WHEN MEN TRY TO BUILD THE CHURCH
In the scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ
prophetically spoke, stating regarding the future “church” (the body of
believers, not local) that HE would build the church (Matt. 16:18). In modern Christianity, beginning in my
estimation about 1920 or so and becoming very popularized with the Jack Hyles
and the Sword of the Lord methods, men have taken to “building the church” and
this movement and philosophy is both unscriptural and very dangerous. I do understand that many take the scripture
of Matthew16:18 as the local church, and the Bible does teach concerning the
local assembly of believers, but this context is regarding the church, NOT
local, the church we cannot see that is made up of believers throughout time since
the gospel of the grace of God was taught and preached. Now many will immediately argue that there is
no such element as a church, not local and that cannot be seen but this view
has been CLEARLY refuted in another study that is available for viewing on this
same site. Many stray from this view due
to the false Roman Catholic Church believing in an “invisible” church, but that
does not negate the FACT that the scriptures teach there is a church, not
local, that is unseen. Here are some of
the reasons why this philosophy of men, preachers and evangelists “building the
church,” meaning working to bring in
members and build the numbers of the local assembly is both detrimental and
unscriptural.
1. All believers are to witness and much of the
time emphasis is placed on “getting the lost to church where the pastor can
give them the gospel.” This takes
responsibility off of the believer that is part of that local assembly much of
the time when each saved person has the RESPONSIBILITY to witness to the lost
(Prov 11:30, Mark 16:15, Acts 20:20,21 etc)
2. The message almost always gets
watered down to bring in more “converts.”
This at times may even be done unintentionally, but the author has
witnessed this an abundance of times. Preaching true biblical repentance , defined
by a change of mind about sin as well as the Saviour, calls one to be willing
to change, to TURN from their sin (Prov 28:13, Luke 2:33, Acts 20:21, 1 Thes
1:9 etc). When this is left out or
repentance is wrongly defined as just a change of mind about Christ (what or
who one is trusting in for salvation) then there will be more converts, the
only thing is, they will be false converts.
3. The local assembly comes under
bondage. How? The thought is that there needs to be a
building that we can call a “church” when scripturally the “church” is the
believers that meet for the scriptural purposes outlined in the Bible (worship,
teaching, giving, personal exhortation etc).
Now this is NOT stating a building is wrong, but when the focus is on the NUMBERS, then the necessity for a building
or a bigger building is present. I know
of scriptural assemblies that meet in homes and others that meet in rented
places that fit the requirement needed for the amount of brethren that are
present at the meetings. Yes, there are
other assemblies that meet in building that they have purchased and that is certainly
not wrong in and of itself. But when the
“build-a-church” mentality is there, then the concept is to get a building as
quickly as possible and then a larger building to house all of the false
converts (in many cases) and then there
is a need to supply all of the financial responsibility that comes with the
building and buildings to follow. That
is where the bondage comes in. Get the
numbers, get the “tithe” etc. And if the
numbers drop AFTER a building is purchased (usually a loan from a bank) or an
obligation is made to purchase a larger building, then the pressure is on to
bring in MORE to the church. The author
of this site has personally witnessed more than one where this has destroyed or
nearly destroyed a local assembly of believers. In one instance, there was a local “church”
with about 80-120 “members” that had a building worth about one million dollars
due to it’s location. The seating
capacity was probably, if my memory serves me correctly, about 250 and the
building itself, though not an immense mega-church, was certainly large enough
to accommodate any needed Sunday School classes etc. and had a more than
adequate fellowship hall, kitchen etc. The
pastor decided to upgrade and commitment was made to purchase a building for a
few million dollars more, so the “church” they were in was sold but they were
able to utilize it for a few months until closing was completed on the new
building. Well, in the process, many members
left the “church” the building was sold but they now had not enough people to
pay the hefty mortgage on the new building.
