The growing madness called "Church"
Many of the articles I write, I enjoy because they sort of ‘burn out’
of me through my fingers and all I have to deal with is grammar and
formatting. I am not particularly writing this because I enjoy the topic
but I feel that there is a need to speak the truth. It will then be up
to individuals to love or hate it, act or remain passive as people tend
to do – or even fight it – but I would have spoken the truth.
I sat down in a gathering where I was about to do a gig, focusing on going up to the stage to play some songs. Just before I went up, a guy went up to the podium and started speaking freely about ‘Church’ and ‘Christianity’ – and I sat in my seat and felt fed up… again – but in a nice sort of way. I was glad that someone who has never read any of my articles or had a discussion with me, but who is evidently given to the God-Chase had similar things to say about the filthy stench of ‘Church’, if I may.
Now, when I say Church, I refer to its usage as is commonly used, a place where people gather to do fast-paced music they call ‘praise’ and slow-paced music they call ‘worship’, where the gathering of one person speaking to a large group of passive listeners is ‘fellowshipping’, where the ‘pastor’ is the leader of the ‘flock’ which is the congregation and where he is respected and worshipped as a demi-god because he is ‘the man of God’… But the truth is, no congregation or gathering of people is perfect, so let me not flog these issues.
But then, there are other things.
The church intends to ‘grow’ and by that, it means increase in numbers and branches with more individuals who take on board the practice that characterizes the mode of worship of the denomination, its style of dressing, style of speaking, style of living, which is, more or less, an off-shoot of the church’s ‘founders’.
These may not be the best scenario, ideally, but then, there are other things.
Tithe and Offering are gathered to aid in the ‘growth’ of the church. What is hard to understand is that people are actually discouraged from finding out what these are used for. Is it not in the New Testament church that they had all things in common – and in the Old Testament where offerings for the widows and orphans were gathered, was it not the responsibility of EACH Israelite to carry out the disbursement of these things and NOT the priests? If there is true community, how can tithes and offerings be used to build schools and institutions that ‘members’ of the ‘church’ cannot afford to attend? If there is true community, how can there be people who actually lack, not because of unwillingness to work, but because of a lack of support? How can a church have 4 keyboards and other such things when right in its (Note: NOT her) midst are the homeless, the widows, the poor – and yet, like the gentleman aptly said, the church sends out money for ‘prison mission’ and ‘missionary missions’ when people die and are broken right there in the midst of the congregation from lack and poverty?
But it’s hard to understand because you are most likely reading this article on facebook, on the internet, and on your smartphone – because you often can afford the basics and are completely clueless about the struggling of those who are truly ‘poor’.
But John, you say, didn’t Jesus say ‘The poor you will always have’ – and to that I say, yes, he did. That was because he was referring to the hypocritical systems of the world that are nothing less than systems to extract resource and give to those who are wealthy and in power – and who who make the laws. Do you not understand when he said ‘ Ye are in the world, but NOT of the world’? Actually, in the Church system he left behind, the book of Acts says, NO MAN had need of anything because everyman brought what he had and resources were given equally to all…
But we don’t even understand equality.
The gentleman spoke of a madness that roiled my spirit and churned my stomach. He spoke of seats in a congregation reserved for financial ‘partners’ and how he stood because there were no seats till near the end of the ‘service’ or rituals, and then just at the end, the partners came in…just in time for grace.
What madness! What blindness! What folly!
Was it not James who said the rich should be treated as equally as the poor and was it not scripture that says we should condescend to men of low estate. Heck, these aren’t even Christian principles. They are just proper.
Truth must be told, and let me be hated for it! ‘Churches’ are often temples of hypocrisy where lying, filth, slander and greed rise up before the nostrils of the Most High like the putrid incense of fools who have no clue of the greatness and purity of God. Truth be told, most people in Church in this land are there mainly for what they can extract out of God and man under the disgusting guise of faith and fellowship – the latter being nothing more than business networking. The corruption, hypocrisy and decadence of the nation screams forth of the actual fruit of a nation where there are almost more churches than stars in the heavens! It is in a church that a man who has looted the national funds can go to for thanksgiving and give thanks to God.
