CLICHE CHURCH

Cliché; an expression or an idea that has become trite.

The modern day western church runs on clichés. Here are some examples.

JEUSS IS LORD. You wouldn’t know this when you look at how good it is at ignoring the scripture. Amongst other things the western church is ordaining practicing homosexuals and lesbians to ministry; getting male ministers to dress up in fancy dresses; having religion that is based on ritual instead of relationship; ignoring the priesthood of all believers; doing all they can to keep the Holy Spirit out of the church; baptising infants; importing ministers from outside the church to run the show to name a few things that make it quite clear that Jesus is not lord.

JESUS LOVES YOU AND WE DO TOO. This is of course if you come into our church and fit in with our programmes and do all you can to be like us. If you don’t or are not you won’t be welcome or given any ministry, especially if you don’t dress like us.

THE SUPREMACY OF SCRIPTURE. Which means that the bible determines everything we do. If that is the case, why do we ignore most of it? OK, we may have the salvation bit down pat, and some the baptism thing, but beyond that we seem to ignore everything else. We don’t want the Holy Spirit to interfere with our programmes; we don’t want our traditions to be subservient to the scriptures like ‘ordained paid pastors’ which don’t exist in the New Testament Church; we conveniently ignore the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit because that would mean we would lose control of everything; we prefer the religious snack ritual than a full blown ‘agape’ communal meal which was the cornerstone of the New Testament Church and so on and so on.

WE BELIEVE IN THE PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS. Do we? Maybe, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the professional paid priest’s right to tell us what we can and can’t do.

A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS. How personal I might ask? OK, so we are united with God at the point of salvation, and we are told that we should pray every day, but beyond this it seems to me that is about as personal as it gets. When it comes to everything else like hearing from God or being led by the spirit, whoa! That is the job of the minister to tell you what you can and can’t do and you certainly can’t do anything that is not approved by denominational headquarters. Not if you want to be promoted up the ranks and get the prestigious jobs in the organisation.

PRAYER IS VITAL FOR ANY CHURCH. If that is the case, why do so few want to be involved in corporate prayer and why is it that most ministers don’t place any importance on prayer in the life of their church evidenced by the fact that there are fewer gatherings for prayer than any other type of meeting?

WE ARE FAITH BASED CHURCH. Really! If that is the case why does your minister get a regular weekly salary? If he was teaching and modelling faith, surely the best way to do that is to trust God for his income, then people would see that he practices what he preaches, not just ‘do as I say, not what I do’.

WE ARE A WORSHIPING CHURCH. Can I ask when the last time you prostrated yourself before the Lord in prayer was? Oh, didn’t you know that this is what worship means in the original. It has nothing to do with singing songs. That is more to do with entertainment. A true worshipper is aware that he is a nobody and that without God he can do nothing so he surrenders himself to God, showing his dependence in always praying. What you might call praying without ceasing.

If you are cliché ridden church, don’t be surprised if what you do is very trite…irrelevant and ineffectual.