FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Many True Believers Who Have Been Wounded Spiritually by Institutionalized Religion and Are Left to Carry Feelings of Guilt by Being Labeled Backsliders or No Longer A Part of the Lord’s Church! So What is Their True Spiritual State?

 This series will deal with a growing crisis unfolding in modern Christianity, the exodus of many believers from organized and denominational religion.  The exodus of members from churches made of brick and mortar run by institutional directives have witnessed an exponential exodus in church attendance, it was 59% in 2011 and 71% in 2025.  There is a plethora of reasons to explain this growing spiritual chaos.  The birth of the megachurch with its state of the art productions, called worship, its country club buildings, it’s focus on growth where the means justifies end, the catering to seekers to the neglect of feeding true believers spiritual meat, and advocating and promotion of political ideologies for one political party and the most glaring anti-Christian acts that are a major cancer on the modern church, is sexual abuse scandal the religious leaders of the denominations initially refused to address, and were more interested in protecting the institution than exposing the sexual predators who occupied its pulpits.  The second act was adopting the idea “that money answers all things”.   The result was the birth of celebrity pastors, with many becoming millionaires living lives of extravagance, materialism, privilege and avarice.  Many believers find themselves drying up spiritually, as they look around at their surroundings sitting in a church styled after luxurious country clubs, state of the art music productions performed by professional singers, while asking themselves is this all there is to serving Christ? 

                The idea of Christians who don’t attend church is not new, but it has become more common in the 21st century in recent years.  Studies show that church attendance has been declining in many parts of the world, especially in Western nations.  Some of the key reasons [BELIEVERS DISILLUSIONMENT WITH WITH INSTUTIONAL AND OGANATIONAL RELIGION:] Many Christians feel that churches have become too institutionalized, bureaucratic, and in many instances even corrupt.  [MANY BELIEVERS SUFFER FROM NEGATIVE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES:] Some believers have experienced judgment at the hands of other believers, exclusion, or hurt within the church communities, leading them to distance themselves from attending church altogether.  An increasing number of Christians today identify as faithful followers of Christ while choosing not to attend church regularly or not at all.  Final thought: A BELIEVERS SOURED ON INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION IS STILL A CHRISTIAN.

                Serious believers after the “faith of Jesus Christ” look around at the churches of modernity and ask themselves is this all there is?  It’s not because you’re rebellious, not because your heart has grown cold, but because deep down in your soul that is famished by being fed a steady diet of elementary Biblical truths, causing you to question, there is something more to serving Christ, something pure untainted by scandal and greed, something sacred, something that no building, no program, no celebrity pastor can manufacture.  When institutionalized religion no longer meets your spiritual need, causing many to quit attending, they are labeled backsliders, they no longer walk with the Lord, that walking away from the church is walking away from the Lord.  But for many in the faith wounded by others in the faith, haven’t walked away from the Lord, they walked away from noise, they walked away from religious performance, they walked away from the place where their spirit was starving.  While others saw you leaving, what they failed to see was what the Lord was doing in secret.  Many who have left organized and institutional religion are called out, being set apart, not to rebel, but to listen, to be still, to have their faith strengthened by the Lord Himself, not because you’re lost, but to satisfy in your soul a fire burning with hunger for more knowledge of the one we call savior. 

                Here is something important to consider: God’s chosen have always walked a narrow path that few understand.  They don’t need stain glass to see His beauty, architectural cathedrals that makes the world marvel, to see His majestic glory, they don’t need eloquent or gifted orators delivering sermons peppered with humor to keep their hearers engaged, to hear the Lord’s voice and they don’t need a crowd stirred up by master manipulators who create a false visitation by the Holy Spirit.  His disciples, His Church, His bride, are those who hear the whisper of His voice in a place of longing, solitude and wilderness wandering.  They meet Him by being still, meeting him in the quietness of a harried life, who walks with Him when no one else will. 

CONCLUSION: This series will no doubt cause consternation and disagreement from many in the faith, however I have always been considered what many call a boat-rocker.  I am not boasting, but humbling admitting my ministry from its beginning did not endear me to many in the faith.  One of my professors in seminary even signaled me out before the class as seeing no gray areas in Scripture, but to me everything was black or white,  Which I responded by saying, I mean no disrespect, but the only gray areas I see in God’s Word is those we create with the gray matter between our two ears.  I have never been a man follower but led by what I felt the Lord was speaking in my heart.  As I said, this is not for some.  On the other hand, if your heart burns for more intimacy with our Savior, maybe I am speaking to you.  Maybe you don’t fit the mold, or feel like you truly belong in the system created by modern contemporary Christian belief, don’t despair, it may mean you are in a search for true fulfillment to satisfy the deep yearning in your soul.  Let me close the 1st in the series with these words of encouragement: You don’t become a Christian by sitting in a church   You become a Christian by receiving the grace of God, by putting your faith in Jesus the Christ, as your Lord and savior.  That happens in the heart, not by occupying a pew.  Can I still be the bride of Christ, the Church, even when I disconnect from the modern religious system?  The answer is yes!  If the relationship with the Lord is real.  Brick and mortar cannot replace your personal walk with the Savior.  God Bless