The Daily Paper

Every morning starts out roughly the same at The Mufflerman. At around 7:00am, The London Free Press is dropped off at our door. Around 7:30am, either Brian or myself pick it up, unlock the front door, walk inside and place it on top of the table in the waiting room.
This past week, there was an article written on how church attendance is dropping in southwestern Ontario as well as across Canada. One of my coworkers asked me if I had read the column. When I told him that I had, he had this question for me,
“Do you think that all of the scandals and immorality in different churches contributes to the decline in any way?”
(I don’t remember the exact question word for word…So if you’re the one in question and you are reading this, you can correct me.)
Normally when non-believers make comments on church affairs, I usually remind them that they are going to hell and that they should not be asking questions about things that don’t concern them. However, I believed that there was merritt in what he was saying. I shared with him that I believe he has a point. In fact, our own unrighteousness may very well lie at the core of our greatest ills.
While speaking to His listeners on a mountainside, Jesus had this to say, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matthew 5:13
The two main functions of salt are for flavour and preservation. What he is saying is that if we fail to be the preservative needed in the world around us, we’re worthless. That is part of our role as believers. When we snub the righteousness of Christ, that is exactly what we are doing. When we compromise with the world, when we join with them, we aren’t doing them a favour, we’re signing their death warrant and contributing to the decay of our land.
We as a faith have never been known for our faithfulness and that is a shame. In study, I wouldn’t even accuse the early church of being particularily righteous. I don’t know why Paul even considered the church in Corinth to be a church considering the sorts of things that he had to address there. In speaking to the seven churc hes in The Revelation of John, Jesus had harsh words for most of them.
My friend was right I believe. We’re known to be child molestors, drunkards and theives and it’s funny in a way, how persistant our secular media continues to be in routing out sin. Don’t you find that odd? In a world where we say that everything is ok, the media is quick to pick up on any type of public revelry, sexual immorality, public lie, embeselment or scandal both within and without the church. We are being trampled on by men, just as Jesus said would happen to saltless salt.
I think what we need to do (and I’m being silly) to fix the church is to have a secular media liason on the council of every church. Their job is to be on the lookout for any sin in the church and to bring it to light. I bet they would do a better job than most of us.
Compromising with the world is not, never has nor ever will accomplish anything good. In fact, the article says that The United Church of Canada is hemmoraging worst of all, closing at least one church per week. Strange don’t you think? We (I can say we – that’s where my roots are) have been at the forefront in promoting what is refered to as gay rights. One would think that sice we are ‘with the times’, that we should be pressing onward. It isn’t working out all that well. Is it? So much for the game plan.
I know many or most of us have very realy struggles against sin, and if you haven’t found victory in every area, I’m not here to give you a spanking. What I’m saying is that there is NEVER a place for us to embrace sin. If you’re dead serious about the things of God, you’ll take the time to look into His word to see what He has to say about an issue. Give it the label it deserves. Calling things ‘good’, that God has labelled ‘wrong’, was never intended to be a normal part of the Christian life.
There is more to being salty than what I have touched on and I understand that. I don’t have all the answers for ‘fixing the church’, but if even the nonbelieving world is taking notice of our unrighteousness, something is terribly wrong.
‘Night.
Kevin

PS – Barb says that this one sounds more like me. Maybe I can wear the cape after all!