Not Surprised-When God is God-Playing Religion

Another hindrance to the growth of the church is what I would call Religiosity. There are people who at some point in their lives became associated with the church by going through the motions of what their denominational system required. For some this includes infant baptism and confirmation, others walking an aisle to pray to accept Christ and later be baptized, still others being born in a faith and following the decrees of the church. You can debate the validity of these paths if you like, but the fact is that no path guarantees that a person actually become a born-again, Holy Spirit filled follower of Jesus. In fact Jesus said it this way…

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 7:21 NIV

In every church there are those who have jumped through every hoop and completed every ceremony, but seemingly have no idea what it truly means to be “in Christ”. For them, church attendance becomes their weekly dues…but don’t ask them to pay more than is required. Church better not run long, and the music better not be loud, the youth pastor better keep the teenagers quiet, and…well you get the picture. Again, it is easy to see how having too many religious but not born-again attenders can slow the growth of the church.

During my first few weeks at a new church where I pastored, a couple approached me and commented that the services seemed to be running longer since I came to the church and they wanted to know if this change was going to be permanent. I explained that we had extended the services 15 minutes to allow for more worship and creative elements. They announced that this would be their last Sunday at the church, that church was “supposed to be an hour”, and they would be transferring a church that had services that lasted an hour.

I could give countless other examples, but really this attitude comes down to one prevailing thought, "what's being offered for me?" Worship is supposed to be the offering that we bring to God, not something that is offered to us by God or the church. Who would really want to be part of a church where people were focused on what they want all the time?