Real Christianity!
Part 1. What is it? Does it really exist? And if so, what does it look like?
September 8, 2008
Ron and Karen Schwartz
[Note: The last note we sent out was “The Spirit of Truth and Error, Part 1.” Since then, the sin and debauchery of the Lakeland fiasco has been exposed. Consequently, we have decided to set aside the remainder of that series for now. This new series will focus on understanding what real Christianity is meant to be.]
Why is it so easy for the world to believe that God is dead or that He does not exist? Why is it difficult to prove the world wrong? How is it that a God so powerful that He could create the entire universe and so wise as to design the miraculous human body and the complexity of our ecosystem could be so remiss as to fail to leave any proof of His existence?
We will never find a rock with the words engraved on it: “Made By God.” We will never find a plaque on a nearby planet that says, “I, God, made this planet and dedicated it to my good servant Gabriel.” There is simply no proof left behind that God has ever been here.
Humanity has searched for thousands of years to understand the truth about God, but it has failed to understand that “it” is the proof of God’s existence. God did leave something behind. He left mankind. God knew that a visible universe could never see or understand Him, so He left behind a creature that has the ability to see beyond the natural into the supernatural. Mankind has the unique ability to span the gulf between two universes. Mankind was made in the image of God to show the invisible God to the visible universe. So what went wrong? If creation was meant to see God through mankind, why is there any question as to God’s existence?
Why, indeed.
There can only be one reason that the world does not believe in God: it cannot see His image in the people who claim His name. The world believes that God is dead because He is dead in the people who claim to serve Him. The world believes that God does not exist because He does not exist in the lives of the people who claim to worship Him. In short, the world can see Him because the people who go by God’s name actually serve a different god. Consequently, all the world sees is a superficial form of religion, not the reality of God.
Aren’t you tired of the superficial nature of modern Christianity? Aren’t you tired of going to church and pasting a fake smile on your face when inside you are miserable? Aren’t you tired of going to church and acting happy, excited, and bubbly when inside you feel empty, lost, unfruitful, and desolate? Aren’t you tired of acting as if you were what everyone expects you to be?
Perhaps this is what frustrated us the most with the ostentatious activities at what was called “The Lakeland Revival.” It was hollow, pompous, and fake. Many of us have been waiting, hoping, and praying for revival for decades, so when this parade of pageantry appeared, the mockery of it was more than we could bear. We are tired of the charade of the modern charismatic and prophetic movements. We are tired of the deceit and pretense of prophetic groups like Peter Wagner and the International Coalition of Apostles. We want to see the real thing. We know that if this world is ever to come to believe in God, then the evidence that God left behind – you and I – must begin to show forth His glory: “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ (Ephesians 1:12).”
“Go to church less. Be the Church more!”
It began with a series of prophetic dreams and utterances. A close friend and brother in the Lord had a dream. He was traveling down a certain road in a large metropolitan area near where we live, and in the middle of the road, he saw a burning tire. He recognized this area of town. All around him was chaos and anarchy. Then he awoke and the Lord spoke to his heart, saying, “Islam will sweep this nation, and it will begin in the inner cities.” When this brother went to the area of the city where he had seen the burning tire, he found at that location a Muslim mosque.
The next night, he had another dream. Many of his Christian friends were in a city park witnessing to inner city youth. They were serving food to them, and people were lined up to be baptized. When he awoke, the Lord spoke to him, saying, “This is the answer.” If Islam is to be prevented from over taking this nation, then God’s people must start doing what they were saved to do: evangelize.
Around the same period of time, our son (who had been listening to stories of the evangelistic crusades we used to do when we were teenagers) longed to see that form of reality in his life. He had a vision. In this vision, he saw us going from room to room in hospitals, praying and witnessing to everyone who was there.
Also around the same time, God was speaking to us through the charade and travesty of Lakeland, saying, “Go to church less. Be the Church more!”
