Fine, Close the Doors Then!

Something that has been on my mind for quite some time is “Fine, close the doors then.” I have seen, read, and heard about churches and Christians themselves that look at the fact that maybe it is time to not focus on what we have been doing, and find something that works, and when challenged with the ideas that it may close the doors of their church, they say “Fine, close the doors then.” What’s the point of a body of Christ, that has lost their first love? What is the point of being a lukewarm Christian? It seems to me that many of these bodys of believers who are willing to close their doors are doing so because of three reasons: Laziness, Fear, or Arrogance.

Laziness causes churches to get comfortable. Many times these churches will sit back and read the word of God and spend time with believers and say “That is good enough.” These are also the people who think that just tithing their 10% is all they need to do. These are the people who would rather sit on the couch and watch someone else win souls to God, or send the money to others to let them win souls to God. These are the people who would rather not care about glorifying the Kingdom, because it sounds like hardwork.

Fear causes churches to close their doors because they might get hurt. If they were to step off their front step, they might wind up hurting their toes. It is a matter of safety and security, rather than obedience and discipleship. With all the shootings and threats in churches it is so much easier to lock up the doors so noone may come in. They forget the “whosoever” and prefer to have background checks.

Arrogance starts with saying the famous last words of a dying church, “We have not done it that way before.” It is a “I know better than you” mentality that can cause a world of trouble. These are also pastor killing churches. They like to take in new pastors and drive them out of ministry rather than step forward into a new culture. They believe the old way is the best, and any other way is Satan himself. Arrogance will kill a church, ministry, and pastoral teams faster than any worldly thing. This is the black plague of churches.

So, what do we do? We follow the scripture the way it is said to. We step into the world, but not be of the world. We open the doors and preach the gospel to whoever will hear it. We remember that Christ came into this world and died on a cross so that WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN CHRIST WILL BE SAVED! We remember that the church aint for saints, but for sinners. We remember that the healthy don’t go to hospitals. We strive to be the hands and feet of Christ not matter if we are scared, if we are tired, or if we have never done it before. We take on the world by storm, and share the Gospel.

I tell my youth members this all the time. My ultimate fear is that one day I will sit in Heaven, and God will show me all the people that I had the chance to lead to the Lord, but I didn’t take the step in obedience to do so. Maybe it is time for the church to realize our responsibility and go!