They were forced to rent a relatively small storefront or something of
that sort and to my knowledge, they never followed through on purchasing the
new building. Things were a mess! This financial pressure was never intended,
my friends! Now scriptural NT giving is
covered under another study, and no one is refuting that having a local
assembly may require “some” financial need as even with a rented building or a
storefront etc. they will normally be electricity bills etc. But with this “you must own a building” or “get
a bigger building” that comes with the “build-a-church” mentality, the
believers in the local assembly many times come under financial bondage to the
mortgage company and the Utility Companies!
The other sad aspect of this is that since the focus is now on the
mortgage, finances are not freed up for believers in need, purchasing tracts,
supporting missionaries etc. That again,
will be a different study.
4. Sin is normally not as strongly
denounced from the pulpit. We can’t
scare away the potential “converts!” is
what many believe in this area. Sin is
many times preached generically and not specifically and this certainly does
not honor the Lord as this is pleasing men and not Him. How much conviction has been lost both for
the saved and the lost present because a preacher thinks it too strong to name
sin and give God’s view on it. Of course
if the “philosophy” of the local church is to faithfully preach and teach the
Word of God, then the focus of the preaching will be pleasing the Lord, NOT
man, and therefore sin can rightfully be preached!
5. The focus of the preaching,
especially the morning service, becomes evangelistic, giving a gospel message
to all the lost “visitors.” (This too
has already been covered, that truth that “church” the assembling of believers,
was designed for the saved only). This
results is that God’s people do not get taught the Word of God and therefore
many are ungrounded and immature in the faith (see Eph 4:11-14). How many scores of times has the author seen
brethren fall into false doctrine because they have not this grounding. It is
imperative that our leaders in the local assemblies recognize that one main
reason of believers assembling together is for them to get taught the Word of
God, so they become grounded and mature in their daily Christian life! How much good could be accomplished if
the elders and pastors understood this important truth, allowed Christ to build
the church and they took to their important responsibility of “perfecting” the
saints by teaching scriptural truth that would include doctrines of the Bible, doctrinal
and personal separation, the importance of prayer, roles of the family,
biblical evangelism and many more areas!
Think about it! In many and I
would say, the majority of local assemblies, in the USA at least, most
believers (and lost members) only attend the services during the morning
meeting time. If there is a time for
teaching/Sunday school/the Lord’s Supper etc. usually the numbers are less for
those times than the actual morning service.
Usually the numbers drop off about 50% for the evening service if there
is one and then that number is cut in half for the mid-week meeting if there is
one. So if there is typically 100 people
meeting for the morning meeting on the first day of the week, probably only
50-70% show up for any teaching time before that, about 50 are present for the
evening service and at the mid-week meeting only about 25 are present. That is the norm and yes, I am aware that
there are exceptions. But the results is
that from the pulpit MANY believers these days are getting little or NO Bible
teaching that will help them doctrinally or personally in their Christian
life! Mix that with the fact that MANY
believers do not do personal devotions or family devotions and is it any wonder
why American Christianity is in the shape it is in!
6. Many times games, programs and
celebrities are brought in to “bring in the converts.” This is another tragic result of the “build-a-church”
philosophy! With contests to who brings in the most visitors
with prizes ranging from Bibles, to money, to cruises to new cars, many
churches have become circuses or more related to a gambling den than a house of
God! Others bring in race-car drivers,
sports stars, movie celebrities, political figures from mayors to Presidents
and former Presidents! There are “teams”
out there and I have personally seen them in action, they are touting their physical strength “in the
name of the Lord” supposedly, ripping phone books in half and lifting enormous
amounts of weights. One of these is
called “The Power Team” and they travel from church to church being used by
church leaders to bring in numbers and boost attendance. Charles Spurgeon stated many years ago, “If you win them with candy, you have to keep
them with candy” and this is so true, brethren!
Once the game, the contest etc. is done it will not be long before these
“converts” in most cases will be gone!
