A Warning to the Lukewarm

 

A Warning to the Lukewarm

by Chip Brogden

We have a lot of people on our mailing list who come to The School of Christ, and who visit our website, and benefit from the teaching; and they attend church on a regular basis – even though they know exactly where we stand on the subject of Organized Religion. Our heart’s desire is to see God’s people delivered from anything that keeps them in bondage, anything that hinders them from spiritual maturity, and anything that distracts them from the simplicity of Christ. I’ve said this before, and I’ll be very clear in saying it again: that in my opinion, Organized Religion is the greatest hindrance to a real relationship with Jesus that I know of. There are many reasons why I believe this. And there are many people who agree with me. And there are just as many people who disagree with me; and they continue to go to church and support that religious system, and they believe they are doing what God would have them to do.

Let me emphasize: our heart is for God’s people, wherever they are – both inside the religious system and outside the religious system. In fact, part of our three-fold mission is “to provide for the spiritual growth and maturity of all believers.” Assuming “all believers” means real, true followers of Jesus (not hypocrites and counterfeits, but genuine believers in the Biblical sense of the word), then The School of Christ is here for God’s people, both inside the Institutional Church, and outside the Institutional Church.

Now, since I believe that “Church” is the greatest hindrance to spiritual growth and maturity, naturally I’m going to encourage God’s people to think seriously about where they go, and what they support, and why; and I’m going to challenge this religious system that we have created. If I didn’t speak out against it, and challenge it, and question it (while all the while I believed it was hurting more people than it helped) then I wouldn’t be honest. The reason we speak these things is because of our love and concern for God’s people. And it’s that love and concern that motivates us to speak out against abusive leadership, and abusive groups, and abusive pastors and prophets, and the entire religious system that keeps God’s people in a kind of spiritual ghetto – keeping them down, holding them back, or worse, lulling them into a false sense of security and fellowship that is based on something other than the Lord Jesus Christ...

Click to read more:
http://theschoolofchrist.org/articles/a-warning-to-the-lukewarm.html