I have struggled with a serious question lately: “If Jesus was with us today, would He be turning some tables over as He visited our churches in the U.S?” The first century church met in houses, owned no property or buildings, had no building expenses, and was based on community life with many fellowship gatherings. When they took up a collection, the money was spent on helping the poor, the widows, the orphans, families whose breadwinners were in prison or in the mines for their faith, burying the dead, and helping with famines and plagues. They had no local paid preachers or staff. They would provide the evangelists who traveled to different churches with food and a place to stay, but only for short periods. The Didache (100 AD) said that if an evangelist stayed more than 3 days that they were preaching for money and to send them on their way. Modern churches hire preachers and staff for 3years or 30 years instead of 3 days. The early church was focused on spreading the gospel to the lost instead of their own selfish needs or wants. They were more focused on mutual edification than hiring people to do their work for them. They met as close knit loving communities and didn’t constantly hop and shop churches to find a preacher they liked to hear or a style of worship on Sunday morning that they like.

Today, the church in the U.S. spends on average 75-80 % of the money they collect on buildings and staff and another 10% on internal programs for themselves. U.S. churches collect an estimated $70 billion to $125 billion in member donations annually, so that’s about $80 billion dollars they spend on buildings and staff each year instead of the needs that God would want the money spent on. Today most churches are more focused on that once a week assembly rather than the 24/7 interaction of the members. The bigger churches break down into small groups, which is good, in order to accomplish what the house churches did in the first century, which makes you wonder why not just skip the millions of dollars spent on the big church system and just do the house churches instead for 0 dollars. What about churches being the “pillar and ground of the TRUTH” ( 1 Timothy 3:15). I am not talking about minor issues of truth that are not heaven/hell issues, like using instrumental music or how often you take the Lord’s Supper. I am talking about core truth, the biggest of which for us is the LGBTQ issue. That issue is the core of Basic Bible truth on gender and marriage, and central to all Biblical truth. So how is the U.S. church doing on that truth? Membership: About 54% of U.S. religious congregations allow an openly gay or lesbian couple to be full-fledged members. Leadership: 30% of churches permit openly gay or lesbian individuals to hold volunteer leadership roles. What about the truth that Jesus is the Son of God? National surveys (like Ligonier Ministries’ State of Theology) reveal that even among self-identified Evangelicals, nearly 30% agree that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God”.That’s your church attending evangelicals, not the atheists or agnostics who deny the deity of Jesus. What about the truth of the resurrection of Jesus, a doctrine that all Christianity stands or falls with? A study by Lifeway Research found that roughly 23% of professing Christians outright disagree or are unsure about the bodily resurrection. Another survey on professing Christians found that only 45% strongly believed Jesus physically rose from the dead. That’s professing Christians, not atheists and agnostics. Many liberal preacher training seminaries openly deny the miracles and resurrection of Jesus. AI: “At progressive or mainline institutions affiliated with denominations like the United Church of Christ, PCUSA, or the Episcopal Church, a significant portion of professors and students may interpret the resurrection and miracles theologically or symbolically, rather than as literal, physical events. For example, in a widely publicized interview, the president of Union Theological Seminary openly stated she does not believe in a literal, bodily resurrection.”

So, back to our original question. “If Jesus was with us today, would He be turning some tables over as He visited our churches in the U.S?” Why did He turn the tables over? AI: “Jesus turned over the tables in the Temple to protest the exploitation of the poor and the corruption of the sacred space. Merchants and money changers were taking advantage of worshippers by charging unfair exchange rates and exorbitant prices for sacrificial animals.” Are U.S. churches misusing the money they collect in the name of Jesus? Are they promoting a man made church business model that is not even in the Bible, one that is a terrible steward of God’s money that they collect? Are they teaching false doctrine that corrupts the purity of the bride of Christ? I ask this question specifically about churches in the U.S. b/c churches in many foreign, often persecuted, churches are practicing the first century church model a lot better than U.S. churches. AI: “In regions like the Middle East, North Africa, and China, underground churches deliberately eschew bank accounts and paid, full-time staff for operational security. Leadership falls to local believers acting as shepherds without a formal or public title. Demographers and missionologists estimate that the vast majority—frequently cited as 80% to 90%—of Chinese Christian house churches operate without officially paid, full-time preachers or pastors. Because these congregations exist outside the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) system, they rely heavily on bivocational (tentmaking) lay leaders who work regular secular jobs.”

Do I think that Jesus would be “inspecting” churches today to see if they are carrying out His desires for His church” Yes and I think Jesus would be turning a lot of church tables over if He were with us today. So what do I do with that thought? Do I have the authority that Jesus had to enable me to start turning tables over? No, but I do let my voice be heard by the leaders and the members of any church that I am associated with.

The apostle John inspected the 7 churches of Asia quite closely in Revelations chapters 2 and 3. He pointed out their strong and weak points, harshly criticizing some. I’m not an apostle with apostolic authority but I think we can use John ‘s example to examine our churches today. What do you think??????