The Casual Christian

A new study commissioned by Bill Hybel revealed the astounding fact that “Increasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone is becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”

I have enclosed a letter which I would like you to read and sign and then send on to the designated recipients, if you so choose. Then if you don’t mind, please let me know how you responded my emailing me at craig@casualchristian.net. In so doing you will help bring this matter to resolution in a way that glorifies God.

It is this lack of caring community in today's church that has earned it the moniker of hypocrite and drives away potential converts.

We cannot drive up to a ghetto in a Rolls Royce and expect to have any impact. So if we want to reach those who are most receptive to the gospel—‘the least of these,’ we may have to forfeit some of the trappings of our considerable wealth.

If we ever want to see God pour out his Holy Spirit upon the church in revival, our leaders need to turn from reliance on man-made methods, and depend on the Holy Spirit to do build His church.

“Strikingly, contemporary church thought and practice have been influenced far more by post biblical historical events than by New Testament imperatives and examples.”

Regardless of its true character and intent, the Christian community is not known for love, nor for a life transforming faith.” George Barna

One way religious leaders can build rapport with church members and open themselves up for honest dialogue is to shed the spiritual veneer that many of them have so assiduously cultivated.

“A word of advice. Open your heart to the people. Do not hole up in that corner suite of offices and isolate yourself from the members ...  Send a message that folks are welcome to meet with you."

“Abuse is sad. But because of that pesky matter of church autonomy, we can’t remove predatory pastors from the pulpit. Please stop calling and emailing about your suffering. Our hands are tied, but we hear prayer heals all wounds. God bless.”

It is time to put our houses in order so that when Christ appears we will be found faithfully building His kingdom.

“Given the voluminous stream of moral challenges, and the rampant spiritual hunger that defines our culture today, this should be the heyday for biblical ministry. As things stand now, we have become content with placating sinners and filling auditoriums as the marks of spiritual health.”

However, like a sewer system that issues from a private home and eventually drops its unprocessed waste into the public waterways, private behavior eventually corrupts public morals as individuals who care little about others swell the ranks of the population.

Today's churches have abandoned this Biblical model to follow the secular culture. Ministry has become almost entirely academic. Churches look more like educational establishments with their classrooms and lecture halls. More and more ministry requires a seminary or Bible School degree.

We must start by acknowledging that no present day phenomenon can account for the massive forces of nature that accompanied the flood.  The world that exists today is drastically different from the one God created.

Churches have a tendency to lose their focus as ministries grow. In their words, “The bureaucracy …takes on a life of its own and the focus changes from serving people to maintaining the bureaucracy. Churches and ministries that deviate from or expand their core mission always shift from a “people” focus to an “enterprise” focus. Institution takes precedence over individual.

These revivals began with a deep-seated sense of dissatisfaction with the life of the church that arose out of heartfelt prayer of believers throughout the Christian community.

Historical evidence for the accuracy of the Bible abounds. No other document has proven to be so reliable when it comes to matters of history or science or faith. So why are people so cavalier about their relationships to God and one another? God says the penalties for ignoring His Word can be very severe. And if those pronouncements are as reliable as the rest of scripture, then we disregard them at our own peril.

Have you asked God to grant you boldness to share your faith? Be assured, that is what He wants for you. If you ask for it, He will grant you boldness like you have never known. What have you got to lose?

This is the value neutral, non-judgmental environment of postmodernism which our culture has been fostering for a generation and which has now engulfed the Christian community. It manifests itself in Christian circles through the lack of emphasis on repentance and sorrow for sin, which used to be a prerequisite for forgiveness.

“God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.” William Wilberforce

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”  Charles Darwin

The final chapters of the book explore ways in which the modern church can recapture some of the vitality of the early church. The first prerequisite is revival. There hasn’t been a national revival since the Great Revival, over 150 years ago.

There hasn’t been a national revival since the Great Revival, over 150 years ago. The major impediment has been reliance on the methods and means of man. Professionalism, performance and an over-emphasis on human leadership and achievement have supplanted reliance on the Holy Spirit and the unadulterated Word of God.

Paul wants believers to put his teaching into practice together as a family.  His letters are filled with exhortations to “one another....” In all there are over 50 references to “one another” throughout the New Testament. In other words, spiritual growth was a group activity in the New Testament. Almost all of Paul’s admonitions are addressed not to any one particular individual, but to an entire group of believers. It is much easier to achieve spiritual growth with the active support of fellow believers. That is why Paul put such emphasis on working out the faith in vital community.

Where did the order come from? If the universe came about by chance, there would be no predictability - no laws of science. It is this predictability that allows scientists to put satellites in orbit around mars, a feat equivalent to throwing a basketball from New York City to San Francisco and getting nothing but net! Clearly there is a mind behind the order in the universe. And not just a mind, but a power to create and sustain it.

Getting in the habit of issuing a free pardon to the offender while compelling the wounded party to graciously accept his humiliation only produces a target-rich environment for perennial predators.

The modern church has become the Laodicean church — wealthy, self-satisfied, and complacent, but unable to recognize that it is blind, naked, poor and pitiful in God’s eyes.

The gospel is the most compelling message of all time because it tugs at a need we all have for spiritual restoration. If any message has the potential to go viral, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet we try to quarantine that virus in the familiar confines of our church buildings and programs.

The mega-church has been served up in a package that has been market tested to meet the tastes of a culture accustomed to around the clock entertainment. It lacks zeal for revival, remorse for sin, willingness to sacrifice for Christ and His kingdom, and the powerful prayer life that brings down the Holy Spirit in a flood of conviction, confession and commitment.

When scholars monopolize the ranks of leadership, pedagogy replaces holistic ministry. Preaching and teaching take precedence over caring for those with deep needs. The rhetorical replaces the practical. That is why Jesus said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”