I don’t know about you, but quote a line from the Battle Hymn of the Republic and my blood pressure rises with excitement! I want to get out of my seat and yell it:
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.
The Ongoing Battle
Isn’t it so easy to feel that way in a church service surrounded by other singing believers? Now transplant yourself in that moment to a street corner, shopping mall, grocery store or behind a 90 year-old driver on the highway who may actually unite you with Jesus because it’s impossible to accelerate to highway speed at 20 mi/hr. Let’s just say the excitement waivers. It’s so easy to get caught up in our personal lives and miss opportunities to fulfill the calling to share the saving message of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
Well at least we have full-time churches and church staff tirelessly working to spread the message, right? Maybe? I hope?
Well, it’s certain that only individual churches are able to answer that question for themselves but, unfortunately, when it comes to Internet ministries associated with physical churches, we are lacking. Lacking as the Body of Christ, falling WAY behind secular messages and false doctrines.
To clarify, not all Churches have let the opportunity of sharing the gospel online fall through the cracks. Some churches are doing a great job! Without any hard data to back this up, my personal experience tells me that may only be 5% of Bible believing churches…ouch.
A Sampling of the Whole
This week I conducted a personal study of the churches in our hometown area of Western New York; the greater Buffalo area. I simply used Google to locate “churches in Buffalo,” “Tonawanda,” and so on; using all local cities and townships in my search. Finding churches wasn’t a problem at all. I found an excellent amount of churches – well over 100 Christian churches. I started to rejoice a bit in my seat, knowing that we could have such an impact in this very oppressed community if we all really obeyed the Lord in delivering His Word to our neighbors.
It’s unfortunate that my excitement quickly ended as I opened church website after church website…handfuls, load fulls, buckets full. My general experience was as follows:
“Hey this homepage isn’t so bad…it’s not top-shelf great, but my eyes don’t ache looking at it, and there are some nice looking smiling people in a featured picture. Well, let’s see if I can find a belief statement, you know – the Gospel message…..hmmmm, that’s funny. Where is it? I see the church history, a million groups that meet to discuss every topic in existence, some kind of scary pictures of pastor, but no clearly stated Gospel message…. REALLY? REALLY? No way, it can’t be so. Let me check these other websites…”
Most of the websites I was able to visit in about 3 hours did not have an easy-to-locate and clearly defined belief statement or Gospel message! It’s so sad, but how would anyone be able to identify a Bible believing, Christ centered church based on a website that didn’t clearly explain what the church actually believes? (The Battle Hymn of the Republic ringing in my ears, “He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat.”) Why are we retreating on one of the largest battlefronts in this age? The Internet is so riddled with Satan and his schemes to destroy Holiness and Truth, and we’re retreating? (blood pumping) No! I will not retreat! I beg, Church, don’t retreat!
Any thoughts?
I know it’s so overdone but “what would Jesus do”? I think we all know He certainly wouldn’t retreat. I think He would say the first priority on a church website should be to tell people His Truth. To clearly present the Gospel so people don’t end up in Hell. So people can know they are saved by Jesus’ Grace by confessing their sins and proclaiming Him as Lord. Can I get an “Amen”?
I hope you said it.
Church, Beloved Bride, let’s stop beating around the bush. Our main purpose is to spread the Truth– not our church history or potluck dinners (of which I am a huge fan). Whether it’s on the street or through a church website or blog, we need to get to work.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Matthew 9:37
“And as always, remember; Jesus doesn’t make websites but that doesn’t mean He can’t use them!” – Free Church Websites
