Christian Apathy
While the other side was motivated to remove God from our public schools in the 1960s, legalize the killing of innocent unborn babies in the 1970s, normalize homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle in the 1980s, provide equal marriage benefits for those who embrace that lifestyle in the 1990s, and attempt to ban the words Under God and have the Ten Commandments outlawed in 2003, Christians have been largely indifferent, unconcerned, apathetic.
The United States today is such a fertile mission field that missionaries from other countries are now coming here to reach the lost, while at the same time, many of our American churches have become mere fruitless social clubs.
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. (Matthew 5:13)
Apathy is becoming more and more rampant in the American church. At the same time, fewer and fewer Christian congregations are discussing or admitting that this is a real problem for them. So, is apathy really a problem? Consider that Christians, as a whole, do not participate in regular Bible studies or small groups. They do not have mentors or people in their lives to encourage and spur them on. Fewer and fewer Christians are giving or serving with their time, talents, or treasures as compared to ten or twenty years ago. "Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." (Matthew 9:37)
Looking at the decrease of servant attitude and of volunteers willing to work in many of the churches and ministries these days, coupled with the general lack of concern or willingness for deeper spiritual growth or for playing a part in the life of the church, we do indeed have a growing problem!
In Charles Colson's book, Against the Night, he described "barbarians in the pews." These are people who basically come to church on Sunday morning to get their strokes to be made to feel good, but live during the week by worldly values. And they don't even realize it. They think they are doing their spiritual duty by showing up at church on Sunday morning and hearing a sermon that makes them feel good to get through the week. And then the rest of the week they live like everybody else.
Apathy is “unseen,” yet rampant in most churches. The problems of apathetic mentalities—a lack of concern and involvement—has dramatically increased in our churches. Giving generously is way down across the board. It is getting harder and harder to find people to serve on committees and even harder to find qualified leaders willing to assume leadership roles for these committees. We can also see this problem in most boardrooms of churches these days. People shift blame and become argumentative. Yet, many of these do little to seek solutions or engage in real, authentic prayer. All that seems to result is to have more meetings without any action to them.
In Revelation 3:14-22, God is clear; being cold or hot is actually preferable than being apathetic! "To the Church in Laodicea14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. 21 To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
When apathy is around, no one may notice because it is self-refuting, as an apathetic person will never admit he or she is apathetic! And, unless the apathetic ones are the vocal complainers, they are unseen in the church or family. A person in sin will not admit he or she is a sinner unless the Spirit intervenes (John 14:16, Rom. 7:21-25, 8:26-27; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 John 2:1).
It is our human nature to consider comfort and security a primary concern. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as it does not make us complacent and take us away from the goals and reasons we are Christians. If we are too comfortable, we become apathetic, and are not interested in stretching ourselves in our personal or Christian walks. This, then, becomes a slippery slope of being afraid of making any challenges that may offend someone’s pride. This disease will produce no growth, no serious discipleship, no serious Bible studies, and no serious teaching from the pulpit; it will be just basic stuff to please people. "When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 9 But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself." (Ezekiel 33:8-9)
In John 2:12-25, Jesus became upset with some people who were turning God’s House into a market place, so He drove them all out of the temple courts. He got rid of the sin and corruption that were polluting God’s House. Have you ever wondered what motivated Jesus to clear out the temple courts? The answer is found in John. 2:17, "His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
It was Jesus' Zeal for God and spiritual living that motivated Him to cleans the temple. How many of us "Christians", after seeing the sin and corruption in the temple courts, would have just walked on by and did nothing? How many of us would have just ignored the situation because we didn’t have an interest or a desire to deal with it?
Jesus had the heart to do something about it. He had so much zeal and enthusiasm for God and spiritual living that He couldn’t just ignore the corruption that was polluting God’s House. His zeal prompted Him to get involved. Just as Jesus was zealous for spiritual living and for the things of God, we must be zealous as well.
God wants us to be zealous. (Rom. 12:11) “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples." Luke 14:28-33,
In this passage, Jesus was talking about commitment. He was saying that we must count the cost before we become His disciples. In other words, He was saying, if we are not willing to give up everything we have for Him, then we might as well not even start. Commitment is vitally important to Jesus.
In the New Testament times, the people spent the whole day in worship and fellowship with each other. Today it is but a few hours. According to the Barna Research Group study done in 2000, only 19% of church members attend Sunday School. Only 11 percent read the Bible every day, another 10 percent read it weekly and 7 percent monthly. Thirty-seven million Christian adults in America have never read the Bible in its entirety. And fewer than half (42 per cent) can name at least five of the Ten Commandments. This basically says that a number of Christians know what the truth is or have some basic idea that the Bible contains the truth but do not care enough to search the Bible to find out what it says! That is religious apathy!
