How deep does that Rabbit Hole actually GO?

In the movie The Matrix Morpheus tells Neo that if he took the red pill he would see how deep the rabbit hole really is. Neo takes the pill and discovers he's living in a dream world of a structured controlled environment where everything seems OK and normal. In fact it is filled with control and evil intentions of THE MATRIX.

The Church of Jesus is living in just such a Matrix. We who minister have believed that if we just do things a certain way, read each others books, listen to each others counsel and just hope harder things will get better somehow it'll all work out. Our intentions are right, our outcomes are wrong. We are failing. We have bought the lie and the devil laughs.

Only when men and women of God get sick and tired of being beaten down by circumstance and stand up to the enemy's attack will things change. We believe that by incrementalism and moderate tweaking of the system that things will get better. That's exactly what the devil wants us to believe. The Matrix.

In describing the Matrix Morpheus says, "It's everywhere, when you go to work, when you go to sleep, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes, you think you are living your life when in fact you are being manipulated and controlled living a lie".

What caused me to think of this was a Post from this morning on John Armstrong's blog. John is a good man, I am softly critical of him often because of his moderation driven by a pastor's heart and his attempts to intellectually comprehend thru study and teaching the deep truths of God. He depends on the soulish part of his being to try to apprehend spiritual truth. If you read the book of Second Corinthians you will see that is a failed strategy.

What he says today however in this post is sobering and should be a wakeup call for all Church leadership. Most of these are statistics we knew of in the past, none are really new, but compiled together they frame a Church in America (and in the Fox Valley Area) that is desperately sick. Maybe sick unto death. In his Post he says:

1. In proportion to population there are less than half as many churches in the U.S. Today as there were in 1900. Since 1950, there are thirty percent fewer churches for today's population.

2. Approximately 4,000 churches are begun every year, while 7,000 close!

3. North America and Europe are the only continents in the world where Christianity is not growing.

4. In 1991, 21 percent of all adults were unchurched, and in 2002 the number reached 34 percent.

5. Amazingly, giving per person in the church is less today than it was during the Great Depression.

6. The U. S. is the number two missionary receiving country in the world behind only Brazil. Christians outside of North America increasingly view us as a mission field filled with churches that are spiritually asleep.

7. The Association of Church Mission Committees (ACMC) says 250,000 of 300,000 U. S. congregations are stagnant or dying.

8. Both Catholic and Protestant (both evangelical and mainline) churches face the crisis of declining numbers.

9. The percentage of those church members who profess to an experience of the new birth who will be involved in a divorce is higher than that of non-born-again adults, 27 percent to 24 percent.

10. The average attendance at a Protestant church is 90. This is down by ten percent from 1997 and by 12 percent from 1992.

These institutional numbers are a reflection of a deeper and more serious problem, spiritual malaise and sleepiness. How can anyone seriously doubt the need for a general spiritual awakening in the land of Great Awakenings?

SO, what will bring that great awakening? Not more preaching, you can't talk people into revival; not more programs, you can't structure revival into do these three things and you will have revival; not more buildings, kind of the build it an they will come mentality (you need buildings but form follows function); not more structure and organization, not more tradition, even Jesus said we make his word of no account when we live in tradition; the one thing that can and does bring true revival is hearts of passion in Love with Jesus and desperate for more of him.

Read a hundred books on revival and they will all say, The Key to Revival is Prayer. That is the truth but it is also a trap. We think that by saying words on our knees we cause things to happen. There is a time to prepare our hearts for action by prayer. That's why Jesus went aside early and often. Intimacy with God created in prayer is the key to power in action. The Church loves to pray but then doesn't do what he asks us to do in the quiet times. We don't because we have a fear of man. The Matrix wins again.

The key of prayer in revival is that you are part of the answer to every prayer you pray. You must follow thru on what God tells you to do. If you do he will release more and more truth in action for you to follow. Your obedience will propagate more action. You must be completly submitted to his purposes. Your passion for him must outweigh the fear of failure and the fear of man that holds you back.

One you have captured this passion, the next step will be even more exciting and challenging. Bringing those who see you as a spiritual leader into a greater passion for Jesus.

SO, HOW, you ask? What causes passion? How does that happen? When does that take place? What does it look like?

There is an answer. You can't cause it. You can only release it. You can't program it. You can only create an environment where it can be expressed without restraint. Anything less than being totally sold to this out will fail.

And, reading John's compilation of statistics we already know how to fail.

It's time for a change.