IS THE CHURCH READY FOR CHANGE?

 

            These recommendations came from many years of involvement in and observation of the church and its current manner of operating. They were written long before the starling and most disturbing revelations of child abuse by members of the clergy. That is a whole other issue. The recommendations made here are firmly believed to have great relevance for today’s church.

            Church members, lay people and the church hierarchy, need to endeavor to bring about positive change that will restore the church to it’s former rich and glorious past. Let change begin.

 

Recommended Changes In Church

 

1.      Preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ from the pulpit, in the schools, in homes, in parish halls, in public places. Preach not only on Sundays, but weekdays, evenings, and weekends. The reaching of the gospel should not merely be limited to Sunday.

2.      Put much greater emphasis on building biblically Christian communities, establishing cells, chapters, and entire communities; caring, loving, close-knit, spirit filled, biblically grounded, along with active involvement in ministries (establishing with the highest priority true worship of the Lord and a community of believers).

3.      Each member be provided, or provide themselves with an excellent bible. A short concordance is also recommended.

4.      Each member develops, with the aide of Church leaders, a ministry that meets weekly or daily. The ultimate goal of this ministry would be to minister to someone or some group. Each member needs to be engaged in some sort of Christian service.

5.      Establish cells, small groups of believers, numbering about twelve to twenty. Cell groups would meet at least weekly in the home of cell member for fellowship, communal prayer, scripture reading, scriptural study, planning Christian service, and to support one another. A group of cells would compromise a chapter , a larger body of believers who would meet periodically. Finally, all chapter would compromise the full assembly of believers of that specific congregation.

6.      Church leaders teach, preach, and make sure all members of the community confirm all new testament truths relating to Jesus; His birth, His nature, His message, His mission, His suffering and death, and his physical resurrection. Also, make sure the church members confirm to spiritual realities of angels, heaven, hell, the call to loving service, the call to holiness. And the call to sacrificial service of one another.

7.      Church leaders give great emphasis on sayings of Jesus, especially Parables, references to Old Testament, and fulfilling Messianic prophecies. So many times from the pulpit we hear so many things not related to Christ’s saying , and so few time his teaching. Confirm, elaborate on, and insist upon a complete understanding of the doctrine, the reality, and the necessity of being born again spiritually in the Lord, becoming a new creature in Christ.

8.      Church leaders confirm and explain fully the concept of the reality of “in Christ”, i.e. living daily in the spiritual reality of Christ dwelling in us.

9.      Church leaders confirm his necessity of true repentance for salvation.

10.  Church leaders reaffirm the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and all that it entails.

11.  Church leaders reaffirm the doctrine of the brotherhood of all men; the importance of seeing Christ in our brother and sisters.

12.  Establish regular scripture reading and scripture study in every Christian home on a daily basis, or at least, on a weekly basis.

13.  Reaffirm the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ as the head of the church, every congregation, every chapter, every cell, and every family.

14.  Change the phrase so commonly used “saying mass” to praying mass. Many changes are needed in current mass to make it more efficacious, more directed towards God.

15.  Mass should be preceded by pre-worship fellowship, then praise and worship; in thoughtful, prayerful ways with active, sincere participation of this phase of the mass. This should be followed by biblically based preaching, the liturgy of the word, and then consecration. After mass, efforts should be made to fellowship again, allowing for more interaction of church members. They may talk about the Lord and his impact on their lives.

16.  Encourage/insist in every Christian have spiritual director, usually a cell leader but not necessarily. The director should be one that can discuss their spiritual progress with and other spiritual matters as they relate to an active and deepening spiritual life. This progress should not be reserved for the leaders but should also be extended to all believers.

17.  Encourage/insist upon community members to individually and jointly engage in projects to feed the hungry, provide clothing to the poor, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, welcome strangers; ultimately proving leadership opportunities so that these services are rendered on a continuous basis.

18.  Allow lay people, encourage lay people to handle the finances of the local church. Free spiritual leaders to lead, preach, and reconcile the membership to God and one another.