"The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful." (Matthew 13:22)
Our excuse today is that times have changed and we no longer have the time to devout a whole day to worship God. Is it really that or is it that conformity to the longing's of the natural man has superseded that of the spiritual man?
"When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)
How can we break truly free in the midst of all of today's church traditions and embrace again the true New Testament apostolic pattern in the 21st century? Here are some of the issues we must confront.
1. Start Time- The word “service” is alien to the New Testament. They came together at a designated location on a designated day. No watches, no cars. People arrived in groups and many walked to the meeting, accompanied by the Holy Spirit.
2. Worship- People arrived at the designated location singing, not looking for the worship team to get started. They (the whole church) were the worship team and the song of the Lord could come from anyone. Local gifts surfaced and sang to the heart-felt needs instead of running to see who will sing the latest “Christian hit”. Birthed by the Holy Spirit for a particular audience, these local songs ministered to the people in a way no other song could. In other words, their songs had real meaning to them.
3. Seating- Our fancy church buildings were also alien to the New Testament. Our present cathedrals are "monuments" to to show just how religious a congregation is. Arranged in the Roman tradition of the theater they facilitate performance and spectators instead of freedom and spontaneity. Whenever someone stood to speak in the New Testament, including our Lord Jesus, He is said to stand up in their midst (middle, center) not from the front (podium).
4. Clergy-laity- Another alien term fostering separation between the official and the non-official, the learned and the un-learned, the performers and the spectators. Does it matter if we have cast away the term “priest” because we rightly believe in the priesthood of every believer if as “pastor”. We are still operating in the same way?
5. The delivery of the Word- Today we have a myriad of seminary-trained ministers speaking to the congregation. But woe to anyone else who stands to speak. The bible clearly outlines that two or three should speak and the rest to judge. The Lord wasn’t restrained from speaking during the sermon or homily as we have come to expect today, and neither were the early New Testament church members. If a member felt a desire to speak to the congregation, then they stood up and spoke during the service.
6. Through Prayer. Prayer is one of the best ways to encourage an apathetic disciple. Pray, as Paul did in Ephesians 1: 17-18, "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe". Colossians 1:9-12 is another good passage of Scripture to pray.
7. Make sure you know the story yourself. Take time to study the Word of God and understand the basics of the tragic story of man’s fall and the glorious story of how God, needing the perfect sacrifice for sin, took it upon himself to bear that sacrifice.
8. Spur one another on. The following passage exhorts us to consider how to spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:24-25)
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelations 3:20-22)
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While the other side was motivated to remove God from our public schools in the 1960s, legalize the killing of innocent unborn babies in the 1970s, normalize homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle in the 1980s, provide equal marriage benefits for those who embrace that lifestyle in the 1990s, and attempt to ban the words Under God and have the Ten Commandments outlawed in 2003, Christians have been largely indifferent, unconcerned, apathetic.
The United States is such a fertile mission field that missionaries from other countries are now coming here to reach the lost, while at the same time, many of our American churches have become mere fruitless social clubs.
"Historically, religion always represented a threat to government because it competes for the loyalties of the people. In modern America, however, most religious institutions abandoned their independence long ago, and now serve as cheerleaders for state policies like social services, faith-based welfare, and military aggression in the name of democracy. Few American churches challenge state actions at all, provided their tax-exempt status is maintained. This is why Washington politicians ostensibly celebrate religion-- it no longer threatens their supremacy. Government has co-opted religion and family as the primary organizing principle of our society. The federal government is boss, and everybody knows it." - Dr. Ron Paul
As a result, most churches don't dare preach doctrine relating to personal sovereignty and Christian liberty, separation of church and state, Christian citizenship, ministry in areas other than salvation such as teaching the church congregation how to apply God's laws to secular and political affairs, morality within government, or the biblical role of government in society for fear of being confrontational or political. Apparently, many pastors are more concerned about scaring the sheep away or lowering tithes than they are with truth, justice, or social responsibility.
Compromise will not work in religion. We cannot put aside the truth of Jesus just because it offends Muslims, atheists or homosexuals. We cannot agree to worship their gods in the spirit of multiculturalism. Nor can we stand idly by while our children are taught that New Age mysticism or TV paganism is to be embraced if they are to be "citizens of the global village." Sorry, we are to be strangers and aliens of such a place.
Rather than being salt and light (Matt. 5:13-14) in today's society, much of the Church has allowed societal norms to reshape the Church into something totally foreign to Scripture.