Saturday, June 18, 2011

Rome is Still Burning

In AD 64, the world watched as one of its greatest and most powerful Empires burned to the ground. A historic Empire losing itself and spiraling out of control thanks to one event. There are many theories as to how the fire actually began but a few seem to put the blame on one person. Emperor Nero. One man brought down Rome, thats all it took...

When did it become okay in this world to ignore personal responsibility? When did it become a social norm for people to be a person of faith yet belligerently break God's commandments and challenges, and be able to walk into church that Sunday and no one say anything to them? When did pastors become more concerned about numbers...those attending church, facebook friends, twitter followers, radio show listeners, amount of people saved in a service, contacts in a phonebook...it used to be all about one. I have been taught in my life as well as learned that if you can do anything, save one, help one, do something for someone. If you decide something isn't important because no one is going, you are severely missing out. This fear of losing numbers has caused pastors to become "soft". They now allow, "'I'm working on it", to fly instead of only recognizing, "I'm sorry and I'm going to change." We've created a community of Christians where it's almost "too safe." We don't challenge each other or go out of our comfort zones. Why do you think that "Sunday Christians" exist? Its because we haven't taught people to stand up for themselves. We will play christian in church because its a safe zone where no one will judge us for standing up for our spiritual beliefs but as soon as a challenge prevents itself elsewhere away from our safe haven, we crack, afraid of what those around us will think, do, or say. Heck in that instant that you stand up for yourself you might lose that facebook friend or twitter follower...Pastors won't challenge their churches. I don't mean challenge as in, "this week let's try to act like we have faith", I am talking about using strong words instead of sugar coating it. Make people serious about coming to their church. BUT that fear of numbers scares the crap out of church leaders. So much so that they miss the big picture by staring at the numbers. If they can't save one hundred at once, don't do it. Be nice to our church-goers. We can't teach them to be God fearing, how would that look? People scared of God...its just not right. People aren't learning the truth.

The truth is It only takes one person to destroy an Empire...history has proved that, but we've also witnessed in history that it only takes ONE to save us all.