GO WITH THE FLOW

Did Jesus go with the flow? Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Did the apostles go with the flow? Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Did the New Testament Church go with the flow? Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Did pioneer missionaries that took the gospel to new lands go with the flow? Not by any stretch of the imagination.

Does the modern day western church go with the flow? In most cases, yes.

First, it goes with the flow of its denomination. When a new Baptist church, a new Apostolic church, a new Anglican church is formed, what is the first thing that is put in place? The dictates and doctrine of the denomination. The new church whether it is based in a deprived inner city area, a high class neighbourhood, one dominated by young families, has to conform to how the denomination expects it to perform.

Meetings and ministries are usually denominational meetings and ministries. In most cases what the new church does is usually what every other church in the denomination does. Rarely will it sit down and assess who they are reaching out to and discover the best way to do that.

Almost without exception, what they do is the same as every other church in that denomination to the point that you can attend any church in that denomination and you will find that they are identical to each other. In other words, one size fits all or they go with the flow.

Second, they go with the flow of the world. Whatever the world is expecting or demanding, most churches will conform to keep everyone happy so as not to offend anyone. The end result of that is the fact that church leadership is not expected to comment on anything outside of spiritual matters.

Most have not shown any interest in engaging the culture so there is a perception that spirituality is what you do inside the four walls of a building where you meet at specific time to do specific things. Mostly, in their response to society the idea is to not rock the boat, or go with the flow.

If we upset someone our witness (such that it is) will be compromised and we won’t be able to convince people (not that we do) of the claims of Jesus.

In comparison to Jesus, the apostles and the New Testament Church, we do not even come close. When they were told not to preach in the name of Jesus, their response was “up yours, we are going to obey God.”

Today we tend to obey the civil authorities in cases we lose our advantageous financial status. The New Testament Church changed the world without that so why are we worried about it. Of course, I forgot, the government is our provider, not God.

The truth is, we can go with the flow or we can go with God. I have a feeling the two are mutually exclusive so we have to make choice. From what I see and hear, the church that is changing their world and it is mostly those that are dependant on God not man, is the one that is not going with the flow. They are determining what the word of God teaches, not tradition, and then they go with God and his word, loving their lives not unto death and changing the world.

Oh, they do not usually preach that God’s ministry is to make you rich financially, just rich in kingdom values.