The Socialized Church of America

 

  Hos 4:6 ~ Luke 11:52 ~ John 8:31

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge ~ Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away

the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.~

Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free!

 

    The last thing the liberal elite would want, is for you to become healthy and wise enough to not need them anymore! Knowledge of the Truth promotes independence, which threatens the livelihood of those parasites who feed off the ignorance that makes the masses co-dependent upon them. Unfortunately, this is also the attitude of many, if not most priests and pastors. Their influence and livelihood are entirely contingent on your co-dependency upon them. Sadly, the church of Jesus Christ has to great degree become a socialist institution run by elitists who foster dependency and exploit the needy. While, those who come “ready to receive” ( the needy dependents ) are eagerly invited, those who are full of the Spirit having something to contribute are marginalized; required to serve another man’s vision, being asked to quietly serve in the rears or pointed down the road. “ Maybe this isn’t the body of Christ for you.” How arrogant! How dare you deny community to a member of Christ’s body! Just because your twisted understanding of authority is exclusive, self serving and requires sucking up to you! It is the insecure leader who only sees the church as a nursery, in which they perpetually nurture children or perhaps as a hospital where they slightly heal the wounds of God’s people. While, there are children who need to be raised up and wounded people who need healing, the end result of Christ’s salvation are healthy adults who wage war against darkness! These dependence mongers fail to understand that our fellowship is also a training camp for warriors, and the celebration of Christ‘s victory.

    If leaders only see the saints as frail sheep, its no wonder they cannot draw out the lion of Judah from within them. It’s wrong to indict the sheep as disloyal, dumb or flakey, when you have denied them access to the other equipping gifts and discipleship training. The sheep are not just church hopping, they’re hungry for green pastures, looking for shepherds who will truly invest in them; a shepherd who will equip, empower and launch them into their destiny. They sit there, week after week, month after month, year after year, just sitting, listening, being entertained, with little opportunity to exercise there gifts and contribute. 10, 20, even 30 years down the road, still filling a seat, still ill- equipped and apathetic. The controlling clergy are to blame for the saints remaining frail! They’re the ones lacking vision and inspiration. One must ask, why do these so-called servants of Christ‘s body, act like lords and masters? Who’s under girding whom? The hirelings often complain about burn out and sheep bites, playing the victim in order to evoke sympathetic sheep to react as guard dogs. These fleece the flock in order to support their ministry, rather than laying down their lives to make ministers out of the flock. The most frail of frames can learn the Word, worship, pray and intercede and have their part in conquering hell. Yet, Church has become a dysfunctional socialized system of men, where only some of their needs are barely met, just like going to a welfare office can get you food stamps. Jer 8:11 says, “They heal the wounds of My people slightly”. But will they teach you how to be a disciple, give you tools to plant your portion of the vineyard? I can tell you right now, it is the lording over, socialist style governing that is reducing the church to its lowest common denominator. Just as progressive socialism deprives all incentive to aspire to greatness and by redistributing the resources, then creates unsustainable dense bottom dependency. So also, the institutional church has been creating a large host of victims who indulge in self-pity, who sell out their birthright for a bowl of beans and seek to serve tangible flesh for their inability to follow an invisible Spirit. The parasites are bleeding the host dry!

Comments

[Joe]

This reminds me of the Luke 22:25-26, where Jesus said, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves."

There is irony in the teaching. When gentile leaders lord it over others, they think of themselves as benefactors. This implies that they believe that they are better judges of what is good for others than others are for themselves. This is a lot like men who abuse their wives and kids and say it is for their good.

I wonder how someone like that would feel if the shoe was on the other foot?

One last note: I do not believe that most leaders who run big churches really understand the dynamics of their ministries. I spoke with a young minister today about large ministries. Although he could easily see the potential pitfalls, he really felt that they were great platforms for reaching the masses. As there was no point in arguing, I suggested that the ministers at his church might want to stop calling themselves pastors, as they are really functioning as evangelists.