In yesterday’s Links To Go, I included a post from Jay Guin’s blog. He did an excellent series on the mission of the church, and this post was one of the conclusion articles. He made a point that I want to repeat. In talking about the lack of emphasis on personal transformation in our churches, Jay observes:

Here are some quick and easy tests:

• When your members have more tenure in your church, do they become more entitled and demanding or less?
• Are your older members harder to please and appease than your younger members?
• When your members are unhappy, do they voice their unhappiness by economic/power means (withholding money; threatening to leave) or as family (through conversation; persuasion)?
• When a difficult change is suggested, do the members respond in terms of how this change will affect the members? Or how it will affect the people they plan to invite to church, have a Bible study with, or serve in the name of Jesus?

Excellent point. I differ with Jay as to the misplaced emphasis. He’s says this happens because of the emphasis on personal salvation, which is seen as being achieved through membership and attendance. I would argue that it’s because we’ve reduced Christianity to a restoration of the early church, with a focus on practice. I do agree that what’s lacking is an emphasis on transformation into the image of Christ. Rather than encourage people to become more Christlike, we encourage them to be better rule keepers. Too many people in our churches know the five acts of worship better than they know the Beatitudes.

If we spend a lifetime focused on rule keeping, we’ll end up dominated by three things:

1. A critical nature
2. A contentious spirit
3. Fear

If we spend a lifetime focused on becoming like Jesus, we’ll end up dominated by three things:

1. Love
2. Forgiveness
3. Peace

I know which I prefer.