I want to start this post by saying, right up front, I say these words with fear and trembling. Who am I? I don’t have the right to say this. But it burns in my heart, and I must.

Not long ago, my family and I were in a restaurant where we received excellent service. A mistake was made on our order and the manager immediately corrected it with his apologies. I made the comment to my son that, good or bad, service starts with management. There’s no such thing as an employee problem, it’s always a management problem.

I think the same can be said with the church today. I look around and see so much worldliness, so much narcissism and selfishness, so much “me-ology” instead of theology. Yet I don’t think the problem begins with the body. I believe we have a leadership problem.

I’m being challenged by the words of Paul in Colossians 1:24 where he says,

“I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.”

I’m wondering how many of our leaders today are willing to “fill up their flesh” with the sufferings of Christ for the sake of the body? I’m wondering how many leaders today are willing to lay down everything and literally become servants to the body? To suffer and travail for the good of the church of Jesus Christ.

I see a lot of leaders for whom “ministry” has become a career. I see a ministry class that has become separate from the body, in many cases above the body. I don’t see a lot of leaders who are willing to suffer on behalf of the body. I don’t see a lot of leaders who are willing, like John the Baptist, to live in the wilderness with no comforts of home in order to challenge the people of God to repentance and obedience.

Jesus warned His followers of the “leaven of the Pharisees” and how that leaven can leaven a whole lump of dough. He warned His followers about the pride and hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who held the rank and file to a standard they themselves did not keep. He warned them about a ruling class that would exert power over God’s people for their own personal gain.

And He said that leaven would leaven the whole lump. If there is a problem with worldliness in the church, follow it back to the leadership. If there is a problem with hypocrisy in the church, follow it back to the leadership. If the church has failed in its job of taking care of the orphans and widows, follow it back to the leadership.

I’m begging our church leadership. Please consider whose kingdom you are building, Christ’s or yours. Please consider whose money you are spending. Please consider how we could have come to this: multi-million dollar buildings while so many suffer, meaningless programs meant to suck up to donors while the world is careening out of control, and a form of Godliness, but no power of the Holy Spirit.

Please know my heart. I know there are a lot of wonderful men and women who are in leadership in the body of Christ. But the church is sick, the temple of the Holy Spirit – the people of God – lies in ruins. And the rebuilding of that temple begins with repentance at the highest levels. It begins with leaders who are willing to step down from the pedestal and suffer and travail for the body of Christ. It begins with leaders who are willing to fill themselves up with the sufferings of Christ, that His body might be nourished and replenished.

Until the head finds its healing, the whole body will remain in its sickness.

Yes, I’m writing a post on why I don’t like Easter.  I’ve tried to be quiet and keep my feelings to myself, but I can’t any longer.

Put down the pitchforks and torches.  I don’t have anything against celebrating Jesus’ death and resurrection.  His love and sacrifice is the reason I’m even alive today.  I thank Him every day for what He did for me.

And that’s my problem with Easter.  God never told us to create a holiday in honor of Christ’s resurrection (or birth, for that matter).  The Jews had a festal celebration of Passover.   The pagans had a festal celebration for the vernal equinox.  We just couldn’t be left out, could we?  “I know, Easter!” someone said.  The problem is that Jesus death and resurrection – the very thing we celebrate – put an end to the need for religious observation.  The veil that separated God and man was torn, and we no longer needed religious ritual to serve God.

Listen to what Paul says in Galatians 4,

But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?  You observe days and months and seasons and years.

Jesus freed us from the need for religious ritual, but we went running right back to it.  They weren’t sufficient to bring man to God then, and they are not now.  We no longer need a “Holy Week,” Jesus died to make every day holy.  We no longer need a festal celebration to honor Him, we honor Him every day in how we live our lives.

And if it’s a celebration of His death and resurrection you want, Jesus already gave us two, and commanded us to keep them: baptism and communion.  These can be celebrated every time we get together, every day of our lives.

