haha! yeh. a bit general this one. you could apply it in a lot of ways. i was thinking of ‘corporate’ church when i did it… but i think it also applies to me as an individual too. shocking!
Thanks. The American Church, as a whole, is made up of self indulgent Christians (of which I am one) who can’t see beyond our own (insert jargon here)felt needs. Man, does that sound ticked? I probably have some issues.
Seriously though, how did the church get stuck there? Did the ostrich eat it?
D-
just stumbled across the “ostrich church’ “the corporate church” “the american church” and then the “its everywhere” church comment,, hate to be the one to burst the trash the church bubble, but it is not everywhere, although probably not exclusively america it is predominately an Americanization of “Your will be done here as it is in Heaven” I have not been to every nation in the world but I have been to several in Africa and church and the realization of His kingdom is not what we have made it in the US. I met a 17 yr. old boy living in the streets of Kampala Uganda who knew the Word of God and BELIEVED the Word of God with more passion and conviction than ANY pastor I have ever met here in the US,,and he DID NOT own a Bible, he was taught in his church, that he walked to 3 days a week. Did we miss that somehow between the new sound system and slick powerpoint or the newest human video/drama. He couldnt give chapter and verse but if i started to read anywhere in the Word he could finish and continue on from there, he was taught in CHURCH. He talked about Jesus using him to save his NATION not his next door neighbor, not his high school, since he did not go to school. HIS NATION!! I could go on about the group of 20 year olds in Ethiopia who had abondoned everything to get orphaned kids and women off the streets in Addis Ababa to care for their physical needs and minister the Gospel to them. When they asked me to pray with them His presense fell immediately not a few minutes of shallow rehearsed prayer, ON THE FLOOR FOR HOURS crying out for Gods presence and He came in POWER RIGHT NOW. Our Father in heaven has never left us,, we left Him in search of an amercan god who satisfies OUR needs and OUR wants. Instead of sacrificing ourselves for His kingdom we have sacrificed His Kingdom for our own. The Kingdom of God is at hand,, its just not in our hearts and churches.
jim karl. thank you. real and beautiful and wonderful christianity is everywhere too, no question.
btw. this is not a website dedicated to trashing the church.
it is interesting, that when people are really up against it their faith and actions really can shine.
Hey Jon,
just wanted to let you know i didn’t assume this blog was set up to trash the church. truthfully i am extremely frustrated with the state of the american church, the church of our Lord Jesus is still as powerful and full of grace as ever, just not so much in america. i am rereading Pursuit of God by Tozier again, at the very begining he states that the church seems to be happy to rearrange and redistribute the stones of the altar all the while ignoring the fact that there is no Fire a top the altar. he wrote this book in 1948 !! how much farther have we fallen in the last 40 years. Some how we need to wake up to the fact that there is something missing from the current church, when people come and go from church and there is no life changing encounter with the Living God week after week there is a problem. the church of Jesus Christ will never cease to exist but that doesn’t mean He won’t lift His hand from the American church. you only have to look to Turkey, the Middle East and Europe to realize that just because God moved in power in a particular region “once upon a time” that He won’t continue the search for “true worshipers” else where. Maybe that is why Islam is the fastest growing religion in the US and Chinas illegal under ground Christian church is growing faster than the Christian church in the US with all its money and high tech seeker friendly, warm and fuzzy emotionalism. Have we forgotten the real Gospel?? have we forgotten the basic principles of the Word, when was the last sermon you heard on the fear of the Lord. The call for true repentance and the call for the church to stop tolerating out right sin with in its own walls. I visited a seeker friendly youth group recently where the youth “Pastor” started prayer with “Yo Jesus whats up wit you” and continued his “prayer” with such disrespect that i had to leave. we are at a time in our culture and in our world that people are screaming out for truth and purpose and reality. this should be such a time of break through for the church because people want what we have,, TRUTH. But instead it seems in my opinion the church as chosen to dumb everything about the Gospel down to make it less offensive and less powerful and more acceptable to the masses. How many times did Jesus say something so radical that it forced the seekers to make the hard decision, are you in or not?? are you going to REALLY follow me or not?? How many times did He confront the church outright to get it together and get it right?? Seeker friendly?? = God Un-friendly
2Tim.3 having a form of godliness but denying its power.
