Forgive Us, Your Church

By Perry Noble, Christian Post Guest Columnist Thursday, January 27, 2011

Dear Lord, please forgive us, YOUR church…

#1 – For praying small prayers. We read in the Scriptures where YOU sent FIRE from heaven, you healed sick people, you brought the dead back to life, you put interstate highways through the Red Sea, you slayed giants, you enabled people to walk through fire, you spoke and the world EXPLODED in creation and you said we would do greater things in John 14:12…yet we refuse to pray and ask for BIG things because we believe that somehow Your reputation is on the line. May we pray BIG PRAYERS!

#2 – For allowing Disney to out dream us! They have a mouse, we have Your Holy Spirit and yet we have seemed to drift towards the normal, boring and predictable. You said in Ephesians 3:20 that you are able to do WAY more than we could ask or imagine…and maybe you are, maybe the best we can imagine is a few people in a room talking about things that the rest of the world does not care about. However, I refuse to believe that a company without YOUR Spirit should be able to trump YOUR church who does have YOUR Spirit when it comes to big dreams. We should have THE BEST artists in the world…may we recapture that!

#3 – For allowing Apple to out innovate us! You are the Author of creation…YOU! And since Your Word is clear that we are created in YOUR image then it is so clear that YOUR church should be leading the way when it comes to innovation and creativity. You are FAR from dull and boring…your church should be as well! May we STOP doing poor work and then blaming it on Your Holy Spirit.

#4 – For allowing a rising stock market to celebrate more than we do. For some reason in church world it is ok to celebrate when our 401k's increase in value, but it is NOT ok to talk about/celebrate when people repent of their sins and trust Christ as their Savior, despite what YOU said about the angels celebrating in Luke 15. For some reason we don't like to celebrate when a church sees people turn their lives over to you. We don't like to celebrate it when another church grows. The truth is we want great things to happen in OUR church…but not in someone else's.

#5 – For allowing credit card companies to out market us! We all know the phrase "what's in your wallet" because they market their product so darn well; however, all too often we seem to be content sitting back and "trusting You" when in actuality You have entrusted and empowered us to go and reach the world with the Gospel…that takes "marketing!" We have the greatest message on the planet…may You continue to reveal the best methods in regards to how to get it out there more and more.

#6 – For allowing MTV to reach a generation that we've seemed to forget! Forgive us for the fact that in many of our churches there is more money in the cemetery fund than there is the youth and children's budget. Forgive us when we neglect to see that the age group that is under 18 is the ripest mission field in America…and so instead of investing heavily in them we force them to sell doughnuts, have car washes and make hot dogs to do the things the church should be making a priority in the first place.

#7 – For allowing missionaries to use culture on foreign fields to reach the community in which they are in…but when that same approach is done in America we call it compromise! We tell missionaries to not criticize the culture in which they live but rather to learn it, understand it, and then leverage it to introduce the Gospel. We think that is the best way to do it "over there," yet when that approach is used here we become angry and accuse churches of "watering things down" (AS IF YOUR Gospel could EVER be watered down) and/or compromised. May we not stick our heads in the sand but rather admit where we are and use the world that people live in as a tool and resource to introduce them to Jesus.

Forgive us Lord…may we RISE UP and be YOUR Church, the ONE YOU have called, equipped and enabled us to become! When we are focused on You, talking about You, pointing others to You and doing exactly what You say to do…then…

Your power is undeniable!

Your people are unstoppable!

Your presence is unexplainable! And…

Our potential is unimaginable!

Perry Noble is the founding and senior pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina. The church averages 26,000 people during weekend services at multiple campuses throughout the state. Noble, his wife Lucretia and their daughter Charisse live in Anderson, South Carolina. You can read all of Perry's unfiltered thoughts about life and leadership at PerryNoble.com.