Friday, April 3, 2009

FLASH! Economy Affects Spiritual Radar - Folks Unable To Discern God's Actual Will

ECONOMY AFFECTS GOD SPEAKING TO CHURCHES

Yes, it seems to be true. God has been speaking to Christians, telling them to go into debt (never mind the Bible) and build new buildings. It is happening all over the country. One church had drawings prominently displayed on the wall. They also had a scale model of the new Christian retirement center God already told them to build.

The economy got bad and suddenly God changed his mind. So they moved the church five miles away instead, abandoning the drawings, abandoning the property and abandoning the people who live there. WHAT??? What happened to God speaking? Did God change his mind? Is God so fickle that he doesn't know what he wants?

God told another church to go into ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS of debt to build a new building. Today, three years after the building was finished, they still owe several million bucks on that fiasco and the new pastor is trying to convince the deacons that they need a NEW sanctuary to reach new people.

Isn't it amazing (and convenient) that "God's will" usually follows the economy. It's a miracle and it saved our reputation as representatives of Christ. And so, with no evangelism to speak of, resulting in stagnant church membership, and no professional people in the church (with big bucks), and in a depressed economy, isn't it convenient that God has personally "put a hold" on the new building.

I wonder to whom God spoke first about waiting? Did God tell one of the deacons or the pastor first? Or did God tell one of the little old ladies that perhaps we should wait awhile?

Often we hear that God speaks through circumstances. When we say that, what we really mean is, we will "go with the flow" but we use spiritual sounding platitudes to rationalize our decision and make it sound like we are actually HEARING FROM GOD. Again, how convenient.

People say, "We missed God's timing" or something just as evasive, and phony. How can you claim to hear God speak so clearly about going into millions of dollars of debt, then claim to "miss God's timing" when the plans fall apart?

Someone is lying. Either "you" or God. Or perhaps God just can't make up his mind.

I need to visit and talk again to those folks who told me they had prayed about building a new church building and it WAS, without a doubt, God's will. I want to ask them what God told them about the multi-year delay in his plan from the time he originally told them personally it was "God's will" to move from a historic and prime location out to the edge of town, away from the very people to whom the congregation is allegedly trying to minister.

How convenient this recession really is. Perhaps now the church folk can actually DO the work of the church, the work of actually making disciples and teaching them to make more disciples...to reproduce. Then maybe one day, in the future, there might actually be a need for more room.

Or maybe the status quo will be maintained and the new FBC Clubhouse out in the country will have to wait awhile. If only we REALLY knew God's will! If only...

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