The Church Needs an Upgrade

[shittim]

Some people tend to project on others the way they feel about themselves.

 

[CorrectiveLens]

I’ve been pondering......”church “ has to change....like a new computer gets “upgrades” all the time....

God wants to “upgrade” His church...

Imagine 1 or 2 acres of land and there are little huts/cabins/booths specifically for....Prayer, Healing, Sermon, Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Praise, Worship, Salvation, Food, Clothing, water baptism, Word of Prophecy, etc.

Church has to break out of the walls and all the structure and focus more on the needs of the people and how God wants to supply all the needs in one Sunday meeting....it’s NOT about just listen to the pastor and all eyes on the pastor.......it’s about God and all His people....

Our dear loving Father wants to love His children and meet our needs and pour His love in us and on us....healing us and drawing us close to Him!

Instead of coming to church and only getting a sermon, you can actually get all of the above!

What would an “Upgrade” of Church be to you?......

The Church is not a building but a collection of saints. I can only imagine how the money to upgrade a building can be better used to feed the poor and provide showers and clothing for the homeless so that they can be ministered to , etc.

 

[Lafftur]

God's method is preaching. He has chosen preaching to save those that believe. He has made it clear in the word that preaching is to be our main method for transformation. The gifts of the Spirit were never intended to replace that.

There is just something about the Word of God being preached by a called and anointed preacher that illuminates and transforms lives like nothing else can do.

I don't believe that Word of Knowledge, Wisdom, Prophecy works on demand such that one could set up a booth and everyone take turns getting a word of knowledge by the person at the booth. That would be a flake saying things from their own mind and calling it the word of knowledge. Like a Tarot Card reader or a psychic reader saying general stuff like "This is your year of breakthrough" And people going away saying I got a Word from the Lord This is my year of breakthrough. That is not the gift of the Spirit that is just people doing their own "positive" reinforcing. No we don't need that in any of our churches. If you see it, Run.

Hello Scribe,

You have the gift of Teaching in the Body of Christ so, to you "preaching" will always seem like what needs to be done but, there are other members in the Body of Christ that have different callings like, evangelist mostly want to preach the Cross and Salvation message....they have a deep desire for the lost to be saved. Whereas, Teachers have a great desire for the Word of God to be known - they study and study and focus on the Bible; Apostles like to go where no one else wants to go.....they go into places of great darkness to establish churches as "lighthouses" in evil places.

A church that allows ALL the Gifts and Callings of Believers to flow freely to all Believers and to the Lost would be amazing!!! I believe church will be changing.....God is on the move.....

Perhaps all these shopping malls that will have to close because of online shopping will actual become the new form of church......instead of clothing shops or shoe shops, there are Rooms of Prayer, Rooms of Healing, Rooms of a Sermon, Rooms of Praise, Rooms of Worship, Rooms of Teaching, Rooms of Prophecy, Rooms of Water Baptism, Rooms of hearing the Gospel Message of Salvation, etc.....

 

[Lafftur]

As I read your post, a flea market came to my mind. A place of entertainment and choosing what one likes.
Sound like many churches today. Pick and choose what entertains you, what you believe you need.

What churches need to do is stop with the entertaining and do what the Scriptures says.
Check out the Scriptures----
I Cor. 1:17
II Tim. 2:4
I Cor 1:21

Churches need to preach the word and allow the Holy Spirit to do His work on those who hear.
Everything else is just a distraction.

A flea market church sounds absolutely FABULOUS!!

Imagine all the needs that could be met... so many people leave church not having their spiritual needs met.....they needed healing and got a sermon.... they needed encouragement love and acceptance and got rebuked and condemned...... if only the Holy Spirit was not quenched but, flowing freely....all the needs would be met.....not one would leave empty.

 

[Lafftur]

Church should be your family that you live life with. There is a need for the weekly meeting where the Word is preached and this should be the main centering focal point of the gathering together to hear the prophetic word of God preached. Then there are many other meetings and outreaches to be involved in throughout the week and ministering to one another in love should be our daily life. Most of our closest friends should be from our local church. That will include many opportunities for ministry besides a Sunday Sermon. However that Sunday Sermons should be a time to hear from God is a unique way.

