If we take a close look today at the churches and the type of worship that they are experiencing we will notice that ... well I guess what I would say is that it's more like a rock show or concert than worship. I've experienced many more times than I care to admit rock show concerts that were supposed to be church worship services in a normal or what they call today as standard church service you see about 45 minutes to an hour of entertainment and about 15 minutes of preaching and everybody goes home happy.

Recently I had a discussion with a member of an Assembly of God church who mentioned to me that her preachers sermons lasted anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes even though they had 45 minutes of music ahead of the sermon. Now this member was concerned with the lack of sermon material that she was receiving and she mentioned to them the pastor of her church why his sermons only lasted 15 minutes. His response was that he was taught in seminary to preach for no more than 15 minutes at a time because the congregation could only concentrate on a particular topic for around 10 to 15 minutes after that they lose interest.

I ask what some of the other members thought about this and her response was that they were having problems with it also. It seems that 15 minutes can be a good thing if you can truly get the point across. My question would be why does it take 45 minutes to get the music across to the people but only 15 minutes for the preacher to get his message across. I suppose it all comes down to is what message are they trying to get you to understand the most, the music or the sermon itself, God's word.

Now I understand that it's a well-known fact I should say it's a well-known understanding in today's society that the attention span of an individual is only you know that the most 15 minutes. I see all the time where people say or you can't you write a long article because people's attention span is not long enough they get bored and they want to go on to something new and different so keep it as short as possible. Maybe I'm old school, but if something is interesting, if something is good, if something is beneficial to me, then I can read or listen to something for quite a long period of time without having any issues at all with.

I believe in my heart that the issue truly is one of simple selfishness. We as a society have become so selfish we have the comp so self-centered and we have become so focused on ourselves that we can see nothing that's going on around us unless we truly are forced to. It's my contention that we should be constantly aware of things around us, the people around us and our society in general for the betterment of not only ourselves but others also. I suppose the easy way out for me would be to just close my eyes and everything that's going on in the church world today and simply not care. To simply just give it to God and wait for him to take care of. Now I know and you know that God is perfectly capable of taking care of the problem and he will take care the problem in due time meaning his time. The problem I have with me quitting and just given it all over to God is that I do not feel that's what God wants me to do. I believe in my heart that the Lord has asked me to be concerned and to discern what is going on in the church world today so that I may point out to others the errors in the church the errors in the teachings of some of the churches and the errors of some of the preachers who are teaching these things. I heard this call from God many years back probably 24 years now ago and I really didn't know what it was called if it had a name or a meaning or anything in particular except that I knew is what God wanted me to do. As a some time went on I came to realize that what God it called me to do is what he showed us in the Bible in regards to what a watchman is. A watchman is a person who basically is on guard watching over something or someone. A watchman in the biblical sense for the people Israel was a person who watched for the enemy to keep the Israelites safe. When watchman saw the enemy coming he would blow a horn to warn the people so the people could prepare themselves to defend against the enemies. Now if the watchman saw the enemy coming and didn't blow the horn to warn the people, and the people died the watchman was held accountable by God for the blood of the people who had died, it was all on his hands. But if the watchman blew the horn and did nothing to protect themselves from the enemy, then the watchman was off the hook their blood was on their own hands, it was their own fault for not heeding the watchman's call.

That's what I see in our churches today. I see people all over the Internet, writing books, doing radio programs or TV programs, trying to warn the church in the world about falsehoods in the church. The problem with the church today though is that they are not heeding the watchman's call. They call watchman who are God's called people HERETIC HUNTERS. They might ask what is a heretic? A heretic in the biblical sense that were speaking of here is someone who is teaching a falsehood leading people astray those kind of things. Someone who is going against the godly principles that the Bible sets out for us. Now naturally, those who are teaching improper doctrine, those who are leading others astray certainly do not consider themselves to be heretics. They either are deceived into believing they are totally right or they know in their heart they're not right but are willing to do what they're doing anyway for fame and fortune. Now you might say no one would do anything like that for fame and fortune, surely not. I would like to believe the same thing actually but I have watched many preachers who started out preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the actual word of God and slowly slowly changed. I had to ask myself what made them change? What was different in their lives that made them go down a different path? Sadly, but truly, the common denominator was money. I believe when a person has too much money or is in control of too much money they can easily get distracted and deceived into believing that they are right must be from God so they can do anything they want. But this isn't true folks, it just isn't true.

So let's get back to worship in what's going on in the churches today. Is it truly worship that we see every day on the television screens, that we see every week in the churches, that we hear everyday on the radio? Or is it simply emotional promotion? I contend that is nothing more than emotional promotion. Now you might ask well what are they promoting? I would say with a heavy heart, that they are promoting themselves. Though why do I say that? It's simple really. If one takes the time to pray asked the Lord for guidance, asked the Lord for discernment, he or She will find that the majority of the media churches and sadly the majority of the local churches are self-centered. I've seen and read or preachers will tell you to donate to their ministry to help them grow, to help them reach out to save more souls, to spread the gospel, to save the lost. But, sadly the majority the money that they raise is used for any thing and everything but the Gospel. A lot of ministries today have budgets of anywhere from 32 million and upwards of $150 million per year. I find it amazing that in the last 30 years, 40 years let's say 40 years ministries just from the United States have raised billions of dollars and yet there are millions of people right here in the United States that do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Now keep in mind that sermons only the last 10 or 15 minutes anyway and the music portion was 45 minutes or more which I guess just wore them out. One of the questions I ask anyone I meet from a different church is: "What do you like about your church the most?". The answer I most frequently receive is: "I love their music" or something like: "it's just such a loving church", but very seldom do I hear as a first response anyway, "because they preach the Bible". Now I do get around to asking this person what about the Bible, preacher preach the Bible? Their response is usually some like: "yeah oh yeah, he really he really does preach the Bible." My belief on this is that true believers would say first and foremost that the Bible is being taught and lived in their church, before any mention of singing music Sunday school classes get-togethers loving people etc. This is why I've come to the conclusion after many years of studying, watching in person etc., that the church has lost its way and has become nothing short of an emotional roller coaster that one day will fall off its tracks. This saddens me to say this because it certainly not something that I wish to see happen. It's not something that God Jesus or the Holy Spirit wishes to see happen. But it's happening and it's happening at a faster pace every year. Emotions run high for everybody Christians non-Christians alike but should not our emotions be on Christ not on ourselves? Self-help gurus who disguise themselves as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ are sadly becoming more and more prevalent throughout our society.

It's time today for true God-fearing Christian men and women to take a stand and become more active than ever before. It's time to reach out not only to the lost but to your fellow Christian friends and Christians who you don't even know yet, and let them know that the time is short, the time has come where if we don't stand up now it may be just too late in the near future. The Lord cannot tarry much longer. The world around us has fallen into a cesspool of immoral garbage. We must awaken and stand fast for the Lord. We must take our focus off of ourselves, off of our personal emotional wants and wishes and be the disciple that the Lord wants you to be.

God's blessings my friends,
Pastor Wise