19.  Allow lay people to handle supervision of all the maintenance of the church buildings, properties, etc.

20.  Encourage spiritual leaders of the church to engage their primary efforts on ministering spiritually to their congregations, pastoral care, and pastoral counseling. Each Shepherd should have contact with each parishioner on a regular basis to enable an in-depth personal relationship to be developed.

21.  Venerate Mary, the mother of Christ, without allowing her to be put in some idolatrous status somewhere below God and above man. Give her the extremely important place she has in the plan of redemption of God. Put her in the true loving, historical setting of Christ’s first disciple, a very human woman who surrendered to god’s plan so magnificently. Do away with the numerous statues of Mary and replace them with the devotion and reverence for the mother of Christ.

22.  Abolish mandatory celibacy-make it optional; allow individual church members and leaders make that choice rather than forcing it upon them as an absolute requirement for any kind of leadership role in the catholic Church.

23.  Abolish the practice of selling items in the church or in front of the church for any reason. Churchgoers should not be solicited for anything on the way into or out of the church, no matter how lofty or noble the cause. Arrange a different place, use a different method to raise funds, sell products, or solicit volunteers.

24.  Abolish the practice of taking money for masses. Revise the infant baptism ceremony. Initiate a dedication of infants to the lord, and make it a more spiritual approach. Have baptism in water at a later time. Have the reality of being born again in Christ re-enforced at confirmation.

25.  Abolish the necessity, tradition of special garb, attire for the clergy or any member of the mass. Avoid the caste system mentality. Have much more participation on the part of the parishioners in the mass. When parishioners are too passive, the mass becomes a one-man show.

26.  Abolish the practice, tradition or constantly paying homage to people, special events, sporting activities, national traditions, the pagan Christmas tradition, etc. Too much emphasis, honor, and attention is paid to these events and activities. Rather, this attention, honor, and homage should be directed towards our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Design and plan activities to honor him. This would be more pleasing to God and more spiritual. Let’s not make idols of these things.

27.  Replace BINGO as a source of the church revenue with other kinds of fund raising ventures. BINGO is a gambling and should not be sponsored by the church.

28.  Repudiate the idea and practice of only ordained, fully trained and approved ministers being able to speak about the Lord or scriptural matters. It is often asked, what does the father say about this? Catholics seem to follow exactly whatever the priest says, approves, or disapproves. Church members remain spiritual infants.

29.  Repudiate the idea and practice that lay people can only raise funds for the church, paint church buildings, and cut the church lawn.

30.  Repudiate the idea and practice to the specific roles of each group.

31.  Repudiate the idea that there needs to be conflict between these two groups; conflicts regarding authority, roles, decision making, policy making. There is the necessity and desirability to reduce, minimize differences; and to increase, maximize commonalities.

32.  Abolish the practice of using an answering service at the rectory. This is entirely too impersonal. The church is seen as a business, not a community of caring people. Some Priests don’t want others involved, or people refuse to help. Can’t we find a few, able parishioners to be trained and help a few hours a week?

33.  Modify the mass-less structure, less mechanical, less ritualistic.

34.  At mass, preaching should be biblically based, and the preacher should preach directly from the bible, actively using one and referring to one throughout his preaching. It is done by catholic priests, but extremely rare.

35.  Provide opportunities for Christian witnessing at mass.

36.   Have a healing service after the mass.

37.  After mass, provide conditions for extended fellowship.

38.  Abolish the practice of using the worship service of the Lord to give undue and excessive homage to visiting dignities, high church officials, anniversaries of parishes, even to politicians. All of these testimonials to persons or events take the Christian communities’ attention away from the Lord. The Lord is to be honored, lifted up, worshipped, and adores. Often this is far from happening in too many churches. Persons are honored, and God is not!

39.  Abolish the practice of masses for the dead. Discourage the idea that praying for the dead can spiritually help the dead. Encourage prayer for the living (saved and unsaved).

40.    Abolish the idea or repudiate the idea that there is a long waiting period after death, before the believer comes into the presence of the Lord in heaven. The idea that the soul rest or the soul sleeps for a long time is not scriptural. The soul does not sleep, even in a living man. When we dream, our souls are active, and our body sleeps. This soul is joined with the Lord after death, and there are many scriptural accounts to verify this. Upon death the believer comes into the presence of the Lord.