There's a Hole in This Church...

There is a hole in this church.
not in the wall or the ceiling or the floor. Not actually in this church building. The building itself is just fine. Sufficient for its purpose. The question is, what is that purpose? "TO REACH MORE PEOPLE"? Is that it? If so, hurray! We've done it. The church has grown, we've remodeled, we've added on. We've arrived right? No you say? "There's still unsaved people out there. We've gotta get them in here and get them saved. We should go to any length to save those souls!" Makes sense right. But what do we do with them after we get them saved? Tell them to reach more people, and exponentially increase the number of "reached" people? What about the people sitting in the church already? Are they being reached? Are they being fed? Are they being "built up in their most holy faith"? Don't they need to be "reached"? If the saints are not fed, they may not remain saints very long. If the saints are not equipped they won't be out doing any evangelizing.
There is a troubling statistic that shows 8 out of 10 of Christian teens that go to college will walk away from the faith. That should knock us on the floor! What does that say about the church? It says either the youth group, or the church or the family unit is failing; or all three. We need to answer for that. Young adults are leaving the faith shortly after leaving the protection of the family, church, and youth group. They aren't given a foundation for their faith and thus are likely to leave it, when enticed away by the world. Sounds familiar. "Like seed that fell on rocky soil, it sprang up quickly but when the sun came out it withered and scorched because it had no root." Our youth have no roots in the faith. As some say, "They are reasoned out of the faith because they are never reasoned in."
As a church we must relearn the art of DISCIPLESHIP. The quality of our worship will not matter. The engaging nature of our sermons will not count. The fervor and genuine good will of our outreach will not win. If people are not given a true picture of God, which compels them toward relationship with Him and love for Him; not all of our striving work in the church will gain us one speck toward what God has for us. To be given a true picture of Jesus (with real doctrinal meat) is to both preach an evangelistic sermon to the unsaved, and is also nourishing teaching to the saved. We don't have to pick one or the other. In fact, if we focus on one or the other, we lose both. We lose all. The only way to see Christ's church built up is to lift up the person of Christ. "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." That's great news! Jesus promises to do the evangelism for us, if we lift him up. (The truth is, lifting up Christ is HOW we evangelize.) By lifting up Christ we don't mean talking about how Jesus can save you from hell and how it would really be a good idea to choose him; but rather by teaching about who Jesus is; (again, with real doctrinal meat.)
The world does not need more entertainment. The church should not try to compete with Hollywood. It's no contest. Nobody does Hollywood like Hollywood. If we're trying to offer the world clean, christian forms of fun we are in the wrong path. We are sick with obsession about ourselves. We need to know that all ministry has everything to do with the person of Christ and comparatively little to do with us.