What Happened To The Church

I want to plead with you to read this to the end, it won't take much of your time.
Growing up in in the 90's helped me to draw a big line between the church of the past and the church of the present.

Those days, if you employ a Christian you would be sure of their integrity, financial prudence and adequate delivery of their duties. To be born again then is an honour and the seemingly carnal people would make jest saying he/she is 'SU'. Evangelism too was crude and impactful. Sinners would cry after every sermon. U dare not go to church to steal or catch a babe. The church was a consuming fire and a place of repentance. Our pastors were mentors. Their children were always coming first in class. Unit leaders too were respectable.

For so many reasons I love the church of the 90's. I won't fail to mention that the church of the 90's didn't have world class cathedral. If there was a fan, there is no electricity to power it. A major musical instrument we had was the tambourine. The pastors shoe can't give you your reflection. Simply put, the church was crude, powerful, repentance driven. It was not packaged, not a business venture. Gold and silver they had not but the anointing of our lord Jesus Christ they possess in abundance. 

Now, the case has Summersaulted. Silver and gold the church has, but power they do not. Now, being a Christian is no more a currency, the moment you mention. "I'm a pastor", people become weary of doing business with you. In the news: pastors have murdered, stolen, committed sexual immorality. In fact they have committed all sins thinkable.
Where did we miss it? We missed it when denominations divided us. We missed it when building cathedral became more important than building holiness into the members. We missed it when membership became more important than converts. We missed it when we think being a pastor is a profession and not a calling. We missed it when we started applying worldly principles to govern a spiritual body. The church shouldn't struggle trying to be the world, the world should struggle trying to be the church.

We copied the united states, in that country, pastors will tell you the kind of food they want to eat, the kind of hotel and they amount that must be in the envelope. They 'ru(i)ned' the church like a company. No wonder God's own country has become Gay's own country.
We copied America's style of church soon if care is not taken we will dwindle into America's kind of faith. ( I know you will say God forbid-continue)  
But why? What is the church for? The church has many functions. I will just share some.

1). Worship; our relationship with God is both private and public, and we need both. Let’s begin with our public interaction with God – worship. It is possible to worship God when we are all alone, but the term worship usually suggests something we do in public. The English word worship is related to the word worth. We declare God’s worth when we worship him.
Music is the most common form of worship. In our music, we need to consider the needs of people who may be attending our services for the first time. We need music that they will find meaningful, music that expresses joy in a way that they comprehend as joyful.
Music is only one aspect of our worship services. Worship includes more than expressing emotion. Our relationship with God also involves our minds, our thought processes. Some of our interaction with God comes in the form of prayer. As a gathered people of God, we speak to God. We praise him not only in poetry and song, but also in ordinary words and normal speech.

2). Spiritual disciplines; worship services are only part of our worship. The Word of God must enter our hearts and minds to affect what we do throughout the week. Worship can change its format, but it should never stop. Part of our worship response to God involves personal prayer and Bible study. People who are becoming more spiritually mature hunger to learn from God in his Word. They are eager to give him their requests, praise him, share their lives with him, and be aware of his constant presence in their lives.

3). Discipleship; throughout the New Testament, we see spiritual leaders teaching others. This is part of the Christian lifestyle; it is part of the Great Commission. “Go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20 ). Everyone must be either a learner or a teacher, and we are usually both at the same time. “Teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” ( Colossians 3:16 ). We must be learning from one another, from other Christians. The church is an educational institution as well as a place of worship and transformation.

4). Fellowship; the church is sometimes called a fellowship; it is a network of relationships. We all need to give and to receive fellowship. We all need to give and receive love. Fellowship means a lot more than talking to each other about sports, gossip and news. It means sharing lives, sharing emotions, bearing one another’s burdens, encouraging one another and helping people who have needs. Most people put a mask on to hide their needs from others. If we are really going to help one another, we need to get close enough to one another to see behind the masks. It means that we have to let our own mask fall down a bit so others can see our needs.

5). Service; i am emphasizing physical service, not the service of teaching or the service of encouraging others. A teacher is also a washer of feet, a person who illustrates the meaning of Christianity by doing what Jesus would do. Jesus took care of physical needs such as food and health. In a physical way, he gave his body and his life for us. The early church gave physical help, sharing their possessions with needy people, collecting offer­ings for hungry people.

6). Evangelism; "Go into all the world and preach the gospel,” Jesus commands us. Many of us need a lot of improvement in this area. We have been too conditioned to keep our faith to ourselves. People cannot be converted unless the Father is calling them, but that does not mean that we shouldn’t preach the gospel! Jesus told us that we should.

If the church do all of these we wouldn't be afraid of islamisation agenda.
Ola-Abraham Emmanuel is the author of Add a little madness

Source: Emmanuel Ola Abraham.