“But what’s wrong with a holiday?” you ask. I’ll give you three reasons it’s wrong”

• It lessens the importance of every other day.  Instead of celebrating Christ’s sacrifice by changing the way I live, Easter gives me an “easy out”.
• It gives unbelievers and incorrect view of what following Christ is all about.  They see our emphasis on religious tradition and not on the call to “die daily.”
• All those good people wearing their fancy Easter outfits further divides us from the poor, the outcasts and the sinners.  They already feel out of place among us, and the elaborate dress and ritual further serves to drive a wedge between “us” and “them.”

We are losing the battle, my friends.  Look around.  Christianity is not growing, it’s shrinking.  The world knows most of what we call Christianity has become a weak and powerless bunch of religious ritual, and we have played right into their hands.  We serve a Savior who scorned the religious elite in favor of the meek and humble.  We serve a Savior who hangs on a cross and asks us to join Him.  We serve a Savior who has promised the same power that raised Him from the dead to empower us to change the world.

Instead we have traded it for a holiday and a chocolate bunny.

As we head into 2011, there are a few words I would like to see stricken from our Christian lexicon.  These are words that have lost their meaning, are full of preconceptions and prejudices.  If anyone can think of a decent replacement for these words, I’m game.

Here’s the list:

Christian (and Christianity)

Ok…I already broke my own rule in the first sentence of this post.  The word “Christian” is so full of baggage that it no longer effectively communicates the heart of what it means to be a true follower of Christ.  Just bearing the name itself automatically makes it and “us against them” proposition.  “I’m a Christian and you’re not!”  Even if we don’t mean it like that, it’s what everyone else hears.

Mega-church (or “mega” anything)

This one simultaneously makes me want to laugh, cry, and stab myself in the eye.  The very thought that the body of Christ has been reduced to a corporate institution makes my blood boil.  The fact that we think numbers automatically make it better or effective or right runs counter to everything scripture teaches.

Mega does not care for the insignificant.  Mega does not care for the individual.  That’s why mega-churches are always trying to “deconstruct” themselves to smaller working parts like small groups, core groups, or whatever.  The truth is, those smaller groups…that’s where church really happens.

Pastor

Ok, I’m treading on thin ice with this one.  I don’t mean to knock those who are serving the body of Christ, and I know there are a lot of sincere pastors out there who do.  It’s just that the word “pastor” as it used in the Bible has, for the most part, been lost on us.  Today many pastors are CEO’s, administrators, teachers, managers, marketers, fundraisers and more.

The word “pastor” in the New Testament means “shepherd”.  God’s people are desperate for shepherds.  They are desperate for a pastor who can walk through life with them and give them the love, encouragement, and accountability they need to have a successful relationship with God.  Oh, that we would deconstruct our churches down to the organic level of small groups of people, walking in intimate love with one another…shepherded, loved, and built up by pastors who are not too busy doing the “business” of “Christianity”!

Ministry

The word, as it is used in the New Testament, means “to serve, as in one who waits tables.”  Yeah, ministry is not starting a 501(c)(3) or building a building.  It’s about serving.  It’s not a thing…it’s an action.  And it doesn’t mean you wear a fancy suit and drive a nice car and have everybody treat you like a rock star.  The role of “ministry” is one of serving, it is one of being lower than everyone else, not higher.  Those in ministry exist to serve the body, not the other way around.

I’m highly suspect of anyone who tells me they are called to the ministry, who is not so scared of what that means that they want to run in the other direction as fast as they can.  Today, there are many who see ministry as a career or a way to earn a living.  Actually, those in ministry are the spiritual equivalent of a waiter in a restaurant, making sure the body has everything it needs to carry out the call of Christ.

And finally…

Church

We think a church is a place you go.  We think church is an institution you become a member of.  And those who are not of the faith think a church is probably the last place they’d go for healing, love, acceptance, or love.

Is that true of all churches?  Absolutely not.  But that the perception out there.  We have to change the lexicon, we have to change the paradigm.  Church must become what Christ (you know…the One who started the church) intended it to be:  people who have been radically transformed by the grace of God, sharing their lives together with the common goal of encouraging one another to holy living and care for the poor.

Nothing more, nothing less.  Beyond that it’s an institution of man, and it’s actually in direct conflict with the true work of the kingdom of God.  Did you hear that?  The anything beyond that is an enemy of the kingdom of God.

Ok, that’s my working list.  It’s not complete, but it’s a start.

Can you think of any others?