Grace, Faith & Life

We usually speak of the church as the building, or as a group of people in “the” building who are all “born again” and have a common understanding of their faith.

The Church, which is the spiritual body of Christ in the New Testament, is not the same as our denominational “Christian” churches.

I have heard of statements from prominent preachers that “ninety percent of the people in churches are not saved”. I am not sure I agree with this. I will agree that ninety percent of the people in churches don’t exhibit an understanding of what it means to be “in Christ”. I attribute much of the blame for this on what new Christians are taught. Being “in Christ” is spiritual, how do people learn to understand their spiritual relationship with God when they are taught organizational planning, and denominational doctrines and methods?There are many different types of believers in every local denominational congregation.

1. There are a few who are “born again” believers who understand grace and live according to the grace of God.
2. There are those who live according to law and works,
3. There are those who are “burned out” on denominational striving and manipulation and are now inactive.
4. There are those who are false believers and teachers, messengers of Satan.
5. There are those who don’t know who they are in Christ. All they do is attend a worship service.
6. There are a few who are still searching.

The first, second and fourth groups are the ones who are very active in the church. They may represent only ten percent of the church, while the third and fifth groups may represent as much as ninety percent of the church. The second and fourth groups will always want to be in control of everything. Another view of this model is shown in the “Three Types of Christians” study.

Most people “attend” church rather than develop personal relationships with other Christians.

They attend church for something other than spiritual reasons.

Most are attending for what they get out of it, as kind of a shallow hope that they won’t go to Hell, or as a place to be involved which is a little different from their secular life. They are there for a secular type of relationship (entertainment and activites), not for a closer spiritual walk with the Lord.

Many “churches” are like secular organizations, kind of like a community service club. They are running an organization the same way the “world” runs a business. They sell the church with programs and promotions. They become purpose driven rather than Spirit lead. Many churches are simply a group of people who like the charisma of the pastor.

Many people are attending church as a religious thing, and they control how involved they become. They want it that way. They don’t want to get too close to God. They don’t want a personal relationship with Christ which means He is with them all day, every day.

They believe that their secular life must be primary, or they won’t be able to keep up. Their church life is some relief from the stress in the world and an indication that they are searching for something and at the same time they are afraid to get too close to it.

Their spiritual life is void, because they don’t know how to experience it. They have been taught many “cliche” doctrines, which allows them to pretend to be as close to God as any one else. They have not been taught how to win the battle between the spirit and the flesh, and experience the Holy Spirit in their life.

These people have a special need. They are a mission field. Scripture

How do we know them? By what motivates them (their attitude) and their concern for others.

1. Do they have a desire to share the gospel.
2. Do they have a desire to minister to the spiritual needs of others, helping to assimilate visitors into their fellowship.
3. Do they seek to get involved with the hardships of others?
4. Do they tend to emphasize their spiritual gifts rather than spiritual maturity in love.
5. Do they promote physical things, such as organization, growth, buildings, motivational methods, entertainment, rather than how to understand their spiritual relationship with Christ.
6. Do trials cause them to fall apart emotionally or morally, to get mad at God and others, or does it draw them closer to God and others.

We need to teach scripture in terms of church problems which Paul addressed (we have all the same problems, but we don’t try to deal with them) and teach on how to have a spiritual relationship with Christ and others, not on church activity, motivation and ministry.

Our life in Christ and in the church with brothers and sisters in Christ, should be the best thing in our life.

When we preach, teach and learn the spiritual, everything else happens in the right way. Christianity is spiritual. If we don’t learn to walk in the spirit and talk in the spirit, what we do is nothing.

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