Human Trafficking in the Church — Part 24
Recognizing the Six Characteristics of the Religious Spirit of Babylon
They said, “Come, let us build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top will reach into the heavens, and let us make a [famous] name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered [into separate groups] and be dispersed over the surface of the entire earth [as the Lord instructed].”—Genesis 11:4 (AMP)
6. Not Being Scattered (continued)
The first action that began the downward spiral for the people of Genesis 11 was settling in the land of Babylon. They stopped moving forward with God and chose instead to turn their focus inward upon themselves.
As I described in The Scattering of Babel and Why Your Church Needs It!, you may notice this happening in your church if it begins to “settle” into a life that revolves around church programs. Outreach emphasis and efforts may dwindle as people lose interest. There may be occasional mission trips, but they may become few and far between, and even then, they may be treated more as a fun experience for the participants, rather than a committed effort to selflessly reach out to a people group in desperate need of Jesus.
As church programs begin to grow and multiply, and volunteers are recruited to serve, church announcements may focus almost entirely on events that offer opportunities for church members to “get fed” and “be blessed.” In this insulated environment, church members are no longer distracted by “looking on the fields that are white already for harvest.” Involvement in church programs has successfully drowned out the voices of those outside who are desperate, hopeless, and dying without Jesus.
There may be an almost exclusive emphasis on church facilities and programs. New staff members are added. Volunteer recruitment efforts are almost constant. There is talk of remodeling the buildings and facilities. Funding campaigns may be started to acquire even greater, more massive buildings to house the ever-growing programs.
And yet, at the same time, you may notice less and less of an emphasis on outreach and missions. Training and preparation programs for outreach and missions may dwindle and cease due to lack of interest. Missions work may be reduced to simply sending money to a few established missionaries. The position of church Outreach Leader may become vacant as attention is focused inward on building the church itself and its programs.
Outreach has, for all practical purposes, been abandoned now in the life of this church. The focus of their efforts instead has turned almost totally inward as they concentrate their efforts on building a towering dwelling place of God’s presence that has a reputation for touching Heaven—just like the people of Babel wanted to do.
Why Jesus Cursed the Fig Tree
“And as He saw one single leafy fig tree above the roadside, He went to it but He found nothing but leaves on it [seeing that in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. And He said to it, Never again shall fruit grow on you! And the fig tree withered up at once.”—Matthew 21:19 (AMP)
When Jesus came to evaluate this plant, He found only leaves. He found no fruit. When He found only leaves, He pronounced judgment on the plant and then moved on, away from it. To understand why He reacted this way, we have to understand the purposes of leaves and fruit.
Leaves provide a way for the plant to feed *itself, *through photosynthesis.
Fruit is grown to feed others.
Whenever Jesus evaluates a church plant, if He finds it completely focused inward, feeding itself, but neglecting to produce fruit to feed others, He cannot entrust that church with His highest calling in this time of great harvest. He has no choice but to move on to find another church that is reaching out to meet the needs of others. The first church may wither from the roots and seem as if it is dead.
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”—2 Chronicles 16:9 (NKJV)
You may be thinking, “But I thought the gifts and callings of God were without repentance!”
Yes, they are, but many are called. Only a few are chosen (Matthew 22:14). Of the many churches that are being called in this hour to become apostolic training and resource centers in preparation for the great harvest, most will not be chosen, but instead will simply become dwelling places, hosting the presence of God, but given no higher responsibility for participation in the great end-time harvest.
When a Church Rejects Its Calling
I watched this take place in a church that I once attended. The church had begun with a vision for reaching out beyond its walls and planting other churches that would reach out to other communities. This church had so much promise! There had been several encouraging dreams and prophetic words that gave glimpses into the tremendous potential of this church!
The young leaders had hearts for outreach and evangelism. Outreach events would often be scheduled on weekends. The pastor and other leaders would often take leading roles in organizing and directing these outreach events. These were not just fringe activities. The entire church was encouraged to be involved.
In 2011, this young church received a definite prophetic call to become an apostolic training and resource center that would equip and send people out into God’s great end-time harvest. Weeks of teaching helped to define the call and give vision to the church members.
But strangely, after the weeks of teaching were completed, there seemed to be no follow-up. Church leaders seemed to view the weeks of teaching as a one-time training event, and moved on from that to other interests.
I believe that this decision by church leadership not to follow up on the outreach-centered teaching sealed the fate of this church. They had been offered a great role that could impact the lives of countless people in the great end-time harvest, but they had chosen to follow a different path. It took several months for the decline of this church to become evident, but I believe that it can be traced back to this rejection of their great calling.
