COVID shattered the status quo in the western church.

What is the path forward for those who follow Christ as the prophetic countdown clock continues to tick away? What should the church model be in these final days of the church age? Is the traditional western model we have built over the last 50 years still relevant? Let’s review the model a little bit.

• Money: This is the primary characteristic of the western church model. Every aspect of church operation and ministry is driven by and soaked in money.
• Megachurches: Multimillion dollar campuses and top shelf facility with large, professional staffs and big dollar payrolls. Smaller congregations without the big church resources see their people drawn away by these big – time churches until they are swallowed completely and have to shut their doors.
• Entertainment: The standard rock-n-roll ensemble of base, drums, electric guitar, keyboard, fronted by talented vocalists with body pierced, tattooed band members. High end, expensive sound systems driving 90 db sound levels with multimedia, light shows, pyrotechnics, and misty stages with big screens showing bigger than life images of the worship team performances complete with soaring guitar solos, and weird, unbiblical lyrics.
• Technology and marketing: web sites, branding initiatives, corporate church symbols, attendance and revenue metrics that inform and drive decisions for ever more growth.
• Comfort: coffee, donuts, muffins, on campus Star Bucks, book stores, cafes. Some churches now offer sofas, coffee tables, snacks, and easy chairs – in the sanctuary.
• Professionals: expensive, time consuming seminary degrees to teach professionals how to grow a church as a prerequisite for a ministry position.
• Personalities: the pastoral model has become one of fame and fortune for pastors of large churches. Six figure salaries, luxury homes and cars, private jets, book deals, radio shows, conference speaking engagements. Pastors have become CEOs of large organizations. The bigger the fame, the more isolated they become. Equipping the saints has been exchanged for self indulgence, materialism, and sexual exploitation of vulnerable parishioners.
• Programs: leadership summits conducted over satellite links broadcast around the world. Expensive conferences for every facet of church life: marriage, worship, prophecy, missions, finances, etc. Calls to individual holiness, devotion to the scripture, sound doctrine, prayer, repentance, and godliness are supplanted by calls to the teachings of men and pandering to a wicked culture.

What have the results been of this church model? Take a good look around you. The culture is a disaster. The church has been wildly successful in accumulating wealth and facility. But the church has failed its mission of preaching the Gospel and making disciples. Instead of people with a deep knowledge and reverence for the scripture, we have entire generations of young people, hungry for real biblical truth, who have rejected a superficial faith filled with hypocrisy. No wonder they left the church.

Standing in stark contrast to this uniquely western brand of materialistic Christianity is the church in countries hostile to Christians. The persecuted church in many places on earth have no facility, no high end sound systems, nor any professional, seminary trained staff. Many faithful Christians are incarcerated, even forgotten. Austere, simple facility attacked and reduced to rubble – church buildings burned to the ground. Believers taken and sold into slavery, killed, or imprisoned. It breaks my heart that this happens so much around the world and we here in the west remain unaware, unsympathetic, and uncaring. Please go read some of these stories yourself at the Open Doors web site.

During the 2022 World Watch List reporting period (from October 2020 to September 2021):

• 5,110 Churches or Christian buildings were attacked
• 4,765 Christians were unjustly arrested, detained or imprisoned
• 3,829 Christians were abducted for faith-related reasons.

From 16 Christians murdered for following Jesus—every day – Open Doors USA – Open Doors USA.

The church in the West has succumbed to the culture. Rather than standing faithfully on God’s Word and advancing the gospel of the Kingdom, churches have fallen under influence of globalist “pastors” who kowtow to Islam, sign cozy ecumenical agreements with world religions, reject Israel, jump on the social justice bandwagon, trust in false, self anointed apostles, affirm the wicked, mock clear biblical teaching about end times prophecy and final judgement, disparage the cross of Christ, and even dismiss the gospel of grace as the only path of salvation.

While persecuted brothers and sisters around the world endure hostility, torture, oppression, incarceration, the western church does nothing to help them. Instead, it pursues the occult through “angel” (Tarot) cards, bible codes, Yoga, eastern mystics, and certainly any politically correct cause to ensure social “virtues” are up-to-speed to be authenticated by the cultural elite.

