![]() ![]() Yes, but in this church it’s a double feature. It’s “Who is playing where? Where will we go to watch what this week? Over here they are having a movie. And if you will look at the church page on Saturday night, you will have difficulty distinguishing it from the movie page. And the church has also fallen into that category as well. We have no involvement, no responsibility, and no commitment, but we watch. We watch and listen as people sing or make music. And if we leave home, it is to go and watch something. We sit at home and watch the world happen on the tube. You know, we live in a society like that. That’s not our business.įurther, the church was never designed to be run by paid professionals who did all the work while everybody else watches. And the church is not a profit-making brokerage for people who want to unload certain things for a charity write-off so that we can make a profit on them. And it was interesting, because Wayne Beatty said, “Oh, now we’re in the stainless steel business.” Well of course, it was presented to us in such a way, it was a kind gesture, but our thinking was we are not to be in the stainless steel business. Well what are we going to do with it?” Well, the idea would be that we would take it, and then we would sell it to somebody else for a profit. The question immediately came up, “Will it fit our kitchen?” No. However, it was all built to fit a certain kitchen and we would just have to take it out like that. This was tremendous, and it was told to us what this was very valuable, valuable stainless steel. Recently, at one of our recent elder meetings, some very kind and well-meaning organization wanted to give us a whole bunch of stainless steel. There are churches today that own monies and properties and businesses and corporations, and they’re turning a profit. The church was never designed to be a gimmick to attract people.įurther, the church was never intended to be a business for profit-making, but it is. It is not where you go to hear a man play the converted booze bottles. ![]() It’s not where you go to watch the Gospel Birds. But it just illustrates the fact that the church has, somewhere along the line, lost the concept of what it’s supposed to be. Instead of drinking out of the bottles what was there, he was blowing gospel music back into them. I read another ad advertising a service that no one should miss on Sunday night where a converted alcoholic was going to play gospel music on converted booze bottles to illustrate the transformation in his life. I’ll read a little about that.” And I read and it said, “These birds eat with a fork, fly backwards, open padlocks, ride airplanes, and swallow small swords.” Hanson’s Gospel Birds. One was that you were to attend a certain church, because this Sunday they were featuring the Hanson Gospel Birds. I was looking at two church ads this week that sort of illustrated this to me, the amazing gimmicks to which churches will go to fulfill what they, I suppose, assume is their responsibility. The church was never designed to be a selling agency where you motivate people by Madison Avenue promotion, by gimmicks, or by moneymaking schemes. It was never designed to follow business philosophy. It was never designed to be a management outfit. But the church was never designed to be ordered along the lines of the world’s organizational principles. But there’s no question about the fact that the church has been turned into an organization. And maybe it’s because the sophistication of organization today is greater than it’s ever been. I think this has to be, from any clear study of church history, the time in history when the church has become most like the world’s organization. And as one writer put it, “When Christians get organized, they get very un-Christian.” You hate to admit it, but he’s right. Now unfortunately, Christianity has become very organized. It’s that important to Scripture – to study. This is a very, very important and a very practical word to us, and it’s my prayer that the Spirit of God will use this, not just to be an encouragement to you today or an instruction to you today, but a catalyst to alter your behavior as a believer in relation to Him and to His church in all the years of your life. We see here Paul talking about one body, many gifts. We’re going to look this morning and next Lord’s Day at verses 12 thru 31, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. ![]()
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