Hammer on Anvil '

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about accountability for churches.  It seems that the only accountability many churches have nowadays is popularity.  If the church is popular, more people come; when more people come, the church gets more money; when the church gets more money, the church can buy more stuff to become more popular and the cycle repeats.

Ugh.  I’m so sick of this cycle where the church only exists to bless the blessed and get more people in the door.  It’s things like this that make the Bible just as radical today as the early days of the church.  The Bible does not support this cycle.  I would love to see accountability to Biblical standards.

There are three particular verses that I have in mind for this accountability (I’m sure there are many more that would also be applicable):

1) “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” – Matthew 28:19

2) “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27

3) “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” – John 15:12

The Bible tells us to go and make disciples, to look after orphans and widows, and to love each other.  Here are standards worth living up to.  Here are standards that Christians should feel compelled to hold their churches to.

Unfortunately, the accountability that I’m referring to doesn’t exist…yet.  Churches are accountable to God and to you, its members.  Church leaders will most definitely have to answer to God for skewed priorities on the day of judgment.  But that doesn’t help in fixing our churches in the here and now.

There’s still you, though, and you can make a difference.  How, you ask?  There are a couple of ways.

The most important is also the most difficult; you need to look at the man (or woman) in the mirror and be the change you want to see in the world.  Following God and the Bible isn’t something you can pass on to somebody else, even to your church leadership.  When you stand before God for judgment, you will do so alone, so take responsibility for living out the Bible in your own life.

A second way you can make a difference is by not feeding into the popularity cycle.  Don’t pick the church that is the flavor of the month and don’t pick just because everybody else is going there.  Heck, don’t even pick because you went there and you liked the general feeling and how many people said hello to you.  Do some research.  Get to know the church’s core beliefs and find out if they are actually living those beliefs or just paying lip service to God.  One way to determine a church’s true beliefs is to look at its pocketbook.  Find a copy of the church’s budget and determine what percentage it is spending on outreach, missionaries, supporting orphans and widows, feeding the hungry, and other ways that fit the three verses I mentioned.  For many churches, this percentage is small.  I would argue that the percentage should be 30% - 50% for the churches that are truly living God out loud.

If your church doesn’t meet that criteria, you have a choice to make.  You can either find a new church or you can strive to be a catalyst for change within your church.  Start living out the Bible by looking for (and possibly creating) opportunities to serve others and meet needs.  Draw your like-minded friends from your church into these opportunities.  Start something where you are showing (not simply telling) your church how church should be done.

We don’t have to settle for churches that strive for less than God’s best.  We can find Godly churches and we can be Godly churches.  Do your part in holding our churches accountable.