The Death of the Modern Day Church
A Church Going Round in Circles
Walk into many churches today and you'll find a great deal going on. Lights, a band, a screen, a programme for every age group, and a man at the front with plenty to say. Busy doesn't mean alive. Underneath all the activity, the church is going round in circles — new initiatives, new series, new styles — and getting nowhere, because it's being led by the soul of a man and not by the Spirit of God. The Lord Jesus said this to a church in his own day: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead [Revelation 3:1 KJV]. A name for being alive. Works to show for it. And dead.
That's the danger we're facing. Not a church that empties overnight, but one that keeps the building full and the diary busy while the life drains out of it. And the life drains out because the wrong one is leading. Jesus Christ is the head over all things to the church, Which is his body [Ephesians 1:22-23 KJV]. When the Head is set aside and the soul of a man takes over, the body can still move — but it moves in circles.
Led by the Soul, Not the Spirit
So what does a soulish church look like? It looks like manifestations that come out of a man's emotions rather than God's Spirit — the shaking, the shouting, the performances that Paul never once taught. It looks like people making things up from their own soul just to have a voice and be heard, then calling it a word from God. Scripture calls this what it is. Jude describes those who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit [Jude 1:19 KJV], and James speaks of a wisdom that descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish [James 3:15 KJV]. Sensual there means soulish — it comes from the man, not from God.
The trouble is that the soulish man can't tell the difference. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned [1 Corinthians 2:14 KJV]. You can see it in the songs. So much of what's sung on a Sunday is void of any scriptural understanding — a line repeated twenty times, a feeling stirred up, and nothing in it you could open your Bible and find. Paul gave us the pattern: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs [Colossians 3:16 KJV]. The songs were meant to teach. If the word of Christ isn't in them, what exactly are we singing?
Milk, Entertainment and the World Brought In
Then there's the teaching. Much of it is entertaining, and much of it would be better suited to a children's party than a gathering of grown believers. A funny story, a gimmick on the stage, a talk you could forget by the time you reach the car. It's taking the mickey out of grown men and women who need sound doctrine and want it. The writer to the Hebrews rebuked that very thing: ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat [Hebrews 5:12 KJV]. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age [Hebrews 5:14 KJV]. Paul put it more simply still: when I became a man, I put away childish things [1 Corinthians 13:11 KJV].
And all the while the church keeps folding the world's ideas and practices into itself — its music, its marketing, its methods, its idea of a good show. But we're told plainly: And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind [Romans 12:2 KJV]. A church service isn't an episode of an entertainment programme to keep people coming back. It's meant to be a testimony to God our Heavenly Father, to Jesus Christ His Son, the Head of the church, and to the Holy Spirit given to every believer, with everything done unto edifying [1 Corinthians 14:26 KJV]. Can the church redeem itself while it keeps doing this? No. Not by a better programme or a new strategy. Only by going back to the Head and back to the Word.
Spiritual Men, Stand Up
That's why spiritual men and women need to stand up. Paul warned this would happen: Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them [Acts 20:30 KJV]. If those who know the truth sit quietly and watch, the church will keep drifting from its true purpose before our very eyes. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God [Romans 8:14 KJV]. Being led by the Spirit isn't meant to stay a private matter. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong [1 Corinthians 16:13 KJV].
Standing up doesn't mean storming a meeting or tearing a congregation apart. It means holding on to the truth and proclaiming it in the middle of wrong doctrine, with meekness and without compromise. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness [Galatians 6:1 KJV]. And it means doing what the Lord told that dead church at Sardis to do: Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die [Revelation 3:2 KJV]. There's still something left to strengthen. Start with what you sing, what you hear and what you feed on yourself, so that you walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing [Colossians 1:10 KJV].
Key Takeaways:
- A church can be busy and still be dead — [Revelation 3:1 KJV]
- Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, not the man at the front — [Ephesians 1:22-23 KJV]
- Soulish manifestations come from the man, not from the Spirit — [Jude 1:19 KJV], [James 3:15 KJV]
- The natural man cannot discern the things of the Spirit — [1 Corinthians 2:14 KJV]
- Songs are meant to carry the word of Christ and teach — [Colossians 3:16 KJV]
- Grown believers need strong meat, not entertainment — [Hebrews 5:12-14 KJV], [1 Corinthians 13:11 KJV]
- The church must not be conformed to the world — [Romans 12:2 KJV]
- Spiritual men and women must stand, watch and strengthen what remains — [1 Corinthians 16:13 KJV], [Revelation 3:2 KJV]
Where to go from here:
Read 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 and Hebrews 5:12-14 slowly this week, and ask yourself whether you are being led by the Spirit or fed by the soul of a man. Then take the step: check last Sunday's songs against the Book, and decide where you will stand.
📽️ Watch this teaching 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoT6UssF8G8&list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH5L9BycdIkD1Cmh288M1oaK&index=1
🧭 Start Here — Who We Are in Christ! — the teachings to read first 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/start-here/
🎥 The playlist to watch alongside them 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEPKdqB9RuLI
➡️ Next — Friday: Part 6 — Dressed for the Fight
That is where we begin: who we are in Christ, taken in order. Then, Monday to Thursday, we take one truth and look at it from four sides — this week, false teaching in the modern church, and how to test it by the Book. Fridays, we work through a series — at present Ephesians: The Letter Written to You. One email on Sunday closes the week and opens the next.
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