"A lot of our churches no longer have faith in the Scriptures."

I'm a big fan of Nick and Dan's Bible Study podcast. 

Moments ago, I finished listening to this week's edition. The description of this one says that the discussion is "wide ranging," and it is. Much of this one touched on the way churches in America engage the secular world and behave politically.

This one seemed to be more of a stream of consciousness than it was devoted to a single theme followed by both guys.

That's fine. It's real.

One thing that is unusual in today's CGGC, is that when I listen to these guys, passion oozes from them.

Their passion connects me to our early Church of God days, the days when we were swimming in God's blessing.

Mostly in the CGGC today, we're temperate, tepid, thoughtful, cautious and careful, and very well spoken. Mostly, we're philosophers, theoreticians...the people who speak to us, and for us anyway.

The Nick and Dan podcast is the one connection I have to our body today where I can know, and not doubt, that we still have people who possess fire!

I praise God for these guys and what they actually do.

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I sent a note to Dan when I finished the podcast and said, among other things, that Nick produced the best soundbite in the brief history of the podcast. That sound bite is the title of this post.

"A lot of our churches no longer have faith in the Scriptures." I'm sure Nick said exactly that. I relistened to be certain that I got it exactly right.

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I have a few thoughts about what Nick said.

First, when he said it, he was merely stating an opinion, based on his considerable experience in the ERC. He wasn't preaching. He wasn't complaining. He wasn't haranging like I would. He was simply describing fact.

Second, Nick was being honest. Understand, I don't mean to suggest that other holders of institutional authority in the CGGC in recent years have been/are dis-honest. What I'll say is that, in the CGGC culture, it's become the norm to avoid the truth. Most of the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC don't talk about the past, or the present, they envision a fuzzy, better future...which never becomes reality.

Third, in my opinion, Nick was accurately describing reality. For many generations, our body has been in the midst of spiritual decay and numerical decline. The Lord loves to bless His people, yet the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing isn't blessing the CGGC. He once blessed us. He has stopped blessing us. Why? Nick has described one foundational reason. We no longer have faith in the Scriptures.

Fourth, Nick's way of knowing that our churches no longer have faith in the Scriptures is, in his own words, "...if you have faith in the Scriptures, you're going to act the way they tell you to."

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What you do is what's important.

What you do is the fruit of what you believe. It's what you do, the fruit of your faith, that will determine your eternal destiny. (Mt. 25:31-46)

Thank God for Nick DiFrancesco. He's connecting faith and action in the ERC and CGGC.

Thank God Nick has the courage to say, on the level of our churches, we are not doing what people who have faith in the Scriptures do.

In my  opinion, we have two serious problems with doing.

One of the truths about our body is that, in our churches, everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

Another truth about doing in the CGGC is our "Talk-ism." Many of the high holders of institutional authority in the CGGC talk righteousness and obedience and love and justice and mercy, and they talk it poignantly and powerfully, but they don't walk their talk.

In our early Church of God days, we once had genuine unity, to the degree humans can have unity in this life, because we had faith in the Scriptures and we submitted ourselves to lordship of Jesus and to the authority of His Word, and we submitted to one another out of reverence for Christ...to the point that we did what we believe.

Back in the day, we were unified in deed, not only word.

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Finally, some questions. What does the reality that our churches no longer have faith in the Scriptures say about:

- our pastors, and
- our holders of institutional authority?
- our way of educating, mentoring, discipling our people?

The people of our churches were, at one time, burning with white-hot fire for the Word, and for Jesus.

The people of our churches got from where they once were to where they are now somehow.

It seems reasonable to me to suspect that our churches no longer have faith in the Scriptures and they no longer act in the way the Scriptures tell us to act from the top down: Our pastors and the people in authority in our Conferences and our educational institutions no longer have faith in the Scriptures.

Truly, how can there be any other reason?

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One other note. In chatting this through, it was suggested that most of you probably think that you do have faith in the Scriptures and that you are doing what they say...and, you also think that it's the others in the body who are the problem.

From my 40,000 foot view. You're probably wrong.

In the CGGC, many see the problem. Few think that they are the problem.

Be honest about your contribution to the problem.

"A lot of our churches no longer have faith in the Scriptures."

We must repent. Can I hear an, "Amen!" Can we see change?