The church seemed to be a vibrant, growing church. It was almost too successful. Big-name ministers were featured in special meetings and conferences. As the church attracted more and more people, the main meeting room was regularly packed with people on Sunday mornings. We often had to find creative ways of adding more chairs to accommodate the growing crowds. At this pace, the church would outgrow its building very quickly!
But gradually the focus shifted. Instead of reaching out to meet the needs of people and share the good news of Jesus Christ with people outside of the church, outreach events now seemed to be focused more on inviting people to come to church. Instead of ministering to the needs of people where they were, the emphasis seemed to be on recruiting new church members and building up the church and its programs.
About two years after the prophetic call went out, inviting the church to become an apostolic equipping center, the pastor announced instead that God had told him that the church was a dwelling place for God. The pastor declared that this church would be a resting place for God and His presence. The pastor announced this as if it was a great honor, but it shook me to my core because I knew that it meant that this church had not been chosen for the higher calling of becoming an apostolic training and resource center.
This church had been called, but it had not been chosen.
It seemed that the pastor was saying that the decision had been made to plant ourselves where we were, discontinue efforts to reach out beyond the walls of the church, and focus instead on building. Symbolically, it sounded just like the people of Babel making a decision to stop their progress and focus on building a tower to reach Heaven.
The outreach leader left the church to pursue other opportunities. That was not necessarily a bad sign, but it became much more concerning when the church never filled that vacant position. Outreach was seemingly no longer important in the life of this church.
New leaders came in with new visions for turning this small, successful church into a chain of many large, influential churches. The focus was on building the organization and its name. Marketing and branding experts were consulted. A new vision was presented to the church membership in a slick, high-quality brochure and presentation.
At the same time, prophetic words for the church, which were common when the church was younger, seemed to become rare. Eventually, the church leadership seemed to be closed to receiving prophetic words from members.
After a few months the most senior elder left the church. This was shocking to me because this highly respected man of God had been the most enthusiastic supporter of the church leadership since the church began. He had always expressed confidence that God was going to do great things through this church … and now he had left. This seemed like a very ominous sign for this church.
He was not the only one. Several families had left the church.
Not long after this, the pastor changed the physical layout of the main meeting room. He was inspired to put the pulpit and the worship team in the center of the room and to arrange all of the seats in concentric circles facing inward with the pulpit in the middle.
In doing this, it seemed that the physical layout of the church meeting room was changed to become an accurate reflection of the spiritual state of the church. The church was now literally focused inward upon itself. Outreach and missions activities were almost non-existent now. No one seemed to be lifting up their eyes to look outside at the “fields that are white already for harvest.” All eyes were focused inward.
Finally, this church adopted a new logo that reflected its spiritual state.This new logo was a simple line drawing. It took me a while to decipher what the drawing represented. It seemed to have leaves or petals. I couldn’t tell at first if it was a plant or a flower. Then I realized that it was all leaves. What I was looking at was a fruitless plant, just like the fig tree that Jesus had cursed!
With sadness I realized that the church had unknowingly adopted a logo that reflected their spiritual condition in the eyes of Jesus. It seemed like a very solemn and tragic label. It seemed to be a stamp or a seal indicating that the church had been “weighed in the balances and found wanting” (Daniel 5:27). It seemed to be a very ominous sign that Jesus had come to evaluate this church, looking for fruit. Not finding what He was looking for, He had moved on, leaving this church to continue its efforts to symbolically build its tower and make a name for itself. Only now, most of the crowds had left. Only a few core families were still attending regularly.
I wondered why the Lord did not mercifully close the doors of this church so that the people might be scattered to have another chance with other churches. Later, I realized that many of the remaining church members had grown up together. Many of them were relatives or life-long friends. They had already gone from church to church together. Even if the Lord closed the doors of this church, these families most likely would stick together no matter where they were. Closing the doors of this church would probably not scatter these families.
This church continues to hold regular meetings, but it is only a shell of what it once was. There is now plenty of space in the main meeting room since the extra chairs have been removed. Plenty of empty seats are available now for each meeting. The great potential that this church had at its beginning has been lost.
This was a tragic ending for a church that began with so much promise and potential, but how many churches have experienced similar ends after being evaluated by the Lord Jesus Christ and been found wanting? How many churches have missed out on extraordinary destinies because they focused on growing leaves to feed themselves, instead of growing fruit to feed the needs of others?
How many churches are being weighed in the balances at this moment? How many churches are having their destinies determined as you are reading this?
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”—Matthew 22:14 (KJV)