A profoundly different environment is emerged during COVID lockdowns. The western church model of facility and entertainment was very quickly reduced to irrelevancy as church campuses closed and services went online. Was this a message from God about the emptiness of a corrupt and unbiblical church model? If it was, did the church miss an opportunity to reflect on the mission given by the Lord to HIS church?

As we come out of COVID, the church has simply returned to status quo. Back to facility projects and the money soaked, pastoral centric model. Did we not learn anything? Why can’t church leaders discern the times and see what’s coming? Why can’t they table the enormously expensive facility builds and prepare their congregations for what’s coming. The day is coming in which all those facilities will be desolate.

The dynamo of small business that has powered the economy since the end of the second world war is being devastated. Inflation is running out of control. Many businesses have closed – probably permanently – leaving many people without a livelihood to take care of their families, much less continue giving to a church model that requires significant resources to support facility bills and expensive payroll.

The magnitude of governmental influence in the conduct of our faith, ministry, and operations has increased dramatically and is just the beginning. Has the church in America been desensitized to government control as many congregations allowed bureaucracy to dictate how they operate and worship?

Leaders in our churches seem in denial about a sea change in our culture triggered by COVID. The drive to get back to status quo is strong, and that’s what most churches are doing… like it never happened. But things are not the same. Biblical Christians face an increasingly hostile culture. Already, the way of the Lord is rejected, biblical teaching has been labeled as hate speech, and ancient evil is once again embraced.

What does the near future hold for the true, biblical church? Since everything about the western church is soaked in money, it will likely become increasingly difficult to remain faithful to God’s Word. It is possible that churches will be increasingly held hostage to their 501c3 status. Churches under financial hardship already because of smaller attendance and less giving may not be able to accept the additional burden of having their 501c3 rescinded due to a noncompliant message and practice of their faith. The choice facing many churches will soon be to conform the message and hiring policies to the politically correct mold. Many churches have already compromised with the culture.

Some churches are already “affirming” the wicked. We now have “affirming” pastors who “affirm” that which is clearly identified by the Lord as wicked and demean those Christians who call them out on the basis of clear teaching of scripture. So these churches affirm what is wrong, criticize Christians who follow the clear teaching of God’s Word. Will churches follow the teachings of men or the word of the Lord?

The mission of the church is to call sinners to repentance and salvation, not to conform to the pattern of this world. Maybe now is the time to make difficult decisions while we can still make them on our own terms. We must recognize that the unbiblical model we have created is the problem. I say again, the model is the problem. Perhaps it is time to establish contingencies that scrap the ineffective western church model and move to something that works. What works? We have the model clearly defined in scripture.

I would suggest a return to the basic model described in the new testament: a lean, agile, dispersed, stealthy, home based, biblically literate, God fearing, soul winning, disciple making, worshipping church that does not rely on the IRS exemptions, big facility, and large cash flow for its existence. It’s not ruled by government regulation. It’s not a personality cult or based on looks and talent. It doesn’t raise the fist or bend the knee to ungodly and distorted notions of justice driven by people deeply immersed in the occult and darkness. Instead its led by servants of Christ who love and stand firm on God’s inerrant Word. Leaders are focused squarely on the mission to preach the gospel, teach, train, equip, admonish, correct, release and encourage the saints instead of holding them back. The goal is no longer to make a name for ourselves but instead to make the Name known.

Will the church in America remain defined by corporate status, facility, salaried professionals and branding symbols? I do not believe this model has served the mission well. How much of our time and spiritual bandwidth has been spent on pursuing such things? The endless planning meetings, fund raising, lawyers, real estate, etc. While all this religious nonsense was going on, the world around us – our cities, our culture, everything went to hell.

Instead of seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness, instead of selling all of our possessions and following Jesus, the western church has acquired possessions and built its own kingdom. If we had another chance, would we use our resources more profitably for the sake of the gospel? I wonder how much of what has been built will last? When the God of Heaven shakes the Earth, what will remain standing? Our church campuses? Not likely. The time is coming when they will be desolate.

The good news is we are still here. As long as we are here, the mission is still on. Do we have the guts to get back to it so that we have something we can bring before the Lord who saved us? I hope so.

May His Kingdom Come; may His will be done, to the glory of His Name.