When people go to church for the wrong reasons

The church should be the congregation of people who have realized their offenses against God, repented of it and trusted Jesus for their salvation. Once a person is spiritually baptized to the family of God, he will continue joining this congregation so that he will grow in his knowledge of God and his holy ways. He understands that it is his duty not to forsake the assemblings of the children of God (Heb. 10:25) not because it is through this that he gains salvation but because he knows that this is a way to gain Christian maturity. He treasures the teachings that are released from the pulpit of his church, even those that would bring him hurt, for he knows that whatever comes from the Scriptures is good for him. And so, you can expect that a true child of God who has made it a priority to go to church on a regular basis for a long time to be very mature in terms of daily living and doctrine, and has developed a very deep relationship with his Creator.

But in our present generation, church membership has taken a totally different purpose. For many people, they go to church not for the purpose of gaining Christian maturity but to be a "Christian". The church is not anymore the congregation of the children of God but the gathering of people who needs to have some entry of religious affiliation in their bio-data. Many have affiliated with a church not to develop further humility before a holy God but to engage in their personal interests to which a church has a particular program (e.g., weekend movie viewing, yearly sports tournament, quilting, etc.). Common scenarios like this in present-day churches are clearly the opposite of what we read of the early church in the New Testament that the disciples and the apostle Paul helped establish.

During our recently concluded mission trip at Cagayan (Gospel Buzz '08), our group encountered several church-going people like this. Early on during the trip, we were amazed about how many people we met claimed to be members of the nearby Baptist church. At first, we thought that God has moved mightily in the community we were in. But when we started talking to them about their salvation experiences, we started realizing that most of these people are false converts. One man I talked to who was quite effeminate bragged that he, on occasions, just like most people in that community, attend the nearby Baptist church and he believes that he is already a Christian. When I asked him why he says he is a Christian, he told me that one time in the past, he followed a pastor's invitation to follow a particular prayer that asked Jesus to come to his life. I then explained to him that a person is not saved by following a particular prayer. I then made him evaluate if he is really a Christian by making him examine how much, by true nature, has been obeying God's Laws in his life as the Bible clearly tells us that "if any man be in Christ, he becomes a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, old things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17)". When he was convinced that he was not a real child of God yet, I then talked about the Gospel and what he needed to do to gain salvation (true repentance and faith on Jesus). He later told me that it was the first time that he heard an explanation like this about how one can evade going to Hell. All along he thought that the prayer he followed years before made him a Christian and being in church occasionally not only proves he's one, it also gives him the same religious identity like most of the people around him.

In the student center that we manage, students come regularly to apply for the priveledges of the center. To get them, they must fill-out an application form and go through an interview that gives us an opportunity to share the Gospel to them. One item in the application form they fill-out is their religious affiliation. You would think that if a particular student writes "Born-again Christian" in his/her application form, we will forego talking to them about the Gospel. But we don't. False conversion is a reality we consider seriously abounding in our time. It's better to spend time sharing the Gospel to be sure about a person's Christian conversion rather than assume he/she is already a Christian and do nothing to prevent his/her going to Hell, right? Several of the students that apply at our center that claims to be children of God explain that the reason why they believe so is because they attend church regularly, or they are a part of the music ministry, or they engage in church programs that they claim are very enjoyable. This is sad because if you ask them how long they've been going to their church you will realize that with the length of time they've been going there, the biblical Gospel message has not really been explained.

The culprit as to why our churches are filled with people who are false converts is the church itself. Church leaders have changed their church's goal from winning as many souls for Christ to just filling all the empty church pews. In bringing these people to church, church leaders have turned to gimmicks instead of doing it the old-fashion way, and that is by the preaching of sin, righteousness and judgment. I remember Arvin Cunanan, one of the members of the Star Youth Ministries, once told me that before he was soundly saved, whenever he would aim to heed the Great Commission, instead of showing a person his real standing before a just and holy God, he would tell that person about their church's music ministry which he can join to give him an avenue to showcase his musical prowess. Some churches, in the goal of enticing people to attend their services, would focus their sermons on how one can amass blessings from God, even if technically, these people are not entitled to God's many promises because they're not really members of God's family.

I recently saw the Christian movie "Time Changer". It's about a professor of a Bible seminary in the 1800s (Dr. Russel Carlisle) that was transported to the 21st century in order for him to see for himself what effect the teaching of morals will have on society if you will not emphasize that it was God that gave the standard of morality. In one scene, Dr. Carlisle joined a church's visitation activity to people in the community who are interested in attending church. He was paired with a long time member of the church. He was so amazed as he listened to his partner encourage a family to attend their church by exciting them with their church's programs like it's yearly golf tournament for fathers, children's retreat which will allow parents some time off from parenting their rowdy children, the monthly picnic for families, etc., instead of telling them about how their church can help them know more of God and His ways. Sadly speaking, this is a common thing among churches nowadays. But despite this, they still claim that their church is a "purpose driven church".

In our society today, we can see reasons other than what was already mentioned as to why people go to church. There are politicians that affiliate with big churches to get the political support of the members of these churches. Some would go to a particular church because their friends attend it. Some go to a church because everyone in the family does so. I even know of several people in the past that attended the same church I was a part of just so they can be with the girls they were courting. If these are the reasons many people have for attending a church, then the reality is, our churches are filled with false converts.

Unless churches of today turn away from gimmicks and renew a committment to again preach the biblical Gospel message, the church which is supposed to be the instrument that shows people God's requirements for salvation (repentance and faith), and later, aid in bringing these people to a deeper relationship with God, will be the instruments of Satan in populating further his domain. I strongly believe that our generation of churches has produced more false converts than any other generation because of our penchant for gimmicks. Our generation will have to give an account for this someday when we finally face God. A no-nonsense use of God's Laws to show man's sinful state will facilitate true conversion. Not doing so will help facilitate the other. This is exactly the message of Hell's Best Kept Secret (you can hear it at our Free Resources page).

We have very little time left in bringing people to a true relationship with God. All the signs around us prove that. Before we go out to other commnunities to reach people for Christ, why not focus first on the people inside our churches. A lot of them, including people we love so dearly, because of our own doing, think that they are already inside when the truth is, they are still out... out of the family of God. Before it's too late, let's do something about it.

Church, clean up your act!

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