What is most modern day local churches lacking and why?

Oh brother.
We are laking unity, passion, cherity, vision to see what is wrong. Our salt pretty much has lost its value. The solution is REVIVAL.

Purity and Prayer.

I work for a group of ministries with 1,400 employed full time... and our weekly prayer meeting consists of around 20 people.

The answer to your question is that there are many things lacking in today's church. Today's church is the church of Laodicea. Reading in Revelation 3:14-22

[color=CC0000]"And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.
"So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
"Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'--and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked--
"I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
"To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'"[/color]

We see here that this church is lukewarm. This could also be categorized as a lack of passion. The reason for this follows; They are rich and have need of nothing (at least in their own eyes).

What is lacking is the bold and emphatic teaching of several key scriptures.

First:

[color=000099]1Jo 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. [/color]

Second:

Mat 16:24-26 (see also Matt 10:38, Mark 8:34, Mark 10:21, and Luke 9:23) [color=000099]Then Jesus said to His disciples,[/color][color=990000]"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? [/color]

Third, as a group:

[color=000099]2 Corinthians 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the [b]fear of God.[/b]

Ephesians 5:21 submitting to one another in the [b]fear of God.[/b]

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and [b]godly fear.[/b]

1Pe 2:17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. [b]Fear God.[/b] Honor the king.

Rev 14:6-7 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth--to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people--
saying with a loud voice, [b]"Fear God[/b] and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water."[/color]

Fourth:

Too many scriptures to list. The concept of repentance is also lacking in the majority of preaching today.

Fifth:

Jhn 17:3 [color=990000]"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.[/color]

This is one that many people don't think about. Jesus defining eternal life as a relationship with Himself and the Father. When I first prayed the formula salvation prayer, the impression I got was that Christianity boiled down to "getting saved" and then doing my best to live a moral life till I died and went to heaven!

Basically, if it requires sacrifice or confronts our selfish lifestyles, you won't find it in the church. How many times have you heard a preacher dare to tell his congregation that their TV is an idol? He won't because he spends as much time watching it as they do.

Oh, how we need to pray for revival [i]and[/i] reformation!

In His Love,

Doug

my first thought is prayer. true, humble, passionate, holy prayer. when we have forsaken talking to God on a regular basis, suddenly the world and its desires become very pleasing. when we forsake prayer, we become dead orthodoxy; good doctrine, but dead inside. when we forsake prayer, we will begin to indulge ourselves with the flesh and the things of the flesh. that is what the Lord has been speaking to me personally.

the modern church lacks the unction or annointing of God manifesting himself in an awesome way and that will only happen as God's people humble themselves and pray. it is only the Spirit that can make dead bones live and only by His Spirit will God do it. "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord"

What are they lacking and what is the process for change to correct it?

I believe it's not about lacking of something, I believe it's wrong foundation in many cases.
It is needed the old foundation to be destroyed and new foundation to build up , that is Jesus Christ and [i]He[/i] in the center, not men's plans and ideas about Him, where the man is on the throne and Jesus is the servant of our selfish needs.

Fear of God. I think that pretty much sums up everything.

I agree. Plus I would say it is idoltry: displacing the Word of God with their own opinion when it conflicts with their wishes.

ginnyrose

Jesus

i've posted this before, but in the assembly God has me assigned to the motto is "The Church where the Spirit of the Lord Dwells", and in the Sunday Bulletin it always says "This is the order of service unless Holy Spirit deems otherwise" ... Trouble is He never seems to deem otherwise ...

i think what's lacking, or might i say Who's lacking in most modern churches today is Holy Spirit Himself, which inturn means that His fruit, a holy spirit, is lacking in us ... It's not that He's not there, or even that He's not within us as saints, but His preeminence over our own individual, and collective congregational soulish behaviour, seems to have been replaced by the very things Paul warned us of in the following scripture namely "enticing words of man's wisdom" ...

1Cor.2
[1] And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
[2] For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
[3] And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
[4] And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
[5] That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
[6] Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
[7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
[8] Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
[9] But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
[10] But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
[11] For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
[12] Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
[13] Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

i think we've lost sight of who we are, and what we're supposed to be about ... i think it also interesting that Paul said, "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified", whereas today we got so many articles, books, tapes, CD's, DVD's, etc. on so many so called spiritual formulas, secrets, entertainment gimmicks, and corporate based trickery, it's not only spiritually disatrous, but exhaustion causing to boot ...

