Mixed Signals...in the Church...TODAY...

by Dan Getz, International Blogger
www.Dance4One.blogspot.com

A good friend of mine...(ok...it is LARRY JOHNSON...President and Owner of Shared Vision...and Previous OWNER/OPERATOR of MetroTalent...yep...the SAME MetroTalent that found/connected Vanilla Ice...yep...his REAL name is Matthew VanWinkle and he is now owner of an island and runs a REALLY cool...and PROFITABLE Construction/Real Estate Company...and MY partner/agent...) once said, "If Jesus were coming back TODAY...who would be in trouble TOMORROW...cHuRcH??" (see at www.CafePress.com/ChristianTShirtsPlusbyDance4One/)

So many times...for US in the church TODAY, we automatically assume "all the bad guys" are the "unsaved", "unchurched" and "sinners" OUTSIDE the church...BUT, what about those IN the church??

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is ALL the mixed signals we see, hear, receive and feel in the CHURCH...TODAY...JUST like in Jesus's day.  Remember the Pharisees?  Somehow WE...in the church TODAY, seem to think that Jesus must have been talking to those "other guys"...u know the ones...the SINNERS...and the HYPOCRITES...somehow OUTSIDE the church...even though we KNOW this WAS the CHURCH...or Synagogue ...in Jesus' day...

For example...in the WORSHIP service we hear the worship leader or pastor and often many other LEADERs of the CHURCH proclaiming and DECLARING...and often SHOUTING, "Come as you ARE"..."Come NOW"..."Give it ALL to Jesus"..."Don't be ashamed"...and quote scriptures like "Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." and then tie this scripture (and correctly so) to the "nakedness" we often suffer psycologically and emotionally throughout LIFE (in addition to the obvious PHYSICALness of this word)...yet immediately shame us into returning to our seat so as not to be a "stumbling block" to the "others" when we UNASHAMEDLY dance, cry out and give HIM exorbitant praise for saving the wretch we now admittedly KNOW we ARE...

...AND when you begin giving HIM the exorbitant PRAISE and WORSHIP that HE ALONE deserves by OUTWARDLY dancing, proclaiming, shouting, crying, singing LOUDLY, etc., etc. a leader...an elder...or even the pastor himself tells you politely, "We don't do that here because doing so brings attention to you (rather than the ONE we are uplifting and praising), and we can't have that here..."

Another...seemingly misnomerical phrase I often hear, is "We want you to be REAL here...no masks...no shame...and Come as you ARE", which then seems to be sharply contradicted by a trampling upon your faith, the very acceptance of God...and even yourself...when they THEN direct you (again politely and with "politically correctness") to DO and BE precisely the OPPOSITE of what they just said...

For those of YOU that know ME and know where I went to church...no churchES...TODAY...this blog post is in NO WAY meant to condemn and put down and heap SHAME upon ANYONE or ANY single church...I'm JUST SAYING..."Be careful about hurting the already hurting...rejecting the already rejected...dejecting the already dejected...BUT lift up and LOVE as JESUS loved the hypocrites...the sinners...the down and out...the homeless...and the HOPEless...k"?

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