2. God is missing in the church.
People go to church looking for God but are having difficulty finding him.
This one hurts, but in an age where perception is reality, you can’t ignore this criticism.
The paucity of personal experience with God is disturbing. It would be easy to point at rock-show churches and blame them (I lead one, after all), but the truth is that people in all kinds of experiences from liturgical to charismatic have left the church in search of God.
Although some would disagree with me here, I’m not sure leaving the church for an individualized, personal or even home-based experience of church helps people any better.
Although our consumer culture certainly applauds individually tailored experiences, what if the real paucity is that we have even lost a sense of what true maturity and the experience of God is?
So, how do we address this?
Seeking a new definition of spiritual maturity (also blogged about that here) is a great place to start. Andy Stanley also outlines the five ways people grow spiritual. I taught through the same 5 principles recently here.
A clearer understanding of Christian maturity and experience could go a long way in better helping people connect with God.
