{"id":3424,"date":"2017-02-16T09:43:30","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T15:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=3424"},"modified":"2017-02-16T09:43:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T15:43:30","slug":"country-club-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2017\/02\/16\/country-club-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Club Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They had works.<br \/>\nThey labored.<br \/>\nThey showed patience.<br \/>\nThey could not bear those who were evil.<br \/>\nThey were able to detect false teachers.<br \/>\nThey demonstrated perseverance.<br \/>\nThey labored for the name of Christ and had not become weary.<br \/>\nAnd yet, according to Jesus Christ\u2014the Great Physician, Who is able to accurately diagnose the heart, this group of Christians in Ephesus had left their first love. (Revelation 2:2-4)<br \/>\nWhat treatment plan did Jesus give this group of people? He first told them to \u201cremember from where you have fallen.\u201d In other words, reflect back to why they came together\u2014go back and look at what your original priorities were. Spend time reflecting on the true mission of the church. Then He commands them, \u201crepent.\u201d Too often, Christians who have been baptized look at the word \u201crepentance\u201d as a step of salvation. Yet, Jesus here was addressing Christians\u2014telling this sick church that if it wanted to get better then they needed to repent. Lastly, He tells them to do the first works. This group of people was busy working and laboring, but they had moved away from the things that were truly important.<br \/>\nThe Great Physician then revealed what their fate would be if they did not follow his medical treatment: \u201cor else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place\u2014unless you repent\u201d (Revelation 2:5).<br \/>\nI suspect this exact same diagnosis could be given to hundreds of congregations across our nation today. We are busy with works. We are laboring. We don\u2019t bear with those who are evil. We can identify false teachers. And yet, we have left our first love. Our focus is no longer on Christ and what He has done for us, but rather, our focus is on the next big program or event\u2014in order to please the masses and get numbers up. We\u2019ve detached ourselves so far away from our sin that we don\u2019t spend much time actually reflecting on where we would be without Christ and the cross.<br \/>\nWhat many modern congregations have actually done is created vast \u201csocial clubs\u201d or \u201ccountry clubs\u201d full of people who want to be surrounded by moral people of the same socio-economic status. We want to feel like we are doing good, involved in lots of works, and have someone to go to lunch with on Sunday. Sure we love God, but deep down we have grown comfortable. We have built massive buildings, all the while we are surrounded by thousands who are lost and hurting\u2014yet, these people will never hear the Gospel because our social club is too busy with internal programs. Our mentality has become, \u201cWe will build bigger buildings and they will come to us.\u201d<br \/>\nDon\u2019t believe me? Take a moment to consider how much time, energy, sacrifice, and money are spent actually going out into your local community. Now compare that to how much time, energy, sacrifice, and money are spent on \u201cinternal\u201d programs\u2014programs for people who already know about the saving blood of Christ. We wave the banner of \u201cedification\u201d broadly, as justification for these programs, but the reality is in most cases these programs are simply tools that keep the church convinced they are busy and active. A serious look reveals a much deeper problem\u2014Christians who have lost their first love, and no longer desire to \u201cgo\u201d and reach the lost.<br \/>\nI have probably heard every excuse in the book: \u201cDoor knocking doesn\u2019t work anymore.\u201d \u201cWe don\u2019t think advertising in the local paper will work.\u201d \u201cWe don\u2019t really know how to reach the lost in this technological age.\u201d Etc. So instead of trying something, we add a few more internal programs and comfort our guilty consciousness. Or maybe we justify it by saying: \u201cWe stream or record our services for everyone on the internet\u201d as if there are thousands of people sitting by their computers or televisions who will stumble across our site with the intention of learning the Truth.<br \/>\nYes, in too many cases we have become country club churches. It\u2019s with tears in my eyes that I point out this truth. I love the church. I love the people who make up the church. But the truth is we are comfortable. We are busy in the building. But we are about to have our lampstand removed. It is time leaders and members repent and get busy doing what God really expects us to do. It is time we return to our first love. It is time we get out of our comfort zones and do the hard things.<br \/>\nAs for me and my house? We\u2019re tired of social club church. We desperately want to serve. We want leaders to blaze a trail into our community. We want to stop wasting money on frivolous internal programs. We want to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. We want the waters in our baptistery to be rippling every week\u2014rather than growing stagnant. We want to return to our first love. And that, my friend, is what we shall do. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.<br \/>\n<strong>By Brad Harrub, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They had works. They labored. They showed patience. They could not bear those who were evil. They were able to detect false teachers. They demonstrated perseverance. They labored for the name of Christ and had not become weary. And yet, according to Jesus Christ\u2014the Great Physician, Who is able to accurately diagnose the heart, this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,32],"tags":[145,49,269,707,824],"class_list":["post-3424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-church","tag-brad","tag-church","tag-evangelism","tag-outreach","tag-programs","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Country Club Church - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2017\/02\/16\/country-club-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Country Club Church - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They had works. 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