A Treatise on Church Growth part five

Look at another example - when a baby is born, when life comes forth, whoa, look out - they're a mess! They have to be cleaned, then what? They make a mess all over again and again and again. Hey, life is messy! They have to be fed constantly, they cry when they want, eat when they want, in short, you can't control Life! When the restaurants busy, the kitchen gets dirty! And everyone pitches in to help. Older brothers and sisters help take care of younger ones and babies and children don't support their parents, it's the other way around. But what do babies need an abundance of every single day, poured out without limit and never denied? LOVE. God is Love. Selah.
Ever notice you can't love a baby without touching them? They must be touched and hugged alot.  There must be contact. You can't put them in a crib (pew) and talk to them over and over again and expect them to grow, at least not in a healthy way. What do spiritual babies need? Discipline? Not without love. Programs? Correct doctrine? Hey, if you learn to talk, sing, dress and act just like us, then we'll accept you and you can fellowship here. That's not love.
One thing I know about a baby, he doesn't look, talk or act anything like his parents and shouldn't be expected to. Of course they quickly pick up their parents mannerisms and behavioral patterns and in chuch, this can be both good and bad. Most churches are molding people into their image, not Christ's. It's a lot easier, though in the long run for more costly, to keep that new-born baby christian in the incubator on life support. This way, they'll always be dependent on their pastor and church to survive spiritually.
Take most christians out of their church or denomination and they would die, spiritually and the churches love it so, in fact they will tell you that if you leave them, you will die spiritually  and not make it to heaven. I am not saying people shouldn't fellowship together. But even Jesus, our example, had long and short periods of time when he would separate himself from people and be alone with his Father. Most christians today couldn't fast and separate themselves for forty hours, much less forty days because their church is their link to God, their umbilical cord. They see through the eyes of the denominational glasses put on them, they hear through the pastor. Much like the evening news cast, where the news is heard with a liberal or conservative slant, people's view and understanding of scripture is slanted in whatever direction the denomination they belong to leans.
They don't know Christ, they know about Christ through their pastor or whatever TV program they consume or the latest hit christian book. They're hooked up with intravenous tubes in their souls and they're being force fed, nourished by their pastor or teaching elder. Of course, when you're kept alive this way you can't handle meat, you can only accept liquidated pulp. I may be painting you a bleak picture but if it's the truth, don't look away. If you picture Jesus on the cross then you can see that sometimes the truth can get ugly but it's especially during those times we must not turn away but gaze steadfastly at the truth till we are set free by it. Many churches today really are like the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda.

to be continued...