Jack’s Buzz

If you missed the big news, find it here: Religion News: Religious News and Headlines – USATODAY.com

Stop wringing your hands. This bit about people jumping around churches is actually good news. Here’s why:

1. Biblical churches will thrive. The statistics indicate dissatisfaction among people looking for God. Bible-teaching churches have traditionally thrived during times of religious dissatisfaction. Think Reformation, Great Awakening or Jesus Movement.

2. More people will find God. The statistics and comments indicate that people are actually looking for God. People do not seem to be abandoning their search for God, and that is good, but even better is that God promises that seekers will be finders (Jer. 29:13, Matt. 7:7).

3. Clears out the weeds. Churches that need to change will either do so or die faster. The statistics should scare disobedient, stagnant churches. They will die faster if they insist on maintaining bad attitudes while people are looking around for something that makes sense.

Remember my brothers and sisters: competition is your friend! Ultimately, this means more people will find God. That is very good.

Evidently, starting the Family of Grace church in Central Louisiana, averted at least one suicide. Read the article here.

Saying that new churches save lives may seem a bit of a stretch to you, but not to me. Cottonwood Church–the church I helped start in Albuquerque 10 years ago–helped at least five people avoid suicide (and those are just the ones I know about).

Glen  found me early one Sunday morning because he heard about our new church. It was so early that I was about the only one around. Glen told me he was addicted to meth and if God could not help him, he was going to kill himself. I wanted to ask him about heaven and hell and Jesus, and lead him through God’s plan of salvation, but I felt a stronger pull to pray for healing. I had some strange sense that God wanted to free him from his addiction right there in front of Cibola High School.

So I put the little “Steps to Peace with God” pamphlet back in my pocket and asked Glen, “Do you want to get well today?” Please understand, I do think of myself as a prophet or a faith healer. Truth is, I was kind of desperate. This guy had the look of a man who thought of hell as a vacation. I had nothing to go on except faith that Jesus likes to heal people today as much as He did in the days when the Bible was written. Anyway, I prayed for Glen–something out loud like, “Jesus you are the Great Physician. Cast out demons in Jesus’ name. Please take away Glen’s craving for drugs…”–I don’t really remember what I prayed out loud. But I remember what I prayed in-loud, “Jesus, this guy is going to kill himself, and it would really be great if you could fix that right now. Please show your power.”

Glen said, “Amen,” and told me that he felt better. He said he had no desire for drugs at that moment and that he could not remember the last time he had not “craved the dope.”

I felt pretty good and decided to go for two. After I explained salvation to him, Glen prayed to know Christ as his Savior. He accepted that Christ had healed him from the dope. So it was pretty easy to get him to accept that Christ could get him into heaven, get him a job, clean up his life, get him out of debt, keep the drug dealers off his back–Glen had a lot of problems. Jesus took care of every one of them.

About a year after that, another guy–we’ll call him Larry–came to see me. He told me that he had questions about God. I helped him know Jesus, and he told me that the day he attended our church he sat in the parking lot planning to either find God (and some hope), or, you guessed it, kill himself.

Same song, different stanza for Susan, Anita and Sally. Christ healed Susan from sexual addiction, Anita from gambling addiction, Sally from demonic torment, Larry from hopelessness, and Glen from drug addiction.

Here’s the punch line. Every one of those people told me personally that they would never have come to any church but a new church. They figured that they had too much junk in their lives. It does not matter that any of the fifteen churches they passed every day could have helped them. It matters that they thought only a new church could help them.

This is important. Christians need to get this right. Church people need to get over their pride and stupid excuses and start new churches.

The people we’re talking about think a new church means a new start–a new start for them. Not my words; their words. New churches save lives of people that older churches cannot reach. None of those people would come to Cottonwood today–it’s too old. There has to be a new Cottonwood, a new Family of Grace, a new Saddleback, Willow Creek, Journey, Mosaic, Calvary, St. Matthew’s, First Church.

New churches save lives. That’s why we keep starting them. Now send us a check (NAMB Annie Armstrong Offering, 4200 Northpoint Pkwy, Alpharetta, GA 30022).  ;^)