That we need preachers who make that sermon their priority and deliver a message that has been prayed over for many hours and preachers that give themselves wholly to the prayer and the word of God is God's method as explained in the New Testament. We need to apply that method. The problem comes when preachers do not give themselves to prayer and the study of the Word and their preaching ministry is weak. No wonder someone would look elsewhere for a Word from the Lord.

Scribe, you would definitely preach anointed sermons....it is your gift and anointing! You could have your own "Room of Sermons" in a renovated shopping mall!

Actually, with the world wide web.... we could all set up websites...... Healing, Sermons, Praise, Worship, Gospel of Salvation..... especially with Covid.... perhaps we all need websites........

 

[Lafftur]

I think it is a bit ironic we have some luddites even on an online forum lol

Thanks for increasing my vocabulary.... I had to look up the word "luddite"........lol!

Luddite

noun

1. 1.
   DEROGATORY
   a person opposed to new technology or ways of working.
   "a small-minded Luddite resisting progress"
   
   
2. 2.
   HISTORICAL
   a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16).

 

[Lafftur]

The Church is not a building but a collection of saints. I can only imagine how the money to upgrade a building can be better used to feed the poor and provide showers and clothing for the homeless so that they can be ministered to , etc.

Now, you - @CorrectiveLens would flourish in the "Rooms of Food and Clothing"! It's your gift and calling - you're anointed to feed and cloth believers and the lost!

If Mother Teresa would have stayed in a church building, she would have never been able to feed, clothe and shelter so many children and people......

 

[Lafftur]

I am enjoying all of your replies! It's time for all of us to understand our gifts and callings and start moving in them.....no more fear of man, or staying in our comfortable four walls...... at least, create a YouTube channel if your gift is teaching or preaching or the gospel message of salvation..... Let's go! God is with us and sends us out!

 

[shittim]

Our faith is not a "spectator sport", we are all called to be doers of the word, not hearers only.
Bless you lafftur

 

[DWR]

A flea market church sounds absolutely FABULOUS!!

Imagine all the needs that could be met... so many people leave church not having their spiritual needs met.....they needed healing and got a sermon.... they needed encouragement love and acceptance and got rebuked and condemned...... if only the Holy Spirit was not quenched but, flowing freely....all the needs would be met.....not one would leave empty.

Well, we already have flea market churches. Seems every community has a variety of "churches" that people can choose from. Keep searching until you find one that teaches what you believe or entertains you, regardless of what the Word teaches.

As far as people having their needs met, that is what preaching the Gospel does.
Jesus instructed His churches to "teach all things" and that is what preaching the Gospel means.

What needs to be changed is simple.
Stop with all the entertainment and go back to the way that Jesus and the Apostles preached the Gospel.
The people set down and paid attention to those God sent to teach them.

 

[brighthouse98]

They looked to upgrade the church when Jesus walked the earth, remember?? ( Matt 21:12-13) He did not care for it.This action Jesus took brought to them what should already be light to us( Rom 13:11-14) Sadly many are still asleep.

 

[Scribe]

Scribe, you would definitely preach anointed sermons....it is your gift and anointing! You could have your own "Room of Sermons" in a renovated shopping mall!

Actually, with the world wide web.... we could all set up websites...... Healing, Sermons, Praise, Worship, Gospel of Salvation..... especially with Covid.... perhaps we all need websites........

I believe there are many local churches doing things the way the Holy Spirit wants them to do it and are very mature and healthy and allow the gifts of the Spirit to manifest as He wills and not on demand of our own initiative which is where the flakey folks give Charismatics a bad name.

There will be a time in the service, usually the worship before or after the sermon where these gifts are manifest. I think that is how it happened in the beginning churches and how it still happens today because it is the same Holy Spirit and He knows how to lead people if they will submit to His leading in faith.

 

[Mii]

Nice ideas. I think along these lines also and since that is so different from "regular church" it leads me to think that maybe some people serve a sort of more difficult to define niche within the body. Like someone that runs a retreat center or hosts a convention for "workshops" that sort of thing.

The concept is still filling in for me personally but at present I think it's something that the need is low "generally speaking"

Ex: church leaders get sent to a retreat center 3-7 days out of the year...3 days is 1% of a year so it's almost not worth mentioning to a lot of people. Same thing with a revival that happens once every few years.

Yet for some small group of people they do it year round and touch such a diverse group in a pretty different way.


I see a legitimate way to live like the early church within this system and not shun the modern church...it's not for everyone.

Same thing with conferences...someone hosts those things and for "them" it's their life...for others it's something they went to once in their life.

I'm just sort of letting my mind float past your OP and give you my thoughts in a general understanding of unmet needs...leastways trying to understand why I feel so displaced myself at times. I do NOT think that every need will be met in 2hrs on one day of the week...

It may be that since I probably am more geared to give my life to what is for most a brief retreat that I have a skewed view on what should be a priority in a church. Not to say it's incorrect but it may just not fit in a modern church in the city and could not be expected to....which is hard because the burden "seems" like it should be applied unilaterally but the body is diverse


I guess it might help to also consider missions week if you have such things at your local church. The missionaries don't "live" at that church or even "go" to it. They are a part of it but in quite a different almost anomalous way.


Anyhow, I enjoyed thinking about it. I'd like to see at least some things cross over out of the net sometime soon but idk how that transition happens so I've neglected to post recently but twas encouraging fortunately

 

[pumpkinbread1567]

I’ve been pondering......”church “ has to change....like a new computer gets “upgrades” all the time....

God wants to “upgrade” His church...

Church has to break out of the walls and all the structure and focus more on the needs of the people and how God wants to supply all the needs in one Sunday meeting....

I am not sure what church means, to be honest. The so-called churches nowadays don't represent it to me at the least. I think it's supposed to represent all the members of Christ's body, but they seem to be completely dead. Not working. If you liken it to a Windows PC, it's like in hibernation/sleep mode. Just consuming electricity and adding up to bills. And I hate it because I'm a tree looking to be established in the body. I don't even know which part I'm supposed to be. I'm looking for land to work on so I can start plowing or fishing for men. Who will plant me?

 

[pumpkinbread1567]

If we look at the tabernacle, the outer court was a busy place. Everybody had access to it and people could move in and out from there.

I'm glad someone brought it up. You might have thought of it, but if you look at Revelation 11, in v2 Jesus tells John to "exclude the courtyard outside the temple" for measuring the temple and the altar. There are a lot of ppl that say "Lord, Lord," but the bitter truth is...

 

[brighthouse98]

Such fine points pumpkinbrea! In many churches they have forgot that Church is about the people in the building,not the building itself! But remember church consists of just 2 people! ( Matt 18:20) There is no perfect church,because in truth your Church lies within us all. SO!!!!

What I did was bring likeminded people over to have a bible study in my own home,and this has worked out fine.Sometimes we have to play a Moses figure,just because so many want to sit in the stands and watch,we wish to be a part of the body of Christ and so we do something!!( James 1:22) Just a thought. Like everything else,it all depends just how bad you want something as to what we all are willing to do for our self to get what we know we need! And of course welcome!

 

[shittim]

Post number 35- could it relate to how- "many are called but few are chosen"?

 

[brighthouse98]

You cannot be chosen until you place yourself in position to become chosen, I have found out.

 

[Subhumanoidal]

Words of prophecy and such always screams "palm reader" to me. People lining up to find answers from man, not God. So anything that involves these sorts of things is a downgrade into false teaching and serves to make things worse.

This sounds more like a religious compound. I remember one in Waco, TX a few years back. It didn't work out so well.
I find many Christians want to huddle up in isolated areas so they don't have to deal with the world. Somehow it's deemed "Christian" to do this and label it as getting closer to God without the world's influence.
Which is a great irony since that's not what God teaches. And in fact makes more think more of snow Flakes and their safe spaces.

Such ideas won't change the world, but rather further increase this disconnect between the world and those that should he preaching to the world. The "us vs them" mentality that is so wrongly prevalent would only increase on both sides.

The bible says Christians should be lamps on a hill, not lightning bugs in a jar.

 

[shittim]

That is speaking of those who are not Holy Spirit filled and led.

Jesus told us clearly Holy spirit would guide us in ALL truth. Most who claim to be "Christian" are not Holy Spirit led.
They hold to an outward form of godliness, denying the power thereof. Just as Jesus told us of these last of the last days.
best wishes