So, I was just pondering this and thought I'd share. What if the apostle Paul strolled into and American city, would he reognize the churches? Probably not the outside because architecture has changed, fair enough. What about the inside? When he went into a church, would he know it was our place of worship? Would he recognize disciples as disciples, or just another part of the busy population? Would he see the passion for Jesus on our faces that he saw on the faces of his contemporaries? Would he "know us by our love"? Would he wonder what had happened to worship? And where the idea had come from of going to church out of habit, with little if any thought actually given to Jesus. How could we call it a church when only a small percentage of us really, honestly were trying to seek God with all of our hearts? Where was our fellowship? Imagine if he started to question us, the way he may have written a letter to one of his churches, about our faith, ministries, our impact on our community. Wouldn't he wonder why we even came to church? The churches he started were made up of people who's lives were dramatically changed by Jesus and who came to church to be encouraged to go out and, through much persecution, reach out to a lost and dying world, to make new disciples. Where has that idea gone? What have we made of the church? When our youth groups look and function much the same as any other group of teenagers, and the main difference is that they act a little different. Clean up their acts for an hour or so. They don't cuss inside the church. That would be bad. But the same type of messages are conveyed with much the same attitude. They're not as physical with their boy friend or girl friend but that changes as soon as they leave. They pretend to care by saying "I'll pray for you." instead of just blowing you off. But soon forget the promise made. They talk to tons of people while at church but nothing is said about Jesus. They sing songs but only a few worship. Is this the church the apostles started by Jesus' command?May we test our churchly ways against scripture and find what went wrong. Please God, reveal to us the distortion we have caused.