Preface: This is probably a difficult post to read for most....way too hard on our pulpits...(OK....maybe the title is a little too much)....but I would submit to the reader that when God's judgments start really to kick in....that many will be asking....why didn't our pulpits warn us of what was ahead...and that those pulpits will not be preaching as they do today!
You can go about this in a number of ways. You can ask friends and acquaintance as if you were a roving reporter....or you can visit different churches every week....or the easiest way would be to sit down at the computer for hours visiting the websites of churches. You could probably do forty or fifty of them in a day.
If you would choose the third option....look over the website. Here is what you will invariably find....there will be a carefully constructed sentence in bold letters describing the mission of the church. The board or the deacons or the elders or whoever would have sat down in a meeting to come up with a catchy phrase....it might go something like this...."A growing....vibrant....family community....sharing the good news of Jesus Christ first with each other....and then with the world around us."
There will be a ministries link....an elective that you yourself can choose as soon as you join the church.....a photos link from all the events.....an 'about us' link....or 'who we are' link....and then most important....a directions link on finding the church. There may be an expanded mission statement....and a 'what we believe' link. There probably will not be a sermons link but if there is....go ahead and explore what the shepherd in teaching the flock.
What these churches are would be the spiritual counterpoint to....Planet Fitness or LA Fitness. They are a product of the times....and America is what it is today....in total collapse....in good measure....because of what these churches in America are not....and what their pastors do not do....strengthen and warn the church!
If you would ask one of the members in just about any church about the sermons they would say that their pastor is a real good preacher....for just about everyone thinks that think that they have a good preacher....but then hardly any of them ever heard a Spurgeon or Martyn-Lloyd Jones type sermon in their life.
The church is great for the kids. If it is a larger church then there will be a music ministry. Three or four young people will have a microphone in one hand....the other hand raised to heaven....and they will lead lively worship music for fifteen or twenty minutes....and then the mood will soften....and the worship lyrics might be something like....'I love you Lord....and I lift my voice....to worship you.....oh my soul....rejoice.' It's mesmerizing. I been there. Then the pastor will take over....all smiles of course....and you will get a sermon....to send you off to another week....unfed....not prepared....and not mortified for who we in fact are and what in fact Jesus did for us.
I listened about a week ago to a Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon that actually shocked me. The sermon title was....I Am Not Ashamed....please Google it and listen! In that sermon Lloyd-Jones said that many Christians will readily offer up that they are not ashamed of the gospel....but that in reality they are not ashamed because in retrospect it was a good deal for them....for they are satisfied.....happy....and would make the decision again. Lloyd-Jones raised his voice a few times.....for they were not even aware that Paul's words....'not ashamed'....pointed to Paul being deserted by so many who as it turned out....were ashamed....for apparently it wasn't what they signed up for!
Politics is not only not the answer for us....our dependance on it makes matters far worse. This is Wednesday morning as I post this....a few days earlier than I usually post a Lord's Day post....but then we have a few extra days to pray that God might have mercy upon these men in our pulpits....for if they don't wake up.....then we will not wake up.
I may modify this post later this evening.....Lord willing of course.....but I wanted to get it out for new visitors to these posts. We are in deeper trouble then we could even imagine in evangelical America....for we have been a great part of the problem!
Addendum: First of all we do not have extended cable television in our home.....so we do we not get Hannity or CNN or any of those hundreds of other channels. On a recent trip to Pigeon Forge....staying in a Hilton....I surfed through the channels....and there were at least a dozen.....'Christian' stations with some man or woman doing whatever they do.....and to think that this is what genuine believers get as Christian ministry is sad! (There were one or two exceptions....David Jeremiah being one) I was in two Christian bookstores....and it was sad for me to walk through. Thirty years ago Christian bookstores were everywhere.....and the local Christian population or just passers-by had plenty of sound Christian books....and great classics....in the large inventory....today there are about 1% of the number of books. Our supply lines have been severed! Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul are gone.....and John MacArthur hasn't been in his pulpit since June 7. We are rudderless and powerless....drifting wherever current takes us. We think that Kamala Harris is bad....and socialism is bad....and they are....but let me tell you folks....we have no idea the trouble that we are in! We have no idea the holiness of God as R. C. Sproul so wonderfully expounded upon many years ago....or J. C. Ryle many years before that. We are being raised on pablum. We are in kindergarten where everyone gets a blue ribbon....and their very own ministry....with Bible studies everywhere....but solid and capable Bible study teachers rare. We like to talk politics....but taking a cue from the commentary today....few in the church are asking the right questions!
Also....my novella....(a very unprofessional attempt I admit but I wanted the message out)....Isaac Crockett....written twenty-five years ago....on the link to the left of this page....revolves around a Christian bookstore.
