Yeshua Explored
23rd May 2022
More of the same?
How has the Church changed since COVID?
(This series of articles was written a year after the first lockdown in March/April 2021)
Previous articles are still available on the Premier Christian radio website – https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Blogs2/Yeshua-Explored – (until they finally pull the plug!)
How different are you from the person you were a year ago? What about your Christian friends? What about your fellowship? What about the Church in general?
Was its God’s intention for us to change? If not, then … more of the same? If so … then what has happened? And, if it hasn’t happened yet … are you and I open for change? God is a God of second chances. Are we ready for this?
Frankly the whole system needs an overhaul. Not only do we have tens of thousands of denominational expressions, you can easily double that when we take into account what we call ‘para-church’ ministries, whether charities, non-profits or ‘Christian’ businesses. With this latter group aren’t we just emulating established structures from secular society, with hierarchies, CEOs, HR officers, pension options, five year plans and Christmas shindigs? Perhaps Flockdown, with its onslaught on office environments, has been a good thing in promoting a home-working scenario? Or perhaps it has created extra pressures? Either way perhaps now is the time for us to examine how we express our faith and advance the Kingdom within these ‘para-church’ setups? Why do I say this?
I say this firstly because the Bible doesn’t speak of it, apart from ‘Feed the widows (Jerusalem branch)’ we read of in Acts 6. But, more significantly, we see the abuses that the system can create and, too often we are silent about this for reasons that are not particularly godly. In my years of working in Christian ministries I have seen much that follows this pattern but, probably, none worse than has just been exposed, regarding the crimes of Ravi Zacharias. Here we have a man, declared as the world’s most prominent Christian apologist, living a secret life of sexual abandon, involving lying, cheating, physical abuse of women, misappropriation of funds and more. When caught out, he denied everything and was unrepentant up to his death in May 2020. This is beyond awful and the fact that there seemed to be a complete absence of the fear of the Lord indicates that here we have the Christian world being defended through talks, books and broadcasts by someone who was possibly not even a Christian himself! Look at this from a Kingdom perspective. How easy it would be for an atheist God-hater to finance a film or drama of this double life and how devastating this would be for the gospel. It is devastating enough for the thousands who put their trust in this man, even defended him, only to be rocked by the provable allegations that brought the whole thing to light.
How accountable are those charismatic individuals who run many of these ministries? Do they consider themselves untouchable? Has power corrupted them? It is possible and it is no way for Christians to behave. Although I have met many godly individuals at the helm of ministries, sadly the same criteria often applies, that holds sway in business corporations. It is not servant leadership, it is leadership by sheer force of personality, driven by ambition and personal needs rather than the needs of others! How much longer will God put up with this?
This is an extract from the book, Flockdown Church: Back to the drawing board?, available for £5 at https://www.sppublishing.com/flockdown-church-278-p.asp
