On Sunday evening, I walked into a church service and began to weepâŚ
On Sunday evening, I walked into a church service of an old Anglican parish church, and halfway through I began to weep.
I make the following comments in the context of a large decrease in the Christian population in the UK (down 4 million between â01 and â11 censuses).
As I looked around this unassuming, quiet building, in its day it would have been a hub of gospel-loving and love-sharing which now felt like an old ship that had got lost at sea. Tears streamed down my face as I realised, painfully, why Christianity is fading, and I realised that other churches are also losing their passion. The primary focus of many churches in an equality-oriented society is not spreading the love of Jesus to those who are searching for it; the primary focus is appealing to everyone and not discriminating or offending anyone. Iâm not saying thatâs a bad thing, but itâs been done at the expense of passion! Please share the Gospel freely even though people will be offended - that will happen! - but also people will have an opportunity to come to know Jesus and the sacrifice he made for everyone on the cross, and if you love Him and love others please make this effort. It will create echoes in eternity. Share it by your words and actions. People might not like you. Or people might respect you even more. But most importantly, you can give someone an opportunity to make a decision which they may never have thought about before, and may never consider again. It will divide like a knife. You might lose friends, or you might gain deeper relationships, but you will certainly have a sense in your heart that what youâre doing is right. Your passion will attract someone. At least 1 person. Guaranteed. Thatâs what makes it worth it.
So many people go to church when theyâre in a desperate time, or feeling low. Theyâre looking for hope in a world that at times feels hopeless. They look for the obvious churches (traditional-looking ones - ie. spire, masonry, stained glass etc) - while more passionate Jesus believers are setting up churches in schools and social clubs, and the passion is draining in the more traditional places. The person may leave with a sense of disillusionment, because the church was more focused on rules and rituals, legislation and liturgy, rather than Christ and making them feel welcome. So often, churches can offer that hope and love, but they don't, either due to apathy (not enough passion), ignorance (not enough attention to those around) or a combination of both. A church whose primary focus is on political correctness rather than on God, is surely going to be a breeding ground for apathy, meaning we're less likely to talk to the new people who come in.
Partially, this is because we pursue equality in every sphere, as a society. Therefore, the two biggest religious bodies in the UK - namely the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches - receive the main barrage of societal hostility where equality in religion is concerned. The evangelical movement also face this, but not as strongly because itâs less widespread.
The response of the Anglican and Catholic churches have been quite different. The Anglican church has sought to appease the demands, to be more inclusive (ironically, as a result, numbers attending Anglican churches has dwindled), and seeking not to offend people; while the Catholic church has been largely quite resistant and has continued to fixate on issues that only alienate people more (homosexuality, abortion - the usual suspects), although Pope Francis seems to be trying to break down barriers at the moment.
Both approaches have been successful in making people more disillusioned with the church.
What results is a church which no longer finds its identity in the Bible, but now finds its identity within its place in society. It might appease people with its lack of passion, but it certainly isnât going to attract them to know Jesus in a life-changing way.
If anything Iâm saying has offended you, then if it were written in a bad or insensitive way I apologise. Maybe I became passionate. However, I do not apologise for the content of the message itself, as I want to boldly make clear my passion in a society which is becoming busier, more confused and without peace or hope (or at least, hope that extends beyond an individually personal level).
Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy (a really great band, if baroque pop is your thing) wrote a song called âThe Wreck of The Beautifulâ which I feel is quite apt:
When the Beautiful set sail back in 1970
She was state of the art, the flagship of our navy.
But the salt sea took its toll and the rust began to show,
And with a heavy heart we took her to the breaker's yard.
I thought I heard her call, maybe I heard nothing at all.
I thought I heard her call from the wreck of the Beautiful.
But like the fattened cow can smell the butcher's knife,
She knew where she was bound, a sad end to a proud life.
That's when I heard her cry and the waves rose five miles high,
And the men who did not drown watched as the Beautiful went down.
I thought I heard her call, maybe I heard nothing at all.
I thought I heard her call from the wreck of the Beautiful.
I donât believe this song was written as metaphor for the churchâs modern situation, but I canât help interpret it as being incredibly fitting.
âPassion about nothing is like pouring petrol in a car with no wheels, it isnât going to get anybody anywhere.â Donald Miller
If you donât know about this Jesus dude, then I doubt a crane could pick up the rock youâve been living under, but let me give you a crash course in case the Christians you know, or the things youâve heard have given you an inaccurate idea of who He is. Also, if Iâve ever been a bad ambassador for God, then Iâd be happy to apologise to you personally, and this gives me an opportunity to be clear about my faith.Â
Jesus. God become a man. Born in a stable. Mothered in an animalâs feeding trough. Apparently a king but you would never have guessed from his birth. Servants were born in grander circumstances. He stepped down from the luxury and riches of his home in heaven, to the comparable squalor and desolation of the earth, to endure all the trials and troubles that we face and succeed against them. A saviour who can completely relate to our struggles and sufferings as heâs been to the deepest recesses of both, and emerged victorious. So we can turn to him with our prayers, knowing that he has faced the same problems, and that he knows how to help us and loves us enough to do so. And not only did he come down to the earth from the grandeur of his kingdom, which I would argue is relative to any of us going below to hell - thatâs what he did! So we donât have to. Hell would have been all the more painful for Jesus to endure, coming from Heaven and being sinless - it wouldnât be so much of an adaptation for us. But endure it he did - taking on the wrath of God preserved for all sinners onto himself. That God the Father, who out of mercy and love, offered another way which didnât end in death that he would send his only son to die and take our debts away onto himself, bearing the full penalty of EVERYONEâS sins living, lived and still to live. Thatâs our Lord!!!
For sin cannot enter Heaven, yet we are all sinful people. But by believing in Him and what He did on the cross, and saying sorry for the wrong things we do, by his sacrifice our sins are wiped clean so that we can spend eternity with Him.
Sin, put simply, is anything we do that hurts others or hurts God.
Jesus didnât want to die on the cross (Luke 22:39-46), but He knew he needed to. The Bible tells us that he was in such a state of anguish the night before his crucifixion that he sweated drops of blood. That God became a man who felt human suffering, such as fear, shows that while we are praying we can know that he not only could answer our prayers, but he will also empathise personally with our situations! It was not only fear he went through, but also all kinds of temptations and sorrows, but he never did wrong. Thatâs why we also call him wonderful counsellor (Isaiah 9:6), because of the empathy he shows us! Thatâs also why we are so keen to emphasize that this is more than a religion. Itâs a relationship.
And Iâm sorry if it ever comes across any other way.
