THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH

Without looking any further, Christ's beatitudes highlight the essential difference between the Christian and the non-Christian.  The Bible regards this difference as something absolutely basic and fundamental.  It is of critical urgency that the Church recognises this difference and acts to demonstrate that she recognises this difference. 

The contemporary church demonstrates that she has lost or blurred this distinction.  What is happening is that the world has come into the church, often invited and welcomed in by evangelical ministers, and the church has thereby become worldly.   

The difference between Christian and non-Christians is not as clear as it once was; it’s a bit like the difficulty people have in telling boys from girls.  During the church’s best periods, this distinction was as clear as could be.  But tyhat is not the case today.  And the reason?  The church has departed from her sole King and Head, Jesus Christ. 

The big concern today for many churches is to attract the man of the world into her; so in order to do that the church has to become as like that man she is trying to attract as she can.  But are non-church worldlings entering the church as a result?  No.  Just a trickle will come to some churches, but the vast majority of people just can’t tell the difference between the church and their social contacts.  The church in her brightest times has never worked in that way.  It has not worked in the past, and it never will work.  And the sooner the church learns this lesson, the better.

Is there an answer to this malady?  Yes, and it’s this.  When the church is as different as she can be from those she is trying to attract and win, then she is successful.  This is ironic.  Opposites attract.  Men of the world are fed-up with having ‘more of the same.’  They are looking for something different, something that is challenging.  When she finds a church that is categorically different from itself, her message has that drawing power that Christians have long prayed for.

When the church’s life and message is different from those of the world, people sit up and listen.  At first they will hate and resent that challenging message; but they will come to see that this is the truth.  This has been the pattern in every revival the church has known.  When Christians and the church seeks to become as like Christ as they can be, they will be so unlike the world they are trying to win to the Saviour. 

Now, there’s a challenge for you!