cheers, jim.
i’m english. blogging from here. most of my stuff is based on what i’ve seen and witnessed here… we are in a muddle here too… although, as in the states, many faithful people carry on going about god’s business in a truly inspiring, often quiet, way.
it seems i’ve got a large american readership, so i’ve made my language more american friendly… ie. using pastor rather than vicar, and also done some stuff which may seem more american, i don’t know.
some of the problems we face today are age old. prejudice, fear, lack of willingness to change, lack of humility etc… others are newer, the main one for us in the west being consumerism. we’ve swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
someone said to me today… if we’re not feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, what’s the point? … hard to argue with that.
somehow as an institution we’ve divorced ourselves from the creation… not good.
i’ll carry on cartooning, hoping that at least it helps people in their thinking about it all.
sometimes i’m stirring it, or opening something up in between 1 and 4 frames of stickmen! but it seems to be a way i can do something.
thanks for your thoughts.
I would agree, so many have lost track of the servant heart of Christ,,,, true religion,, orphans and widows,, I passionately want the heart of God and yet so many oportunities to express Gods heart to others pass right before me and I miss them, not even intentionally, more out of my own distraction or hurried life. trying hard so slow down and be more aware of those hurting people that pass through my day.
Ha. I love it. Sometimes I feel like we’ve had our big heads in the ground so long that the whole is too small for us to get them out.
Comment by Ken Storey — October 16, 2007 @ 7:35 pm
haha! yeh. a bit general this one. you could apply it in a lot of ways. i was thinking of ‘corporate’ church when i did it… but i think it also applies to me as an individual too. shocking!
Comment by jonbirch — October 16, 2007 @ 8:29 pm
Thanks. The American Church, as a whole, is made up of self indulgent Christians (of which I am one) who can’t see beyond our own (insert jargon here)felt needs. Man, does that sound ticked? I probably have some issues.
Seriously though, how did the church get stuck there? Did the ostrich eat it?
D-
Comment by Doug Routledge — October 25, 2007 @ 5:35 pm
it’s not just america. it’s everywhere.
Comment by jonbirch — October 25, 2007 @ 10:51 pm
just stumbled across the “ostrich church’ “the corporate church” “the american church” and then the “its everywhere” church comment,, hate to be the one to burst the trash the church bubble, but it is not everywhere, although probably not exclusively america it is predominately an Americanization of “Your will be done here as it is in Heaven” I have not been to every nation in the world but I have been to several in Africa and church and the realization of His kingdom is not what we have made it in the US. I met a 17 yr. old boy living in the streets of Kampala Uganda who knew the Word of God and BELIEVED the Word of God with more passion and conviction than ANY pastor I have ever met here in the US,,and he DID NOT own a Bible, he was taught in his church, that he walked to 3 days a week. Did we miss that somehow between the new sound system and slick powerpoint or the newest human video/drama. He couldnt give chapter and verse but if i started to read anywhere in the Word he could finish and continue on from there, he was taught in CHURCH. He talked about Jesus using him to save his NATION not his next door neighbor, not his high school, since he did not go to school. HIS NATION!! I could go on about the group of 20 year olds in Ethiopia who had abondoned everything to get orphaned kids and women off the streets in Addis Ababa to care for their physical needs and minister the Gospel to them. When they asked me to pray with them His presense fell immediately not a few minutes of shallow rehearsed prayer, ON THE FLOOR FOR HOURS crying out for Gods presence and He came in POWER RIGHT NOW. Our Father in heaven has never left us,, we left Him in search of an amercan god who satisfies OUR needs and OUR wants. Instead of sacrificing ourselves for His kingdom we have sacrificed His Kingdom for our own. The Kingdom of God is at hand,, its just not in our hearts and churches.
