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In this week’s PODCAST, believe it or not, Jesus answers THE question that has haunted church/ministry leaders for years:
Why are they leaving the church in droves?
The answer is so obvious, that it is staring us right in the face. And yet, with all of the blogs and books devoted to answering this question (and IMHO missing the point completely), with the gallons of ink that has been spilled on reams of dead-tree paper, how do we miss such an obvious answer?
Fact is, in His Sermon on the Mount, in His run-up to what we commonly call The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus definitively answers this singularly significant question:
Why are they leaving the church in droves?
Prayer is one of the most talked about but least understood disciplines in the Christian life.
For so many people, prayer has become a matter of spiritual life or death. Many people I have encountered have found their pleas for help in their most dire hour of need seemingly go unheard by God, as in their perspective, despite their desperate cries to God… nothing changed. This led to their being disillusioned and disappointed.
So, this brings about the question, “What’s the point of praying if it didn’t change anything?”
Too often, people who find themselves asking this question is accused of simply not having enough faith. Or they’re told, “God always answers your prayers: sometimes ‘yes’, sometimes ‘no’, and sometimes ‘wait’. Or sometimes they’re accused of having sin in their life that hampers their prayer life.
Depressing, isn’t it?
Let me assure you that there are actually answers to all these questions. Good, solid, satisfactory answers to be found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
But, before we address the Lord’s Prayer, we need to examine Jesus’ precursor to His lesson on how to pray:
Matthew 6:5-6 (NIV)
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father (in private)
In light of these words, why are so many people leaving the church today in droves?
Let me tell you, it has nothing to do with music, preaching or a lack of “brand loyalty” toward the churches or denominations young people were raised in.
It boils down to this: Talk is cheap.
It is today as it was in Jesus’ day. Hypocrisy hampers peoples’ understanding of how God has called us to live and relate with Him.
People don’t want to see or hear us praying in front of City Halls or around flagpoles. They want to be treated by us in an authentically loving, caring and compassionate way.