Churchburgers and Shakes

Churchburgers and Shakes by Lance Ford:

In the circles I am connected with, everywhere I turn I am hearing folks talk about cutbacks. There is a lot of fearspeak, and although I am usually a glass-is-half-full type of guy, I believe it is warranted. The question I am most interested in knowing the answer to, and am constantly asking others is, “Is God doing this?” My hunch is that He is.

Hebrews 12:26-29 (The Message)
So don't turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn't get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he's told us this quite plainly—he'll also rock the heavens: "One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern." The phrase "one last shaking" means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered. Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!

I really sense that the Lord is taking a hold of systems, structures, institutions, and individuals, and He is purging and cleansing. I am really concerned about leaders that are trying to prop things up, re-arrange the deck chairs, and generally…are just keeping their head in the sand. When you do that, something very tender is left exposed and very kickable. (He that hath ears…). We are living in a significant cultural shift that is changing the mentality of the masses. The social network phenomena, along with open-source expectations regarding all things on the world wide web [THE dominant psycho-paradigm shifter] have set the tone and table for a true priesthood of the believer reformation. Notice the proliferation of newspapers that are shutting down their print operation or shuttling everything altogether. The blogosphere has given voice and capability to anyone that feels they have a message; even if their moms are the only ones that will read it. I suspect that book publishers are very nervous. What with the ability to self publish today and the fact that the Internet will give you all the publicity you need. (Witness The Shack phenomena).

Duct tape and bailing wire will not hold this church thing together. And in my many-times-wrong-but-sometimes-right opinion, there are tons of church guys and gals out there that are drunk on church & leadership addiction while Jesus modeled, proclaimed, and commanded servanthood, followership, and disciple-making. Why don’t we just do what He said to do?! People throughout Western culture are spiritually hungry and we continue to churn out churchburgers instead of giving them Jesus, incarnate in our lives.

-Churchburgers and Shakes by Lance Ford