What madness!
Truth be told, there are just too many pastors who are often shallow, weak, godless, irreverent men who have gone from the worship of the true God to being CEOs of corporate religious factories as they lick the slime off the anal openings of evil godless men, corrupt politicians, dishonest leaders, not able to speak the truth – and in the perverse government of the day, one hardly talks of ANY Christian standing up against a depraved government – but one can speak of FELA who wasn’t even a pastor and yet stood against evil and corruption in his own way. Are we not the SALT and LIGHT?
Shame! Shame!! Shame!!!
Truth be told, there are many in denominations who serve God, love God and seek God – but beyond desire, like an adoring fan would want to learn an instrument but is not able to follow through, the MASSES are talkers, pointers, who are ready to sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, not be persecuted and would rather resort to ‘wisdom’ as they fear to speak truth to their little idols, their ‘men of god’ – but would rather serve them at every turn with the words ‘my pastor said’, never hearing the Spirit say ‘Come’. Madness and folly! Like salt sprinkled in a bowl of salt and like light shining in an already lighted room, so is their weak ‘expression of faith’ – so ‘wise’ and ‘worded’ around other saints, so useless, godless, pointless, faithless – and powerless around sinners.
Ask yourself the last time you saw a miracle – or even ask yourself the last time you spoke to someone about Christ. Ask yourself the last time you sat with a drunk or prostitute, an addict, a gambler, a cultist – or did you not read what the scripture said that ‘they that are whole need no physician’? Like the parable of Jesus, instead of being cocooned in our little silly gatherings, tearing each other in spiritual boredom over stupid theological differences and ‘Greek’ interpretation that is a guise for our spiritual hollowness, are we not to go to the ‘highways and byways’, to the lost out there – but hey, even the lost are among us – they sit in the high places in our gatherings and steer the course of the sermons with their donations and cash.
The message is lost as every man becomes a God to himself, interpreting scripture through the lens of his societal point of view, each man armed with his caricature of what God is, from Santa Clause to Goblin, to fiery killer, to marriage counselor to a God who is concerned with taking wealth from the wicked and giving it to ‘his own’, who, really, are equally as wicked, godless, loveless and do not understand the basic fact of: Love your enemies.
Where did it all go wrong? Yes, many will rise to defend how ‘good’ their gatherings are, because they know nothing or have not been schooled to understand that the Church is ONE. A sick member means the whole is affected, and denominations are man’s tents and his puny attempts to compartmentalize the divine. Like grasping of the wind…futility!
Do you foolishly think you have the Holy Spirit trapped in your bottle of anointing oil or that you will command the angels and they will obey you and the words that come out of your imperfect, unwise, inept lips, lips that convey messages from a brain that cannot comprehend mere quantum physics and yet thinks it has the know-how to command changes in the heavenlies? Folly!
The heathen laugh because they turn to ‘sons of God’ for truth, and all they see are bickering, fighting, greedy talkers who love more talk and more programs – and yes, they love celebrities and red carpets too – and all in the name of doing all for ‘the glory of God’.
The call is simple. Many will fall away from the faith giving heed to doctrines of devils. Do you think you will make heaven as you live the lie you call your life? I have no answers to cure the maladies – but I do know there is a way – THE WAY.
No one comes to the Father, except through Him – and no one stay with the Father except they abide IN Him. Those who abide may be lonely and unpopular, but the ones who will follow the Lamb wherever he goes love not their lives unto death… They have left Babylon and Egypt and follow the cloud of the Lamb, without rituals, as the wind blows – because those who are actually led by the Spirit are like the wind.
Friend, time is truly too short to be diplomatic and rambling.
Do you really love Him more than THINGS that will pass away or will you keep giving excuses till the darkness sweeps over you completely and you start to fight the light in your blind deadness?
