sing music that moved you.  AND, don't even think about bringing in a set of drums.  Drums were an abomination.

There are many other stories of man made rules and horror stories of being asked to leave the church because of how you dressed, looked, or talked.  But, let's talk about me.  I grew up a devout Southern Baptist and followed all of these rules; well most of them.  I was a Youth Pastor at three different churches and was witness to all three Youth programs grow.  I participated in music evangelism and was witness to countless people coming to know Christ as their personal savior.  In short, I looked like a Christian, walked like a Christian, and talked like a Christian, but I was anything but a Christian.  You see, to be a Christian, one must understand what a Christian.  Websters defines a christian as, "a person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Christ" and further defines a christian as, "Disciples of Christ". 

It would be difficult for you to go to the Emergency Room and pretend to be a Doctor. Sooner than later, people will discover that you are a fake. However, if you go to Church, it is assumed you are a Christian if you look, act, and talk like a Christian and any doubts will be adamantly discussed behind your back. But nobody dare confront you about it, unless you're under the age of 18.

February 6th, 2008, I attended a revival service where the pastor preached about the Prodigal Son.Specifically, I remember the pastor reading the part of the scripture, "and while he (the son) was still far away, he (the father) saw him and ran to his son." The pastor went on to talk about how the father was waiting and watching for his son's return as indicated by the scripture passage and that our heavenly Father is waiting and watching for us to come to him.  That evening, I had a life changing experience with Christ and I asked him to become the Lord of my life.

You see, I had played church for a long time but I discovered that I was nothing more than a hollow shell.  In many cases, I was one person at church and another at work.  In my next blog, I will talk about some of the things God brought to my attention that needed to be fixed.

Church: What's in it for Me?

Hello everybody, and welcome to my first attempt at a blog.  Sometime back, a great friend and colleague, Adam Zenoni and I were discussing various religious topics.  We discussed how great it would be to write a book and title it, "Christianity For Dummies".  Since that time, I have been unsuccessful in my attempts, but then it occurred to me that something was horribly wrong.  I realized that Spiritually, I was very sick.  I had been so consumed in, "We've always done it that way" that I could not see what the Lord is trying to tell me.

If you're reading this blog, it is my hope that you will already have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  If you are miserable when you attend church, you feel like something is missing, or you are simply questioning where God is, then this blog is for you.  I'm not a PhD, I don't have a degree in theology, nor have I been around the world presenting the gospel.  My late grandfather, Lake Chapman, believed that ministry was in most cases unsuccessful within the walls of the church.  He was widely respected in the community for his ministry outside the walls of the Church yet he couldn't even read the bible he knew so much about.  So, sit back and know that it is my prayer that you will be blessed by what God has taught me in the last two and half years.