Five plagues of the Churches of your Town.

 The Study of the Book of Revelation has me thinking of the seven churches of 90AD and the churches of today.  I have often heard the arguments about which is better, a small church or a large church. You might say the little church doesn't have the resources to reach more people, or that someone can just be lost in the crowd in the large church. I will submit to you that  both sizes of church have many advantages and disadvantages but the both should have the same Lord. I do not want to focus on what is different between the two here but on what problems they share. I put forth for your consideration the five disciple destroyers that plague churches of all sizes.

1. Theological drift- I have seen the Gospel take a back seat to all kinds of crazy teachings in churches of all sizes. Whether a charismatic leader is taking the church down a path he claims God is leading him or changing political and cultural winds blow whole denominations off course, the drift away from orthodoxy can wreck churches of any size. Church discipline and a steady course of proper teaching and discernment is required to stave off this illness.
2. Growth over Gospel- Small churches need to grow to keep the lights on and pay bills while large ones need to grow to support the huge amount of continuing maintenance caused by large buildings and growing technology needs. These aren't bad things but our faithless reaction to them can be. Sometimes in the name of putting but in seats we make decisions to please the seeker instead of praising the Lord. Growth comes from the Holy Spirit and not by making the Gospel so palatable that it offends no one. The true Gospel is very offensive but it has the power to save. the key to avoid placing to much importance on growth is to put your faith in God to fill the pews as long as you are truly faithful to his message
3. Serving the servers- in every church there is always people complaining about what the church is or is not doing most of the time the topics they raise have more to do with services provided by the church or a lack of appreciation for the work someone has done in the Church. People demand their name be put in the bulletin or an award be given (like the Susanna Wesley award) and Church leaders fear if they don't feed the ego of church members some may withhold tithing or worse leave. Pastors are attacked based on their personality instead of the substance of their sermons or work. Pastors are worried about the attendance and pension more than they are about getting the Gospel to the community and Bishops become rich and entitled worrying about appointments and who is paying apportionments. It often feels like the job of the church is to supply employment instead of make disciples. 
4. "Working" for the church- More time has been spent by"leaders" trying to save the crumbling UMC than in developing ways to evangelize and disciple a growing non Christian population. Bishop's and pastors like Adam Hamilton are willing to give theological ground in any direction to save their beloved UMC. I've heard many refer to it as THEIR Church the same way local congregations do allot when talking about saving THEIR Church from shrinking congregations. They make an Idol out of the"church" when they are willing to change the Gospel to"save" it. We should double down on the true Gospel and be willing to sell buildings and divide from those who appose the Gospel in order to spread It.
5. Dumb disciples-the modern Church has the most access to the most reliable translations of the Bible ever in history yet a large number of the layman in the pews know little to nothing of theology. This has definitely been a failure of church leadership who are afraid to push people to spend time and effort and study out of a fear that they will find the church boring and move on to more fun and entertaining diversions. But a lot of the blame also lies on the individual Christian who's laziness has caused them to not only neglect their own study and spiritual growth but also that of their children. these parents who feel inadequate because of their own lack of knowledge have been trusting local churches to teach their children about the Bible. And when faithful teachers try to get serious when it comes to teaching the young people the doctrines that will keep them in the faith the rest of their life the same parents will allow their students to skip Sunday School and spend zero time reading the Bible at home. This has caused an entire generation of people who are biblically illiterate and therefore are handicapped when it comes to sharing the gospel with others. These parents would never dream of letting their children skip math class or English and be illiterate for the rest of their lives but if the child says they don't like Sunday school or their friends aren't there or it's boring then they'll let them skip or switch to a different church that's more about fun then education. Regardless of our age it is time for Christians to dedicate ourselves to the study of the scriptures again so we will not be fooled by false leaders or use as an excuse of inaction that we don't know what to do.

Here at Clapp's Chapel we are trying to turn a corner by inviting a ministry called the Spirit and Truth into our congregation to help us with evangelism and and discipleship. I truly believe if we are faithful to evangelizing and discipling that God will be pleased and our church will be whatever he wants it to be, small large are no longer.

Grace and Peace

Gabe