Again, this is covered in another study but the fact is that the meeting
of believers was INTENDED to be for the believers, that is evident by the very definition
of the word “church!” And God’s people
should be OUT witnessing, preaching on the streets, distributing gospel tracts
etc. doing the work of the Lord and then ideally IF there are converts, THEN
you invite them into the local assembly!
7. Evangelism is corrupted! This in three ways. The first is that door-knocking, going house
to house evangelizing becomes more inviting the lost to church than actual
witnessing. Many times we have been out
with others from local churches going door to door and when one of our family
began witnessing, actually giving the gospel to the lost person at the door,
the church member was stunned! Why? Because they were taught to just give them a
church invite. Secondly, because the normal routine was to
invite the lost to the meeting time with the intention of getting saved, the
brethren are many times completely unequipped to witness or answer questions
regarding salvation or the scriptures (see 1 Peter 3:15). Thirdly, the method of open-air ministry
becomes repulsive or at least watered down (though the former is the norm)
because it gives an image that is unattractive due to it’s boldness and
confrontational aspect. I have been
rebuked personally by pastors and church leaders for holding signs up or
preaching on a streetcorner in the town “their church” was in (and I am talking
of less confrontational preaching that at an event). I have had many ask me NOT to do any form of
open air ministry in “their” city, again being concerned with an image that was
not conducive to the lost visiting their church.
8. Church Discipline is Non-existent or
close to non-existent. Practicing church
discipline as it is called, would hinder many potential converts, as it would
give them a proper and biblical view of Godliness. Imagine someone who has been poked and
prodded to “get saved” by their neighbor and at church time there is discipline
being practiced upon a member who has been living in let’s say, the sin of
adultery or perhaps drunkenness. He or
she will get the idea that they cannot continue in these things if they are
involved in them and the fear is that they will be “driven away” from the
gospel, so the “solution” is to not practice discipline within the
assembly. The problem is that this
practice IS scriptural (see 1 Cor 5:1-5, 9-13) and when it is not observed the
general view of sin is not as strong as it should be within the assembly. There are many other reasons for church
discipline but I will save that for yet another study.
9. Many times also the focus becomes on
the “pastor” and this is evident by statements such as “this is pastor
so-and-so’s church.” Yes, biblical
leadership is certainly scriptural but in many of our modern assemblies we have
lost the truth of the Priesthood of all believers, especially in the “build-a-church”
movement. It becomes an improper
emphasis on the pastor and his goals, with little or no accountability as
well.
10.
The
focus for the youth groups, SS classes etc. becomes evangelistic and the result
is again, that these young people never get grounded in the Word of God. When the opportunity could be taken to teach
the scriptural roles for each sex, biblical separation, the errors of following
the world etc. the focus becomes on getting
visitors to come to the services/classes etc.
11.
The
unsaved end up mixing with the lost to a degree and this is very detrimental to
the believers, especially with the youth groups and the younger children. How many youth have been corrupted by the
worldly teens at camp and in SS classes etc. in the name of trying win
converts. Yes, we could say that by the
time a saved young person reaches a certain age or maturity level, they should be able to handle peer pressure,
but many youth today are not trained at home as adequately as they should and
therefore are not as equipped as they should be. Depending upon the age and when they got
converted, we are also looking at a time when children are more susceptible to
wrong influences and putting them in the path of lost peers is certainly
violating scriptures regarding biblical training and entering not into the path
of the wicked.
12.
Lastly,
and there may be many more points, many are unconverted in the assembly. A decision is made, many times after
responding to an unscriptural gospel message that includes no biblical
repentance or an unclear message that leaves the hearer with no conviction and
no true understanding of conversion.
This of course can and normally does, lead to strife, gossip, sin etc.
within the “membership” of the assembly.
Brethren, I am not stating that every elder, pastor or local
assembly that has embraced or is practicing this “build-a-church” philosophy is
unsaved and unregenerate, but it clearly is wrong, unscriptural, dangerous and
has an extremely damaging and injurious effect on the local assembly, the
believers in the assembly, the lost and even the testimony the local assembly
has in the community.
