Have You Noticed Societies Profoundly Negative Impact On The Church?

You know, I’ve talked a lot about “church” over the years.

Church isn’t a building, church is simply a gathering of Christians. They might be gathered together in a park, in someone’s living room, or even right here on this website. Now let me tell you what unites Christians and brings us together, let me tell you what forms the “church.”

It is our unity under Jesus Christ.

That’s right, we are supposed to be united under Jesus.

Hey, that doesn’t mean we agree with each other all the time.

That’s an impossible task!

Let me tell you what it does mean…

It means,

• We study together.
• We learn together.
• We build together.
• We fellowship together.

We don’t do it in isolation.

Unfortunately, today, our society functions in isolation, and this really has a negative impact on our lives and the church as a whole. Yet, as Christians, Scripture instructs us to leave the world behind, and seek God first. However, that’s pretty difficult to do that when the world surrounds us everyday.

That’s why you have to break the mold the world has created for you. That’s why you have to rebuff much of what the world offers you. I’m talking about the “apps,” movies, and TV shows that constantly condition your mind to the ways of the world.

The world tells you what to watch, and what to buy to make yourself feel good.

That’s all hedonism, and none of it is rooted in Jesus.

Now, you may not think it’s happening to you and your family, but it is, if you tune in.

Case in point…

Just yesterday, we watched the Super Bowl.

We tuned in…

Now, we next to never watch TV. We might turn on an old flick once in a while — The Rifleman and The Twilight Zone — but we don’t watch television. Well, we were shocked by the commercials. None of them made sense! They were a mix of randomness and senselessness.

Actually, I thought about my Dad. He would say, “That’s someone’s acid trip.”

Gotta love Dad.

But you know what?

Those commercials were not designed for me and my family, we tune out the world.

That’s why they didn’t make sense to us.

They were designed for the people who tune into the world. For those people, for that demographic, those commercials were fun and exciting and made perfect sense to them. It was sort of sad to watch, how dumbed down society has become.

We’re spoon fed what we should focus on, and what we should purchase with our hard earned money.

So where am I going with all this?

Back to the church…

All of this has had a detrimental impact on our frame of mind.

In Switzerland, they’ve tuned God out.

Here at home, we tune each other out when we’re at church.

What am I talking about?

I found this article that talked about a family who has felt disconnect at their home church. It’s become an issue since Covid mind you. That’s when the world really changed, it’s when everyone distanced themselves from one another and that really hasn’t changed a whole lot.

Check out this quote…

“I saw this at the church where we were on staff and I see it at other larger churches where you literally can walk in, walk past everybody, and there’s the good, ‘Hey welcome home, good morning.’ There’s a lot of that,” Norm explained.

“And it’s kind and it’s nice and the intentions are good but you literally can go to your seat, not get to talk to anybody, go through the very professional, very well-buttoned-up service, both worship and message, and then there’s a prayer and you walk out and file out and they say, ‘Thanks for coming’ and you really haven’t talked to anybody and you just go straight home and that’s it.”

The gist is, there’s no real unity in Jesus Christ.

We’re just showing up for service for the sake of showing up for service.

I don’t know anything about the church in this example and I don’t think it’s the churches issue from the quote I provided. Instead, it’s a problem with us, “the church.” We’ve allowed too much of the world into our mind. We have allowed the world to take over our frame of thought.

So much so, that we unknowingly alienate ourselves from our church family.

I wonder how many people still don’t get my point…

Let me spell it out.

We are ignoring each other these days my friends.

It’s not just a church problem, it’s a society problem.

It’s those blasted phones and social media which has us constantly tuning into someone or something that’s not spiritually uplifting. Instead, we’re focused on the ways of the world and this has impacted the church. We can’t even go to the House of God and have real conversation with each other.

Sure, we get the hi’s and goodbyes, but if we go there and walk out feeling no unity with others. People will continue to flee the churches. They’ll go to another one hoping the grass is greener, but it won’t be.

Why?

Societies impact on the church, it’s massive and it’s grave.

I’m telling you, in this instance, it’s not a church problem. I even see it when I go out into the world, even at the gym. Rarely does anyone talk to each other anymore. In-between sets, most people have their face buried in their phones or they’re zoned out with their “air pods.”

There’s no time to say hi to someone else, we cannot be bothered.

My friends, society is crumbling.

We used to chat with one another. That’s how we made real friends and social networks. Not the mess we have today. But this deviation from our historical roots, since man’s creation is truly altering our world and not for the better.

This is affecting the church.

It’s affecting Christians.

The more we allow the world into our mind, the more distanced we will become from Jesus. It’s happening every day all around you, perhaps even to you on a small level.

Folks, we have to start applying Scripture to our lives a bit more.

Tune the world out more and more each day. Instead, keep Christ front and center and those things that spiritually uplift. This helps us to spiritually uplift ourselves and those around us. People actually need this now more than ever before, even if you can’t tell as their eyes are glued to their phones and the socials.

People want to belong.

But we don’t want to belong to the world, we want to belong to Christ.

We need to be the change in the world. We need to lead by example.

Don’t let the world impact you, you impact the world.

So the next time you pass by someone, don’t look down or away, look them in the eye and say “hi” or “have a good day” and show that Christian smile. The next time you walk into a church building, don’t just say “hi” to your brother or sister. Talk to them, get to know them, make them feel welcome and build up!

Lead by example, and help bring more people to Christ, help them become rooted and keep them away from this confused, lost, and mixed up world.

You can do it!