Caution! Church can (and sometimes does):

• Turn Christianity into a mere Sunday morning routine.
• Bore people and literally put them to sleep in their seats.
• Quench the Holy Spirit.
• Become a dangerous lullaby that sweetly rocks Christians into deep spiritual sleep.
• Make people believe that they are right with God when they aren’t.
• Cause people to feel safe and secure and protected from God’s commands.
• Be an example of what Jesus called “the blind leading the blind.”
• Make people feel comfortable (instead of repentant) about their sins.
• Distract people from being aware of the awesome presence and power of the living Jesus.
• Make people believe that a preacher or pastor is closer to God than they are.
• Serve as a substitute for daily Bible reading and prayer.
• Make people feel like they’re doing God a favor by attending and sitting through a sermon.
• Try to coerce and control people.
• Manipulate people for money.
• Train people to act like the Bible Pharisees.
• Cool off and calm down fired-up Christ-followers.
• Hurt people deeply.
• Reject people.
• Make people believe that God is distant instead of present when we gather in His name.
• Cause people to believe that God’s house is a physical building instead of human hearts.
• Ignore the Bible’s 50+ “one another” commands.
• Send people home without the fire of God burning brilliantly in their heart.

People who follow and obey the risen Jesus are the body of Christ. No building or religious organization or Sunday meeting can take our place. When Jesus said, “Follow Me,” He didn’t mean for us to join a religious organization and be passive spectators.

Christian doctrine says Jesus can run the universe; Christian practice says He’s not able to personally direct a church service. When we try to organize Jesus and make Him play by our rules and by our “order of worship,” we curtail His power.