Why the Church Needs to Stop Trying to Be Trendy and Hip: Raw Insights from a Young Widow

Why the Church doesn't need any more come as you are, causal everything, "lights, fog machines, couches on the platform" worship services.

Young widow, Kimberli Lira, explains how her husband's death has made her view church initiatives in a new way.  My social media feeds are full of churches boasting about the trendy new initiatives they have begun. I see pictures of Starbucks style coffee bars. I hear about lighting sequences that resemble a Broadway show. I read catchy sermon titles that incorporate movies and popular culture.

On 14th February 2017, my life changed. My husband passed away after a two year battle with cancer.

To say he battled cancer is an understatement. Over the first year he was hospitalized 18 times, for two weeks out of every month. He was rushed to the emergency room eight times and spent hundreds of days separated from our two children. Eventually the chemo, the treatment designed to get rid of the cancer, caused paralysis. For the last four months of his life he was paralyzed and confined to a bed.

But throughout the cycles of chemo, throughout the separation from his children night after night, throughout listening to doctors telling him bad news after bad news, he never once said how much he appreciated the coffee bar at church.

Not once did he say that he loved the lighting in the sanctuary.

He never told me how cool it was that they put a couch on the platform.

He didn’t boast about the use of graphics and props.

Is Your Church Christian or Christianish?

Each month I try and post some of the best articles and/or thought-provoking articles that I come across.  The following article by Christian blogger Tim Challies helps one consider whether or not your local church is Christian or Christianish?  The following piece helps one discern whether or not they are serving, worshiping, and attending the right kind of local church ministry (Eph. 4:11-16; Col. 1:28-29).

"Three little letters make a world of difference. Together i, s, and h distinguish Christian from Christianish and mark the difference between right and wrong, life and death, heaven and hell. There is nothing better for your spiritual wellbeing than to be in a Christian church. There is nothing worse for your spiritual wellbeing than to be in a Christianish church. Here are a few marks of each.

A Christian church teaches the Bible. It is committed to the inerrancy, sufficiency, clarity, and authority of the Word of God and therefore preaches it week by week with confidence and consistency. A Christianish church teaches about the Bible. It is committed to imparting life lessons and uses the scriptures as a starting point to teach people how to live lives of success and fulfillment.

A Christian church admits the deep depravity of human beings. It acknowledges that we are all deeply disordered so that not one of us has even the least righteousness to plead before God. A Christianish church proclaims the inherent goodness of humanity. It acknowledges that we aren’t what we could and should be, but encourages us to believe that with enough effort we can get there.

A Christian church makes its core declaration the finished work of Christ. The good news of grace frees us from the impossible task of earning our own salvation and instead simply receives what Christ has already accomplished. A Christianish church has its core declaration the unfinished work of humanity. The bad news of works becomes the brutal and impossible path to impressing God with deeds that will catch his eye and win his favor.

What Is a HEALTHY Church (and what it's not)?

 “A healthy church is not a church that’s perfect and without sin. It’s a church that continually seeks to conform itself to God’s Word.”  

Mark Dever