These three events through three different people began to coalesce into a charter. So we decided to step out and walk in the direction that God seemed to be setting for us. One weekend in June, we set out for a large hospital complex on a stormy Saturday morning. There were four of us brothers. We found the floors where patients lay in their hospital beds. One by one, we entered each room on two floors. We asked the patients and their guests what their needs were and prayed for everyone – perhaps a hundred rooms.
The last room we entered was an especially amazing experience. The man who lay in the bed had just lost his job, his home, and his family because of his drug addiction. His friend, a Christian, had brought him to the hospital, and his son, a newly saved Christian, was praying for him. He lay in his hospital bed looking up at the ceiling, a broken and lost man whose life had been shipwrecked. There, he cried out to God for help, and what do you suppose happened? In we walked, asking him if he needed prayer. He cried and threw his outstretched hands toward us as if to pull us to him, and he told of his loss and the prayer he had just sent up the moment before. We led him to the Lord and then contacted some local brothers to come there to follow up with him.
But through it all, it was clear that God was in it. The hospital staff watched as we went from one room to the next praying for everyone, but they made no attempt to question or prevent us. The people in each room were open and eager – some even desperate - for prayer. It was obvious to us that God was going before us to prepare the way.
The next day, six of us brothers went to an inner city park. Coming from the country, we had more than a little trepidation at what to expect. Would we be met with guns and knives from inner city gangs? Would we be ignored and treated with contempt and hatred? The truth is that we had no idea what to expect. We simply followed the dream. We brought a barbeque grill to cook food, a horse trough to baptize new converts, and a ragamuffin band for music. Finally, we brought ourselves to witness. No one knew what would happen.
We found that the (predominately black) youth were not just open to the gospel but desperate for it. Literally everyone wanted to be saved. In just six short hours, more than thirty youth gave their lives to God and about half were baptized. Moreover, just prior to that weekend, God began to lead us to local residents and ministry organizations of the city who felt a calling to mentor these youths. So after we spent time ministering to them, we turned them over to others for follow up.
During the afternoon, our son (who had had the vision about going into hospitals) stood at the top of a hill which overlooked the park. He saw a blue haze, like a fog, covering the park. He then noticed that he was also covered in the same blue haze. He saw that when he touched someone and prayed with him for salvation, that person also became covered in the same blue haze. Clearly, the anointing of God was upon what we were doing.
The next weekend, we went to another park and experienced similar results. Within the first six weeks, we had four park outreaches where we saw more than 150 inner city young people commit their lives to God and more than fifty of them get baptized. Clearly, we were “being” the church instead of just going to one.
As the summer wore on and dozens of converts turned into hundreds, we began to visit parks near the ones we had previously visited. We began to meet some of the young people who had made the decision to serve God and had been baptized in the weeks before. They all were excited about their relationships with God. In the beginning, we had spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what to do about follow-up. Then God spoke prophetically to us saying, “It will come to pass that all who hear My name will believe. Show them the way and I will receive them. They are mine, and I will care for them.” Essentially, He was telling us that He was in charge of the follow-up, and it should not be our concern. As we met more and more of the converts, we saw the truth in His words.
It became clear to us that because of our evangelism in the parks on weekends, we would not be able to attend church meetings as much as we had been. We were literally “going to church” less, and “being the Church” more!
The Three Primary Feasts
Israel observed seven feasts each year, but only three of them were primary (those which everyone was expected to attend). These three primary feasts all revolved around the harvest. The first one, Passover, was at the planting of the harvest. The second, Pentecost (or First Fruits), was the gathering of the fruit that became ripe. The final one, Tabernacles, was a celebration of the harvest. And when Israel was not celebrating one of these feasts, its people were busy working in the fields of harvest.
What if we, as the Church, followed the model God established for His people? What if we gather to “have church” only once a month or so, and the rest of the time we “are the Church,” working the fields of harvest? What if we were to go back to the model that God established and pitch out the model of “church attendance” that man invented? What if we lay emphasis, as God did, on the harvest?
