God's Judgment Against the Christendom Church?

I blog about my job more than any single issue. The name of the blog suggests that I believe that I am an Acting Ambassador of the Kingdom of God.

I think in Kingdom terms about much of what I do on the job.

About a week ago, I was involved in a conversation that could easily have gone in a Kingdom direction but, in the movement,  I was mute.

I was running a cash register for some reason and engaging the customer and the bagger in conversation...presumably about the coronavirus.

And, the 50something female customer said, "I'll tell you what I think. I think this is God's judgment on the nation of China."

I nodded and grunted, or something, but was at a loss for words because I was having one of those instant, in the moment, unthought through thoughts that I guess other people have too.

Often, when I have them, I think: That's crazy. And, it goes nowhere and is soon forgotten.

The thought I had at that moment probably is crazy, but I'm still thinking about it.

The thought was, "I think it's God's judgment on Christendom Christianity."

What I mean by Christendom Christianity is Middle Ages, parish priest oriented church-ism...where the pastor/priests provide religious products and services to the laity.

Honestly, I don't think that this is the function of God judging nearly all of the congregations and denominations in the United States and what's left of Christianity in Europe.

What I do think is that this is an opportunity for repentance to happen.

I've been watching, via my small connection to social media, as churches scurry through the process of finding, legal, if possible, ways of continuing the provider/consumer...having-nothing-to-do-with-what-Jesus-taught-or-did...way of being church.

And, yikes!

How is a church supposed to collect the sort of offering that will pay the pastor's salary and benefit package plus pay the other church salaries and bills if we can't collect an offering from people who physically attend a brick and mortar church facility?!!!?!!!!!! This may go on for months!

And, beyond that, have enough moolah to support all the staff people on the payroll of the Conference and the denomination!

Is the coronavirus God's judgment on all of you christendomites?

Not directly, in my opinion.

But, the coronavirus is exposing Christendom for some of its folly.

Truly, the most serious problem that I see, in a religious culture that is experiencing numerical decline and spiritual decay, is how do you Christendom Church people feed your flocks dependent on the consumption of those high quality religious products and services the laity has come to depend, and which it demands?

This is a problem.

As far as I can tell, it was not a problem among subjects of the Kingdom of God in its first few centuries.

In fact, times of plague and persecution were times of amazing growth among followers of Jesus two millennia ago.

Western Christianity today is a mess.

I don't think God's judging it. More to the point, you're bring judgment on yourself.

We truly must repent. And, this is a crisis moment when change can happen.