One good thing that i'm begining to see tho, especially regarding that hellified most enticing words of man's wisdom - the way to long lived prosperity gospel, is that as our economy shows more strain under our mounting debt, those "enticing words of man's wisdom" in this arena are starting to crack and crumble (reminds me greatly of what God said He'd do to false wall bulders) ... As one young man said to me, "If i hear Bishop say one more time if we do such and such (pertaining to $ of course) God's gonna do this - i think i'll just scream"! ... He's not the only one feeling this way in the fellowship, he's just one that outwardly verbal about it ...

i believe it only a short matter of time before we're brought back to Holy Spirit's rightful preemminence in our lives, and churches, via "preaching" not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in "demonstration of the Spirit and of Power", back to our proper first love and works that we're supposed to have as representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ ! ...

Todays church is lacking the pure gospel, because church has become a business, more concerned with numbers, and the bottom line.
Should not be a surprise to the faithful, as scripture warns that this would happen.

Blessings Greg :-o

Brother,

So why does the church need the Holy Spirit when you have so many CDs, DVDs, self-help books that promise to fix what ails you in your life? Man, you can get a good life: all you have to do is throw money at this and that preacher and buy their lit!:-P

ginnyrose

I certainly don’t feel able to provide an answer for this question, but as I read each post in this thread I found myself agreeing. It is all those things. But here is a verse that sums it up for me:

Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him
Job 36:26a

Danielle

I was thinking about this statement of Dr.Tozer:

“If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

I found this statement very close to the reality, isn't that frightening? (Have in mind it is said probably 50 years ago, how much more it would be true today)

I think there are two major things that most churches are lacking these days, aside from the true gospel that isn't watered down.

1. People who love God.
2. People who aren't running from suffering and looking for the world's definition of success and happiness.

Of course, my only experience has been within the American church. Love, Dian.

What's really frightening is the denomination that he (A W Tozer was a part of is a sleeping giant now.

(Edit) My prayers.

MC

The list would be endless if we were to attempt to construct any kind of exhaustive one. I think Rahman hit the heart of the matter. Even we christians who truly love the Lord and are living for His glory the best we know how are lacking most of what the church in Acts had. We've lived in this illusion that this is the christian life, but I would suggest that there's a level of christianity of which we know virtually nothing. And the only way we'll get there is by seeking God to make us all that we could and should be in Christ for God. Seeking until He does that work in us in reality.

The answer I think is best summed up by LiveforGod's post. Revival. God pouring His Spirit out upon us to make us what we ought to be and when He does that He promised that He would convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. To be brutally honest with ourselves in comparing ourselves to the model God has provided of what His church should be, namely the book of Acts, we'd have to say that even we, though it's hard to own up to the fact, have a form of Godliness but deny the power thereof. I think the devil laughs the hardest at us who are perhaps the most sincere of believers and have the most fervent love for the Lord and are wholy given up to His will but are completely void of the power of God in our lives as demonstrated and defined in the Holy Scriptures.

If you look to nations that are not in the Western world, i.e-China, Africa, the Fiji Islands...most of them are currently experiencing real outpourings of the Holy Spirit, and their churches are growing exponentially, in genuine revival. Why? According to George Otis Jr. (Sentinel ministries) they have all come to a place where they KNOW they need GOD-and in great humility and deseration they cry out to God in all night prayer meetings, walking for miles to pray corporately, sometimes out in the bush, or hidden places-to REPENT and cry out to the Father for things to change in their city or nation.

How many here in this nation do things like that? When that starts happening, then and only then will I actually believe we are anywhere close to a genuine move of God.

Rhonda Hughey of Fusion ministries is experiencing that somewhat in Nebraska as area churches are coming together to repent of known sin and to WAIT on God. And they are currently experiencing the beginnings of revival. Check it out for yourself. This and only this is the right message for the hour we live in-ALL else is folly! The church grieves me over and over and over and over. God help us!!!!!!!!

Barb

what id say our churches are lacking is humility. true holiness stems from a life governed by humilty. the humility of Christ is lacking in christianity today.

I replied earlier, but I would say yes to all of the above.

Mostly, though, its the fact that we don't think we're missing anything. If we did, we would be looking for it now wouldn't we?

It's called 'deception', and the Western church lives in it. We are indeed the church of Laodicea-we perceive things one way, but the Lord Jesus see it quite differently, and unless we repent of our lukewarmness, materialism and self reliance, He will spit us out of His mouth. Does that concern anyone? And what are we (I) doing about it? For real, not just talking and analyzing, but what are we DOING about it?

But we don't think we're that bad off, we're mostly pretty good, right?