Believe it or not, most of the resistance to this teaching will come from Christian leaders who will see it as the diminishing of their power base and financial support. They cannot afford to have Christians working out on the streets rather than lounging about in their church pews.
Consider this: never once did Jesus ever indicate that “going to church and paying tithes” is your duty as a Christian. He taught that His disciples would evangelize by preaching the “good news” to the lost. Nevertheless, in our twisted religious culture, most Christians feel that evangelizing and discipleship are optional. From where do you think this mindset comes? It comes from “ministers” who, after Jesus and His apostles were gone, began teaching instead that, out of the masses of Christians, only a few are chosen and anointed to preach the gospel; the rest are meant to sit in pews.
Christian leader, don’t you dare try pawning off the failure of your church onto the people. They are lazy, apathetic, worthless spiritual failures (for the most part) because of you. It is your ministry’s perverse teaching that makes them believe their duty is church attendance and tithing. It is your apostate influence that leads them to believe church attendance and tithing are more important than being the Church. If God merely designed for us to get saved and spend our years going to church until we are finally whisked away to heaven, then people would die immediately following salvation. If going to heaven is our only purpose, then there is no purpose for a Christian life.
We are convinced that the best thing that could possibly happen to Christianity and the world is for church buildings everywhere to come down. Perhaps then the “living dead” Christians inside would see that there is more to Christianity than the four walls of their church building. Perhaps then they would venture out into the fields. Perhaps then the world would begin to see that there is a God and He is alive in His people. Perhaps then God’s people would begin to fulfill their destiny: to become “the image of God.”
Traditions and Snares
Quite often over the course of these past few months, we did not know where we would go until a day or so before. We would wait until we knew where God wanted us to go. We concluded that this allowed God ample time to work and prepare hearts while leaving very little time for Satan to set traps in opposition to us.
Six times in the Book of Acts, Christianity was referred to as “the way (Acts 9:2, 19:8-9,23, 22:4, 14, 24:22),” and only twice as “Christians (Acts 11:26, 26:28).” Christianity was never meant to be a religion. It was meant to be a “way” of life. God tried to demonstrate through the Hebrew culture that serving Him was a lifestyle, not a performance of religious rituals. When we turn Christianity into a system of religious acts we perform in a church on Sunday, Christianity becomes nothing more than a series of traditions.
Colossians 2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Traditions are things we do repetitiously. Successful hunters learn to watch for the repetitious actions of animals in order to capture their prey. The path animals follow repeatedly is called a “game trail.” Animals tend to walk down the same path on their way to a food or water source or to their burrows and nests. Hunters place snares in the paths of rabbits and set up “blinds” near the paths of deer and other large game animals. The point is this: traditions can kill you as simply and as quickly as they do animals. Nature shows us that traditions, while making it easier to find shelter, food, and water, can also make the work of a hunter much easier.
Our form of “having church” is especially traditional. We do it the way we have always done it, not because it is right or because it works, but because – like finding shelter and food – it is easy. Church exists in its current model because it is easy. It requires no practice and very little participation. You can simply attend church, pay your tithes, sit in the pews, mouth a few songs, and listen to teaching. You have to do nothing more. You can virtually forget about church (and God) for the rest of the week as long as you just remember to come back again the next week.
Our practice of “going to church” (or “having church”) is the biggest, most successful snare that Satan has set for modern Christians. Most Christians have been snared and are choking to death in the very churches in which they expected to find life. But then, isn’t that how snares work? A hunter sets snares in well-travelled (traditional) animal trails and sometimes sets a little food inside or on either side of the snare. The animal, thinking it will find life-sustaining food, walks straight into the snare and ends up killing itself. In the same way, Christians everywhere believe that their form of “going to church” is life-sustaining when in reality it is killing them. It prevents them from experiencing true Christianity. It is a poor substitute for the genuine article.
Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life (John 5:39-40).” What He meant by this was that the Pharisees claimed to love the scripture but in reality they really loved their traditions. The scripture didn’t endorse their traditions but Jesus and the gospel He taught. Likewise, modern Christians – the Pharisees of today – claim to love the scripture but in reality they love the traditional church culture which they’ve created. That’s why they’re constantly searching and wandering from church to church, trying to find life. They’re looking for life in their traditions (and they’ll never find it) instead of the reality of the life of Christ.
Springs or Cisterns
John 4:13-14
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Over the past thirty some odd years, we have tried every conceivable model for church: the “five-fold-ministry” model with a strong prophetic and apostolic flare, house churches, independent, and even a “structure-less” form where we simply waited on the Holy Spirit. The outcome has always been the same: people inevitably become cisterns. They go week-to-week waiting to hear the teaching of prominent ministers and the emotional hype they receive from anointed worship music. The only people who truly grow are those who are participating in the ministry group. It is apparent that as long as we continue to follow the traditional model of “having church,” all we are doing is creating “game trails” – something that makes it easy for the enemy to set snares.
In most churches, there is only one group that grows spiritually: those who actually participate in what is considered “ministry.” They are actually “springs of living water.” They are not cisterns that need to go get filled again each week but those who come ready to give.
If you want to be like your pastor, then you must become a “spring,” and that will not happen as long as you vainly and loyally attend your church every week. Your “living water” will eventually dry up until you are just another empty cistern. You must stop going to church and become the Church - stop paying and expecting pastors to do the work of the Church and start doing it yourselves. Stop paying others to do that for which you are responsible!
Summary
Pastors, clergy, and others who make their living through what is known as “vocational ministry” will not encourage people to leave their church pews to become the Church. Quite the opposite. They need more and more people off the streets and into the building if they are to maintain their standard of living. Pastors and other forms of ministry do NOT want people to become “springs of living water.” People who are “springs” are competition for them. Instead, they need and want more cisterns: dry and thirsty people to fill their buildings and keep them gainfully employed. That is the reason you will NOT find Christian leaders doing anything but peddling the same inept model of clergy/laity, farmer/cattle, and aristocrat/peasant that has existed for centuries in worldly political systems.
In addition, you will not find run-of-the-mill Christians promoting change, either. The West has become a culture consumed by waste, overindulgence, and laziness. People like their fast-food (McDonald’s style) and fast-sermons (institutional style). They like not having to be, act, or think like a Christians for most of the week; they are satisfied just to “get their fix” on Sunday (or Saturday, if they prefer a messianic style). If God’s work needs to be done, they will pay someone else to do it.
The world says that God is dead because that is what they see in His people. Allow us to share what we have discovered during the past few months. When we first started going to inner city parks, we believed we needed some form of follow-up for the new converts. At first, we tried to contact churches in the area – some directly across the streets around the parks. The pastors seemed encouraged and excited about what we were doing. We explained that we would finance the event, we would witness and minister to the lost: in short, we would do all the work. All we asked is that their local churches provide people, elders, or ministers to connect with the new converts, introduce themselves and their churches, and begin the process of mentoring them. However, without exception, every single local church and pastor -- though excited and promising involvement -- never even bothered to show up.
Christians, pastors, churches… they all know that evangelism in the answer for this world as well as for the apathy of their churches, yet they change nothing. It is just too convenient to keep the status quo. It works for everyone. Christians do not have to do any work for their spiritual daily bread, and pastors get paid to serve it.
Some of the pastors who will read this note have good hearts and truly want to do what is right. If you, Christian leader, really want to serve God, then quit being a “pastor” in the traditional sense and start leading. Tell your church members: “Next week bring your street clothes. We’ll be going to a park or to the streets, and we’re going to stop talking about church and start acting like one. I will show you how to witness by witnessing. I will show you how to be a disciple by discipling. I will provide you with an example of what Christians should be like. ‘Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).’”
And for you who are tired of being cisterns, for you who are tired of being numbered among the living dead, for you who want Real Christianity… It is available. Be the Church instead of going to one!
