Have you ever wondered why?

     I have often wondered how we can have so many multi-million dollar church buildings that pack-in crowds by the thousands each Sunday morning, but yet have so little impact on our culture and its system of morals.
     It seems that the antagonism toward Christianity grows stronger each day as people look to the church to point the finger of blame for their ills instead of looking for the only solution to their emptiness.
     Why is this happening?
     A couple of weeks ago I was passing through the community where I grew up. I knew that the church I had such fond memories of as a youngster was building a new building so I stopped in for a look. I had heard that the attendance on Sunday mornings had dwindled down to twenty to thirty people. The pastor was convinced that the solution to the scarcity of attendees was due to the austere old building. A slogan was decided upon, although not original, “If we build a new building, they will come.”
     As I was walking through the new building, I could see how their adopted slogan had influenced the scope of the building program right down to the mailbox slots to accommodate well over a hundred families.
     As I was driving away I was asking myself, “Why would people drive several miles on Sunday morning to hear a preacher stroke their egos to make them feel good about themselves after which they would be asked to put a considerable amount of their hard earned cash into the collection plate.”
     Several years ago I was asked to build a movie set for a movie being shot in the Twin Cities. I built false fronted buildings that had curtains on the windows and pictures on the walls as one looked past the imitation brick walls to view the rooms inside. It all looked so real until you stepped around to the side and saw one sided walls with 2X4’s bracing the walls hoping that no strong winds would blow until the movie was complete.
     Is that a fair analogy of the American church when church goers are prepared for good times rather than the persecution and trouble that accompany Godliness?
     Here lies the challenge. Beautiful buildings are usually mortgaged requiring large amounts of money placed into the offering plates to meet the obligation of the debt.
     In most cases the preaching is tailored to and dictated by the mortgage payments. A feel good about yourself gospel is substituted for a life changing gospel requiring repentance. If sin and the repentance of such is mentioned, the offerings will reflect the disapproval of the contributors.
     Church, you need to know that Christians in other parts of the World are weeping and praying for revival in the weak and self-absorbed American church.
     There are no tears for revival found here other than the ones shed by Jesus for His church. We have exchanged God’s desire for us to be Holy for being happy.
     We need to hear the message of repentance which includes, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.” Mathew 16:24
     Folks, the preaching of the cross is foolishness and offensive to the world as Paul told us so long ago. ICor. 1:18
     We have bought into the philosophy of compromise and tolerance to the extent that we have become a stench in the nostrils of the world. Instead of drawing people to the cross, we are driving them away.
     No cross, no power. No power, no hope. No hope, an empty, hollow, and defeated life.