Forget your friggin buildings and caucuses
It was never about them, your tin-foiled pastors – or even you.
It’s all about HIM.
Maranatha...
I sat down in a gathering where I was about to do a gig, focusing on going up to the stage to play some songs. Just before I went up, a guy went up to the podium and started speaking freely about ‘Church’ and ‘Christianity’ – and I sat in my seat and felt fed up… again – but in a nice sort of way. I was glad that someone who has never read any of my articles or had a discussion with me, but who is evidently given to the God-Chase had similar things to say about the filthy stench of ‘Church’, if I may.
Now, when I say Church, I refer to its usage as is commonly used, a place where people gather to do fast-paced music they call ‘praise’ and slow-paced music they call ‘worship’, where the gathering of one person speaking to a large group of passive listeners is ‘fellowshipping’, where the ‘pastor’ is the leader of the ‘flock’ which is the congregation and where he is respected and worshipped as a demi-god because he is ‘the man of God’… But the truth is, no congregation or gathering of people is perfect, so let me not flog these issues.
But then, there are other things.
The church intends to ‘grow’ and by that, it means increase in numbers and branches with more individuals who take on board the practice that characterizes the mode of worship of the denomination, its style of dressing, style of speaking, style of living, which is, more or less, an off-shoot of the church’s ‘founders’.
These may not be the best scenario, ideally, but then, there are other things.
Tithe and Offering are gathered to aid in the ‘growth’ of the church. What is hard to understand is that people are actually discouraged from finding out what these are used for. Is it not in the New Testament church that they had all things in common – and in the Old Testament where offerings for the widows and orphans were gathered, was it not the responsibility of EACH Israelite to carry out the disbursement of these things and NOT the priests? If there is true community, how can tithes and offerings be used to build schools and institutions that ‘members’ of the ‘church’ cannot afford to attend? If there is true community, how can there be people who actually lack, not because of unwillingness to work, but because of a lack of support? How can a church have 4 keyboards and other such things when right in its (Note: NOT her) midst are the homeless, the widows, the poor – and yet, like the gentleman aptly said, the church sends out money for ‘prison mission’ and ‘missionary missions’ when people die and are broken right there in the midst of the congregation from lack and poverty?
But it’s hard to understand because you are most likely reading this article on facebook, on the internet, and on your smartphone – because you often can afford the basics and are completely clueless about the struggling of those who are truly ‘poor’.
But John, you say, didn’t Jesus say ‘The poor you will always have’ – and to that I say, yes, he did. That was because he was referring to the hypocritical systems of the world that are nothing less than systems to extract resource and give to those who are wealthy and in power – and who who make the laws. Do you not understand when he said ‘ Ye are in the world, but NOT of the world’? Actually, in the Church system he left behind, the book of Acts says, NO MAN had need of anything because everyman brought what he had and resources were given equally to all…
But we don’t even understand equality.
The gentleman spoke of a madness that roiled my spirit and churned my stomach. He spoke of seats in a congregation reserved for financial ‘partners’ and how he stood because there were no seats till near the end of the ‘service’ or rituals, and then just at the end, the partners came in…just in time for grace.
What madness! What blindness! What folly!
Was it not James who said the rich should be treated as equally as the poor and was it not scripture that says we should condescend to men of low estate. Heck, these aren’t even Christian principles. They are just proper.
Truth must be told, and let me be hated for it! ‘Churches’ are often temples of hypocrisy where lying, filth, slander and greed rise up before the nostrils of the Most High like the putrid incense of fools who have no clue of the greatness and purity of God. Truth be told, most people in Church in this land are there mainly for what they can extract out of God and man under the disgusting guise of faith and fellowship – the latter being nothing more than business networking. The corruption, hypocrisy and decadence of the nation screams forth of the actual fruit of a nation where there are almost more churches than stars in the heavens! It is in a church that a man who has looted the national funds can go to for thanksgiving and give thanks to God.
