Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of the Church in America presented in 25 theses;
by common Christian Pam Davis;
Out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it, the following points will be the subject of a public discussion in the blogsphere She requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing.

Here are some of the theses that I think are relevant;

# Everyone has sinned, is a sinner and are in need of forgiveness.

# Salvation and forgiveness can only come through Jesus Christ – the way, the truth, the life.

# The ‘church’ will become alive again only when it learns the importance of confession and repentance.

# When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance; of turning away from the old life and towards the righteousness in Christ Jesus.

# He has called us to be humble, to place ourselves under the Lordship of Christ. He has called us to work together in unity – not seeking our own best or glory.

# Repentance means a combination of confession and a turning around, a changing of ways, a turning away from sin and towards Righteousness. It is a turning away from the life dead to sin and towards the life giving Lord.

# It’s meaning is not restricted to repentance in one's heart; for such repentance is null unless it produces outward signs.

# Jesus is the source of forgiveness – but the earthly penalty may still be there. The church can pray intercession for the cleansing of both the sin and the result of sin, but the result of that intercession depends on the will of God.

# Any Christian whatsoever, who is truly repentant, enjoys absolute remission from penalty and guilt, and this is given him freely.

# Any Christian who has received forgiveness should be ready and willing to forgive those who tresspass against them.

# Any individual who does not love and does not forgive is not of God – for God is love.

# Those are enemies of Christ who forbid the word of God to be preached at all in some churches. God’s word commands that His word about sin and repentance, about Christ’s mercy and our need for that mercy be preached everywhere – but especially in the churches.

# Pastor’s will only get a voice when the Lord sets fire to their hearts. This will only happen when God’s people fall on their faces and knees and PRAY!

# It is the individual has responsibility to repent . Individuals have the requirement to pray for themselves and those leading in ministry.

# It is the responsibility of the family to train the next generation with the gospel of Christ. It is the younger generation’s responsibility to learn from those older.

# It is the Christian’s responsibility to support, encourage, train and submit to each other believer that we may truly submit to Christ.

# It is the Christian’s responsibility to stand for righteousness when given the chance. It is also their responsibility to represent mercy in tandem to righteousness. God gave the law, Christ didn’t abolish the law but fulfilled it so that we may receive mercy.

# The Church is worthless unless there is a difference between it and the World.

# We are commanded to “go into the whole world to preach the gospel”, but we are to start where God has us. Our family, friends and neighbors need to hear the gospel first.

# The gospel is null if we attempt to reach the world and by negligence destroy those that God has put in our path.

# Effective prayer avails much, it will move the hand of heaven.

# Effective prayer can only happen when the believer has faith and is acting in the will of God.

# An individual cannot know the will of God unless they have confessed and repented.

# A church will only be as effective as the individuals in that church are willing to pray in the perfect will of God for the effectiveness of that church.

#He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness,and to walk humbly with your God?

Three different things came to my attention this last few weeks and I need to process what I’m learning. So for the want of a good starting point I will just start and then see where it takes me. The first is that my husband sent me a column by Doug Giles called An acid test for pastors part II. This is an article on Townhall.com that really is pretty harsh, but it definitely gives one something to think about. Doug Giles gives ten reasons why pastors today do not speak out against the moral and political decay of today’s society. Of course, he goes into much more detail and as the title states, he isn’t gentle in his criticism. But he has captured what a lot of people feel and he captured the longing for leaders that have vision and are willing to take a stand that I see as a common thread in Christianity throughout America.
The reasons he gives for not standing up are;
1. They fear man
2. They are ignorant about the current issues
3. They hate divisive issues
4. They believe we are at the end of the world, so why bother?
5. They are lazy
6. They don’t want to lose their tax exempt status
7. They think that earthly concerns are beyond them
8. They don’t want to be lumped in with the Taliban as radically religious
9. They are too busy with committees and other ‘church’ activities
10. They are afraid that taking a stand will chase away the money

The second thing that happened is that Ted Haggard, pastor of a 14,000 member Conservative Christian church was caught and finally confessed to being “sexually immoral”. Now Ted Haggard would have passed Doug Guiles’ acid test. It is obvious that the members of his church appreciated that he stood for something. It was attractive to them. He was very vocally pro-Israel and anti-gay marriage. He took a stand on the moral and political issues of the times. Doug Guiles would be proud. Even so, while Ted Haggard was outspoken against homosexuals he was having a three year tryst with a gay prostitute who sold him drugs and provided him with ‘massages’.

So I guess that I’d add another reason for pastor’s not speaking out against the issues. If a pastor is honest -- it’s hard to speak against sins that are pets. Whether he has confessed and repented of his sins or is sweeping them under the carpet -- speaking out about them is not a comfortable place to be. Maybe it is because he is lazy or complacent or has his conscience seared so that he can no longer see the sin. Maybe he is compassionate and doesn’t want to ‘throw the first stone’. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t know about confession, repentance and healing. Maybe someone should have been counseling Ted Haggard that GOD HATES the sin, but still loves the sinner. He may not be as popular and certainly Doug Giles wouldn’t be as happy with him. So Ted didn’t confess until he was caught and I don’t see repentance and healing in the future – although I don’t know that I’d trust him at this point.

The third thing that happened of significance recently is that my daughter had a Reformation Party. It was a great idea to have a party on October 31 that let people dress up. Since my roots are in the Baptist church and we never celebrated the ‘church’ holidays, I had never given much thought to the Reformation or what it meant to the ordinary person.

However, since that Tuesday, I have read a lot about Luther’s 95 theses. The first four theses are about the significance of repentance in the individual believer’s life. The rest of the theses cover things like the power of the church leaders and their abuses. (Hummmmm.)

It was Luther’s contention that penalties for sin were to be tests of true contrition – not chances for the rich to buy favors with the church. He pronounced that those who think that they are saved because they bought favors with the church are certainly damned.

Interesting stuff.

At the Reformation Party we also celebrated the life if William Tyndale who translated the Bible into English because he felt that the people NEEDED to have God’s word accessible to read on their own.

So what does all that mean to me? First of all, I’d LOVE to translate the 95 theses into today’s situations and paste them on the doors of the churches in America! Second of all, I’d LOVE to hear a pastor that wasn’t just ANGRY and outspoken about sin – but broken and weeping over the state of the country! I’d LOVE for there to be a humbling call to repentance and an out cry for healing throughout this country.

But I also think that there needs to be a grass – roots movement – not one from the organized churches. I think that God is stirring individuals to seek first of all His Word and second of all He is stirring people to seek HIS FACE; to petition for His mercy, to weep over the sins that fill our lives, that repentance might not be on the surface only but deep, honest and true.

And so I’ve decided that I’m calling for a Reformation of sorts. My next blog will post Pam’s 25 theses. Things that I think should be obvious to believers and the church but for what ever reason they aren’t. I will post them on the virtual door post and cry for a chance to dialog.

Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of the Church in America presented in 25 theses;
by common Christian Pam Davis;
Out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it, the following points will be the subject of a public discussion in the blogsphere She requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing.