Shooting Bullets in the Wrong Direction

Over the week I have been a listening ear to a friend of mine who has been going through struggles with a local church. I am an outsider who is hearing everything through the filter of my friend, but as best as I can determine she and her husband has been asked to leave their church because of their passion for ministering to the poor. It seems that the questions they are asking of the congregation and its leadership have made people uncomfortable, and, instead of facing those questions head-on, they are just making them go away.

I can relate to the plight of my friends. Over the last three-and-a-half years my family and I have spoken at over 100 churches across the eastern half of the US. During those times we have experienced both the best and the worst that the church has to offer, sometimes seeing both within the same congregation. We have seen people rise to the challenge of true discipleship while others became angry when confronted with a Gospel that expects life change. And during this time we have seen people who have plenty of weapons and ammunition to use for the Kingdom, but instead fire the bullets within the church instead of at their real enemies.

It is the plague of near-sited Christianity. We see so clearly the needs, struggles, and faults within the walls of our churches, but are blind to a dying world that surrounds us. We focus so readily on meetings, committees, classes, programs, and budgets and begin to believe those things really matter. And when someone or something comes along that causes us to see beyond those things it is easy to feel threatened, offended, or just plain angry. It shakes the status quo and invades our comfort zones and we don’t like it. At that moment it is far easier to shoot the messenger and resume our previously scheduled lives than to put on the glasses of the Gospel and allow ourselves to be changed.

Meanwhile there is a war raging outside our doors, and instead of fighting God’s battles out there, we fight a civil war within our ranks. So the enemy continues to devour those for whom Christ died and the American church does little or nothing.

The real enemy of souls is seen everyday through his handiwork. He kills 26,500 children a day from poverty related illnesses. He drags entire people groups into hopelessness and despair. He devours entire countries through warlords and drug cartels. He leaves children orphaned through those same wars and diseases like AIDS. And he blinds people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is their only hope and salvation.

And the church, who is the body of the living Christ, turns its weapons on itself instead of firing its bullets right into the heart of the enemy. The church who could change this world in Jesus’ name does nothing to stand against the Devil’s schemes.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray the following:

"'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

What if we stopped seeing this as a prayer for the world and started seeing it as a prayer for God’s people? Then we would realize that it is our responsibility to bring God’s kingdom to this world by accomplishing His will through our obedience. And, when that happens, the enemy will not be able to retreat fast enough as God’s will covers the earth like a flood.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done through me on earth as it is in heaven!