A Shift in Power

I give up are words that God longs to hear.  The Church is becoming more and more dependent upon its members skills and abilities than on the power of God. If we get the right formula and the right people then we can grow a very successful church.  I feel the church is all about me!  A successful Sunday morning worship experience must  include the following; a large crowd, entertaining music and an inspirational talk from a dynamic communicator.  It seems to be all about my feelings and emotions and what I experience. The average church member is concerned about the style of music, the experience they feel and the style of the pastor.  Was the Pastor too loud? was he boring?,was he humorous? was he too humorous? was his illustrations relevant?, did he use too much scripture?, did he not use any scripture?, did he preach too long? (but we never complain if the message was too short).  Our nation has been taught to expect perfection!  We have instant replay in our professional sporting events to make sure that we get it right.  If we don't get it right then we are extremely critical. We in the church are no different!  We expect the best ministries, we expect the Pastor to be perfect, we expect the ministry teams to be perfect. Eventually that perfection is lost and we either move on to the next church, or gripe and complain and cause dessention.  Everyone expects perfection except when they are critiquing themselves.  We must shift our confidence from man's abilities and place our trust in Gods strength.

Somewhere we have missed the point!  We gather together to worship the creator of life, the lover of our souls, but we make it about us.  In theory, we worship us! What are we missing?  We are missing the power of God!  David Platt writes in his book "Radical", "...the problem for us is that in our culture we are tempted at every turn to trust in our own power instead of Gods!  So the challenge for us is to live in such a way that we are radically dependent on and desperate for the power that only God can provide."  My challenge is to the Church, lets give up and let God work through us, instead of us doing it for HIM.  I leave you with these words from Platt: While the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God.