Detoxing from Church

David Wray of ACU finished an article, "Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks", with this statement: "Church in the 21st century is radically different from church of the past century. I pray that all of us “old dogs” will be emboldened to come boldly as missional church leaders into this exciting new millennium."

Many of us have decades of "training" in the Church of the 20th century. God's grace will be needed for us to genuinely embrace the ideas behind and actions required for each person to be a missionary with missions to accomplish in our everyday life. The article on Detoxing from Church is true. Many of us are Sunday Christians or maybe Sunday-Wednesday Christians in orbit around an Organization rather a Person. Somehow, we need to find how to be more Holy Spirit led everyday. Our spiritual health is not defined by the sound of singing on Sunday but by our focus on Monday morning and by how we manifest Christ in our everyday relationships.

Some things we need to consider:

* Is our worship service programmed by men or Spirit-led? (Which do we actually want?)
* If Jesus visited in the flesh, would he have a chance to speak?
* Are we a genuine house of prayer?
* Are we encouraging individual involvement or are we entertaining?
* Are our small groups actually growing people in Christ as revealed in their becoming leaders and missionaries into their world?
* Do we feel that a missional organization is a substitute for missional individuals?
* Are our Bible classes intended to change lives or just provide opportunity for surface sharing in a comfortable social group? (What needs are we actually addressing?) (Maybe we should consider some help for marriages, parent-child relationships, finances or health during that time?)
* Does our church debt hinder us from being more Spirit-led? (Someone important might be disturbed?)
* If church buildings disappeared how much Church would remain? (Is there Life outside the Building and the Groups?)