Comment by jim karl — November 8, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
jim karl. thank you. real and beautiful and wonderful christianity is everywhere too, no question.
btw. this is not a website dedicated to trashing the church.
it is interesting, that when people are really up against it their faith and actions really can shine.
Comment by jonbirch — November 8, 2007 @ 1:29 pm
Hey Jon,
just wanted to let you know i didn’t assume this blog was set up to trash the church. truthfully i am extremely frustrated with the state of the american church, the church of our Lord Jesus is still as powerful and full of grace as ever, just not so much in america. i am rereading Pursuit of God by Tozier again, at the very begining he states that the church seems to be happy to rearrange and redistribute the stones of the altar all the while ignoring the fact that there is no Fire a top the altar. he wrote this book in 1948 !! how much farther have we fallen in the last 40 years. Some how we need to wake up to the fact that there is something missing from the current church, when people come and go from church and there is no life changing encounter with the Living God week after week there is a problem. the church of Jesus Christ will never cease to exist but that doesn’t mean He won’t lift His hand from the American church. you only have to look to Turkey, the Middle East and Europe to realize that just because God moved in power in a particular region “once upon a time” that He won’t continue the search for “true worshipers” else where. Maybe that is why Islam is the fastest growing religion in the US and Chinas illegal under ground Christian church is growing faster than the Christian church in the US with all its money and high tech seeker friendly, warm and fuzzy emotionalism. Have we forgotten the real Gospel?? have we forgotten the basic principles of the Word, when was the last sermon you heard on the fear of the Lord. The call for true repentance and the call for the church to stop tolerating out right sin with in its own walls. I visited a seeker friendly youth group recently where the youth “Pastor” started prayer with “Yo Jesus whats up wit you” and continued his “prayer” with such disrespect that i had to leave. we are at a time in our culture and in our world that people are screaming out for truth and purpose and reality. this should be such a time of break through for the church because people want what we have,, TRUTH. But instead it seems in my opinion the church as chosen to dumb everything about the Gospel down to make it less offensive and less powerful and more acceptable to the masses. How many times did Jesus say something so radical that it forced the seekers to make the hard decision, are you in or not?? are you going to REALLY follow me or not?? How many times did He confront the church outright to get it together and get it right?? Seeker friendly?? = God Un-friendly
2Tim.3 having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Comment by jim karl — November 8, 2007 @ 2:40 pm
cheers, jim.
i’m english. blogging from here. most of my stuff is based on what i’ve seen and witnessed here… we are in a muddle here too… although, as in the states, many faithful people carry on going about god’s business in a truly inspiring, often quiet, way.
it seems i’ve got a large american readership, so i’ve made my language more american friendly… ie. using pastor rather than vicar, and also done some stuff which may seem more american, i don’t know.
some of the problems we face today are age old. prejudice, fear, lack of willingness to change, lack of humility etc… others are newer, the main one for us in the west being consumerism. we’ve swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
someone said to me today… if we’re not feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, what’s the point? … hard to argue with that.
somehow as an institution we’ve divorced ourselves from the creation… not good.
i’ll carry on cartooning, hoping that at least it helps people in their thinking about it all.
sometimes i’m stirring it, or opening something up in between 1 and 4 frames of stickmen! but it seems to be a way i can do something.
thanks for your thoughts.
Comment by jonbirch — November 8, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
I would agree, so many have lost track of the servant heart of Christ,,,, true religion,, orphans and widows,, I passionately want the heart of God and yet so many oportunities to express Gods heart to others pass right before me and I miss them, not even intentionally, more out of my own distraction or hurried life. trying hard so slow down and be more aware of those hurting people that pass through my day.
Comment by jim karl — November 9, 2007 @ 7:12 pm
it really is hard to slow down and not be pre-occupied, isn’t it?
Comment by jonbirch — November 9, 2007 @ 7:38 pm