It seems that many congregations operate more through human effort than through God’s power. The evidence, particularly within North American churches, suggests we are struggling to reach nonbelievers and push back the darkness effectively. Here are several reasons why churches often rely on their own strength rather than divine empowerment:
1. We fail to recognize the immense scale of God’s calling. We are commanded to make disciples of all nations, a mandate far greater than any individual or local church can achieve alone. Forgetting the magnitude of this task leads to self-reliance. Successfully navigating this mission requires a robust church operating system, providing the strategic framework necessary to fulfill such a global commission.
2. The Enemy encourages us to serve in our own strength. Spiritual opposition is rarely alarmed by religious activity that lacks divine power. In fact, numerical growth matters little to the Enemy if a church operates without the Holy Spirit’s guidance. This underscores why prayer is the foundation for true impact, serving as the critical element often missing in church revitalization efforts.
3. Many of us who lead rely more on our training and experience than on God. It happens, even when we’re committed to not let it happen. Few of us default into dependence on God; we default into independence and self-dependence.
4. Prayer is a primary means by which we live in God’s power—but many churches aren’t really praying churches. We might talk about prayer a lot, but that doesn’t mean we truly pray. I doubt we know many churches whose prayer DNA is as deep as the early church’s DNA.
5. We can, in fact, do much of the “activity” of the church in our own strength. We have to admit this truth if we’re willing to be honest. Just think about how much we do without really praying, and you’ll see that we’re often just going through ministry motions on our own.
6. We don’t often tackle many “God-sized” tasks. In some ways, the early days of the COVID-19 crisis forced us to seek God’s wisdom and help – but I fear we’ll quickly lose that focus as the new normal sets in. In general, we seldom talk about tackling an assignment our church can’t do unless God does it through us.
7. Many churches give little attention to reaching nonbelievers. Unbelievers are caught in darkness, and we can’t reach them unless God’s Spirit convicts them and draws them. Strongly evangelistic churches have learned to lean on God because they know they can’t change hearts. Nonevangelistic churches don’t think this way.
8. We sometimes concern ourselves more with being “bigger and better” than others than we do with glorifying God. Our work thus becomes a competitive sport, and winning a competitive sport is almost always dependent on the skill and training of the athlete—not usually on the God who gives the athlete ability in the first place.
9. We never even pause to ask, “In whose power am I walking?” I know that simply writing this post has forced me to ask this question again. Perhaps it will do the same for you.
What other evidences come to mind for you?
Read more from Chuck Lawless »
This article originally appeared on ChuckLawless.com and is reposted here by permission.