Wednesday Recap

Sunday night was the first night with Kyle officially leading our worship, and the band sounded amazing. I can't wait to see the worship culture that's created within The Overflow as we move closer towards the launch of our Sunday Worship Experiences.

We also began a new study with our launch team called Stupid Christians. The goal for this study is not to bash Christians or call them stupid. Instead we want to deal with some of the stupid things that many Christians do. In other words, we're taking an honest look at why so many people who are not Christians think the church, faith, and Christianity in general is stupid. My belief is that we can either think Christians are viewed positively by the world and stick our head in the sand to reality or we can realize the true state of Christianity and try to do something about it.

The book "UnChristian" is a must read for every Christian. If you don't believe what I'm saying about the world's perception of the church, then this book will give you all the information and research you need to have your eyes opened to this reality.

Someone may ask, "Why does it matter what the world thinks about Christians?" It matters because the church is called to reach the world for Christ, and if people are simply laughing at the way Christians act, then we will never reach them! They won't take the church serious until the church is taking God serious!

The first topic we discussed in this series was hypocrisy. We looked at Matthew 23:4-10, 23:25-26, 7:21-23. Here were the two main points that I made, which if applied, guarantee you will be a Stupid Christian by means of hypocrisy.

#1: Convince yourself that you can disconnect your beliefs and actions.
If you say you believe something, yet that belief never compels you to act, do you really believe what you say you believe? Seriously, if we say we believe that people need Jesus, yet we never do anything to tell them about Him, do we really believe that people need Jesus? If we say God is our priority, yet we spend more time doing everything not related to Him, do we really believe He should be our priority? We are all hypocrites to some degree, but for the most part, people outside of the church see very little connection between our beliefs and actions, and as Jesus notes in Matthew 23, this is a problem that's been going on for a long time!

#2: Embrace your outward perception by ignoring your inward reality.
We've created this culture within the church that says we should dress a certain way and place certain people on pedestals above others. Let me loving point out what Jesus says in Matthew 23. It doesn't matter what you wear or what position in the church you have. If your outside is clean and looks good, but your inside is filthy and dirty, you are a hypocrite, and Jesus (not me) is calling you out! Most Christians have become more focused on the Sunday morning show than the daily relationship with the Savior! You can wear your suit on Sunday if you'd like, but just don't think that makes you morally superior to someone who may wear jeans. Jesus says to focus on the inward reality, not the outward perception (Matthew 23:25-26).

At the same time, people also need to remember the pastor does not have a seat at the right hand of God. Jesus occupies that seat! Pastors don't have some "special" connection to God, so let's quit thinking that the prayers of the pastor are more powerful. If you are walking in a proper relationship with God, your prayers can accomplish as much as anyone. Additionally, we need to lose the perception that pastors can do things that "normal" Christians can't. If you are a pastor (I'm speaking to myself here) don't allow your people to depend on you that much. If The Overflow ever encourages people to depend on the pastor or any other person more than they depend on Jesus, then we are failing! Yes, I know there's not a church or a pastor who would say they intentionally teach people to depend on others more than Jesus, but by the way we act, we unintentionally communicate that philosophy.