I have a friend who eats too much ice cream. His large belly looks revolting and in fact he is all too reminiscent of a beached whale that I once saw in Islamorada. The other day my buddy came to Honey Lake for a hunting trip and wore a camo tee shirt that was too short to cover his fat belly in its entirety and it revealed his big hairy paunch in a manner that was… well… very disturbing. It was in fact so grotesque that I had to ask him to wear additional clothing, (coat or something) before entering our restaurant where other patrons were trying to eat.
He is the top executive of a large organization and the other day they conducted a retreat at Honey Lake and he asked me to give a talk to his staff about being brutally frank and honest with employees.
Hmmm… Just because I sometimes use a 2X4 to knock someone in the head to get their attention, he asks me to extol the virtues of tough love candor. Go figure. My commentary below is equally frank, so if you don’t want to read it, stop here.
One of the primary goals of our new Honey Lake Church and Worldwide Ministry is to reach those folks who do not ordinarily attend church because they’ve been turned off by it.
As I consider putting our services together to attract these people to our church, I want to assess the situation and try to understand what it is about going to church that people don’t like. Before we can ever hope to solve a problem we must first identify it. This cannot be accomplished if we are in a state of denial. Sometimes it just takes a brutally frank assessment of the situation without regard to egos.
If for example my pot-bellied friend wants to quit wearing relaxed fit jeans, expando pants, and being 86’d from family restaurants he must first identify it as “his” problem of too much food intake combined with too little exercise and he must discipline himself from gorging on ice cream every time he passes a Dairy Queen. I have told him this in loving kindness, but he steadfastly rejects all advice and thus remains hippo-esque.
The same holds true with today’s churches which are losing membership in alarming numbers. If the tide is to turn and people are to return to church the problem(s) must be identified and then action must be taken to resolve those problems. But first a candid appraisal is in order.
I went to a church one time and the preacher was railing at the top of his lungs. He shouted out, “If you smoke pot or drink alcohol, you’re going to hell!” I looked at my wife and said, “Let’s get the hell out of here!” And we did. I’ve read the Bible so many times I don’t even remember how many, and cannot ever recall reading those verses.
Churches must preach the word directly out of the Bible without adding or detracting. Jesus said that he didn’t come to judge or condemn but to save the world and we should follow His perfect example. What determines our eternal destiny is the blood of Christ and whether or not it covers our sins.
I went into a local church in my community and when we walked in, there were perhaps 30 people inside and every single one of them turned and looked at us with unsmiling faces and stared. (I wondered if my pants were unzipped or some similar malady, but after checking, all was in order – Whew!) My wife and I were never greeted by anyone and I literally felt as though I was interrupting someone’s private party.
Is it any wonder they only had a 30 member congregation? People want to feel welcome and not as though they are interrupting someone and annoying them by their presence. Jesus loves everyone!
I went to another church and the music program consisted of three people playing instruments. One man was playing a trombone that appeared to be 100 years old. From the looks of him I would imagine that he bought it new. One would have thought he would have learned how to play it in 100 years. He did not.
The choir leader sang a solo that was so bad that it literally had me covering up my ears. I don’t know how he got that job. I’ve heard it said that God loves to hear us singing praise to his name no matter how dreadful it may sound. That is not logical to me. I think Jesus might have covered His ears too. I can’t sing very well, so out of consideration for the church membership and God I usually lip synch and think others should follow those guidelines.
Good music enhances a service. Bad music is as irritating as scratching one’s fingers across a chalkboard.
I went to a church one time and as I sat in the car surveying those going inside, no one was wearing a tie but me. I griped about it as being disrespectful to God and my youngest son immediately said, “I like wearing casual clothes to church”. I yanked my tie off and we entered. Later I moved to the Florida Keys and wore Bermuda shorts and an Aloha shirt to church and didn’t think twice about it.
Appropriate dress is whatever is appropriate.
I was in church and we were holding a pastor’s conference in our large auditorium and we had tons of visitors for this event. After Sunday school my friend and I went to our regular seats and someone was sitting in them. Just then we saw our Sunday school teacher. He smiled and chided us saying, “It looks like you guys are going to have to sit somewhere else today”.
My friend, who was mega wealthy, smugly said, “As much money as we give to this church we ought to have reserved seats and an entire pew set aside for us with engraved bronze plaques”. I never felt so low down in my life and I snapped, “Speak for yourself brother”, and turned on my heels and headed for the balcony where I sat by myself, madder than a wet hen.
Visitors should get the prime seats. Jesus is the King of kings and owns all of creation and yet He chose to be born in a lowly manger and washed the feet of His disciples. He wants us to serve in humility and to be humble. Geez!
As I read about the ministry of Jesus and the early churches that followed, I don’t see any resemblance to most of our churches today. Jesus didn’t belong to a denomination or recommend one, and He didn’t require a dress code. He shunned those who practiced ritual and chanted repetitious prayers. He disliked and condemned hypocrites and those who lorded their goodness over others. He talked plainly to people, often using parables full of analogies and metaphors that ordinary people could easily relate to. He knew more than any human could ever possibly know and yet He didn’t talk down to people or try to make them feel bad about themselves. He preached hope and love. I often wonder how it made Him feel when the Catholic Church preached sermons in Latin that no one could understand. Huh?
At HLP Church we’ll strive to preach interesting messages that are Bible based but we’ll remain non-denominational. We will try our utmost to have good music, a casual friendly atmosphere, have something for young folks and grouchy old codgers like me. We recognize that family’s that stay together pray together and will be family oriented.
Yes we’ll make mistakes and people will gripe about them like they do about Words for the Day, but at the end of the service I doubt many people will leave and look at each other and say, “And we came to this place, why?” It is my hope that you will attend and say, “Man oh man that is how church ought to be!”
Oh by the way we won’t harp on money too much either; instead I’ll do it now. Donations are appreciated. It costs money to stream a message of God’s hope all over the world and we need some. Give if you can and feel led to do so. That is between you and God, but the Bible promises that He will bless you if you do.
Okay I’m done for now. And just in case you think I’m the only one who likes to be brutally frank then be sure and carefully read today’s Scripture and see who else is candid. 🙂
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday. (Our first service is January 20th beginning at 10:00 a.m.
Matt 23:1
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses.So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden…
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish,and then the outside will become clean, too.
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”