What madness!
Truth be told, there are just too many pastors who are often shallow, weak, godless, irreverent men who have gone from the worship of the true God to being CEOs of corporate religious factories as they lick the slime off the anal openings of evil godless men, corrupt politicians, dishonest leaders, not able to speak the truth – and in the perverse government of the day, one hardly talks of ANY Christian standing up against a depraved government – but one can speak of FELA who wasn’t even a pastor and yet stood against evil and corruption in his own way. Are we not the SALT and LIGHT?
Shame! Shame!! Shame!!!
Truth be told, there are many in denominations who serve God, love God and seek God – but beyond desire, like an adoring fan would want to learn an instrument but is not able to follow through, the MASSES are talkers, pointers, who are ready to sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, not be persecuted and would rather resort to ‘wisdom’ as they fear to speak truth to their little idols, their ‘men of god’ – but would rather serve them at every turn with the words ‘my pastor said’, never hearing the Spirit say ‘Come’. Madness and folly! Like salt sprinkled in a bowl of salt and like light shining in an already lighted room, so is their weak ‘expression of faith’ – so ‘wise’ and ‘worded’ around other saints, so useless, godless, pointless, faithless – and powerless around sinners.
Ask yourself the last time you saw a miracle – or even ask yourself the last time you spoke to someone about Christ. Ask yourself the last time you sat with a drunk or prostitute, an addict, a gambler, a cultist – or did you not read what the scripture said that ‘they that are whole need no physician’? Like the parable of Jesus, instead of being cocooned in our little silly gatherings, tearing each other in spiritual boredom over stupid theological differences and ‘Greek’ interpretation that is a guise for our spiritual hollowness, are we not to go to the ‘highways and byways’, to the lost out there – but hey, even the lost are among us – they sit in the high places in our gatherings and steer the course of the sermons with their donations and cash.
The message is lost as every man becomes a God to himself, interpreting scripture through the lens of his societal point of view, each man armed with his caricature of what God is, from Santa Clause to Goblin, to fiery killer, to marriage counselor to a God who is concerned with taking wealth from the wicked and giving it to ‘his own’, who, really, are equally as wicked, godless, loveless and do not understand the basic fact of: Love your enemies.
Where did it all go wrong? Yes, many will rise to defend how ‘good’ their gatherings are, because they know nothing or have not been schooled to understand that the Church is ONE. A sick member means the whole is affected, and denominations are man’s tents and his puny attempts to compartmentalize the divine. Like grasping of the wind…futility!
Do you foolishly think you have the Holy Spirit trapped in your bottle of anointing oil or that you will command the angels and they will obey you and the words that come out of your imperfect, unwise, inept lips, lips that convey messages from a brain that cannot comprehend mere quantum physics and yet thinks it has the know-how to command changes in the heavenlies? Folly!
The heathen laugh because they turn to ‘sons of God’ for truth, and all they see are bickering, fighting, greedy talkers who love more talk and more programs – and yes, they love celebrities and red carpets too – and all in the name of doing all for ‘the glory of God’.
The call is simple. Many will fall away from the faith giving heed to doctrines of devils. Do you think you will make heaven as you live the lie you call your life? I have no answers to cure the maladies – but I do know there is a way – THE WAY.
No one comes to the Father, except through Him – and no one stay with the Father except they abide IN Him. Those who abide may be lonely and unpopular, but the ones who will follow the Lamb wherever he goes love not their lives unto death… They have left Babylon and Egypt and follow the cloud of the Lamb, without rituals, as the wind blows – because those who are actually led by the Spirit are like the wind.
Friend, time is truly too short to be diplomatic and rambling.
Do you really love Him more than THINGS that will pass away or will you keep giving excuses till the darkness sweeps over you completely and you start to fight the light in your blind deadness?
Forget your friggin buildings and caucuses
It was never about them, your tin-foiled pastors – or even you.
It’s all about HIM.
Maranatha...
God bless you!
ReplyDelete