Is the Church too strong?

By Jeff

I cannot help but wonder if our churches have become too muscular?  Have our churches become immobilized due to overwhelming attendance and the resulting church politics? Is it possible to grow die hard disciples out of a large church? Special Forces soldiers and Rangers are rarely stacked with muscle and yet they are the most effective soldiers in the field. Should we strive to build congregations so full of Christians that they are impressive on the exterior due to mass but rendered ineffective by the very same characteristic that we find impressive?

 

Special Forces soldiers and Rangers are not stacked with muscle for a reason. Too much muscle hinders agility and speed, thus making them a slower target. It seems that we as the Church have placed too much value on well attended services (just as athletes can become obsessed with numbers numerically representing their performance) that we have created congregations that cannot run the race of missions. Unfortunately, since the church has supported the numbers game, the congregants have followed suit. We now have vast amounts of congregants who have overloaded their lives with things that seem to be positive (like muscle) but leave them unable to walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death unless they make some serious sacrifices before they begin their march through the Valley.  We as a church have packed on so much ‘muscle’ that we cannot quickly adapt to the changing currents in the ocean in which we swim.

 

We must become more like Special Forces soldiers or Rangers, we need to cut the excessive muscle and re-gain our agility to navigate through this rapidly changing world.