What Now?

Now that we've gone over some of the problems with today's church in the lost post, "What's Wrong With the Church?" it's time to ask some tough questions:

-Do you see any of the listed problems at your church?
-Have the problems been getting better or worse?
-Who's responsible for these problems arising in the first place?

There's no doubt churches have these problems. Church is broken, because it's full of broken people. We can't renew the church, until we first renew ourselves. Humankind has failed. We haven't met the standards given to us. In fact, we continue to push God's will for our lives away and replace it with our own. The good news is it's that never too late to turn our act around. God has our best intentions in mind. We need to be fully dependent on Him.

All throughout John's letter to the churches in Revelation 2-3, Jesus points to each church and tells them what they are doing wrong, but immediately afterwards gives them a command to repent and turn from their evil ways. After all, you're either following Jesus and living out His good and perfect will for our lives, or you're not.

I encourage you to read Revelation 2-3. Does your church, or any other local church look like the ones detailed in this scene? In ancient Greek culture, the number 7 had a symbolic significance. For them, 7 meant completeness, or wholeness. When John writes to 7 churches, I'm convinced that he's not actually writing just to these specific churches, but to the church as a whole. These churches were going through some of the same problems that today's church is going through (lost fervor, persecution, oppressive environment, cultural compromise, complacency, materialism, spiritual death, etc.). After giving us the problems, Jesus gives us a command
to repent.

Repentance isn't short term, but it's long term. It's turning from evil, and clinging to what is good. Jesus commanded repentance from His followers, and from His church. In order to repent, and do a complete turn-around on a church-wide level, we must first change ourselves and work on an individual level. Remember, you're either following Jesus...or you're not.