Not much has changed ... ....

By: Roland Contreras

On April 16, 1963 MLK wrote a letter from a prison cell in Birmingham, Alabama.  He was troubled by the racial tensions and the injustices that were prevalent in the neighborhoods, cities and culture.  MLK cried out for the church to take a noble and firm stance against the outright sinfulness that was occurring.  In doing so he brought to light the ineffectiveness of a church the clings to a specific mentality.  He stated,"So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are."  In other words, the church was failing to be the church.  It was satisfied with the structure and order as it was and had no desire to change anything.  Perhaps it was out of fear of the repercussions or maybe it was out of plain ignorance of the truth of scripture.  The pharisees of the Bible were such a people.  They had no desire to confront the legalism that was their lifestyle and to repent of their hypocrisy and hatred for Christ.  MLK was dealing with the pharisees of his time.  He later stated, "If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.  Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."  It seems not much has changed in regards to these type of churches since the time of MLK.  While MLK lived his life setting in motion what would become a monumental era in our history, these sort of churches were lackadaisical and/or outright rebellious in their attempts to change anything.  Now today we don't deal with racial tension the way MLK did.  I realize racism is still very much an issue, but comparatively speaking, MLK's dream has come to fruition and praise God for that.  Again I say, what hasn't changed is particular churches that continually cling to a culture-influenced system of ideals rather than those that are laid out in scripture.  In short, these sort of churches are not really churches at all but, as MLK put it, social clubs. 

Now please don't let this particular brand of church twist you into thinking that all churches are like this.  They are not.  So I encourage you to find a genuine Bible-believing church that is not satisfied with the way things are but is continually endeavoring to be better for the sake of the Kingdom and for the glory of the Savior.  If every church operated this way, church would begin to influence the culture and not the other way around.