10 Ways Christians Make Church an Idol Without Realizing It | Matt Dabbs
Video from Revolution of the Ordinaries
10 Ways Christians Make Church an Idol Without Realizing It | Matt Dabbs
"Can church become an idol?
Church is a gift from God—but even good things can take a place in our lives that they were never meant to occupy.
Church makes a wonderful servant but a terrible god.
The church exists to point us to Jesus, form us into the likeness of Jesus, and send us on the mission of Jesus. But when church itself becomes the destination rather than Jesus, something has gone wrong.
In this video, I walk through 10 ways Christians can make church an idol without realizing it, including:
• Using church attendance as spiritual “fire insurance”
• Treating church like a consumer product
• Making a particular form or model of church the standard of faithfulness
• Substituting church attendance for actual discipleship
• Elevating preachers, pastors, or other leaders
• Finding our identity in a denomination, tradition, or church model
• Measuring God’s approval by church growth and success
• Preserving an institution at the expense of its mission
• Valuing church community more than faithfulness to Jesus
• Becoming so involved with church that church itself becomes a substitute for God
And this isn't just a problem for traditional or institutional churches. We can idolize a house church, simple church, or multiplication model just as easily.
The answer isn't to think less of the church. The New Testament gives us an extraordinarily high view of the church as the body of Christ, the household of God, and the bride of Christ.
The answer is to put the church in its proper place—with **Jesus at the center**.
The church belongs to Jesus. The church points to Jesus. And the church exists to help people follow Jesus." from the video introduction
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:13 - 1: Church as Fire Insurance
02:00 - 2: Church as consumeristic commodity
02:58 - 3: Magic words, magic forms and patterns
03:59 - 4: Church attendance
05:04 - 5: Church leaders as idols
05:51 - 6: Church identity/denomination
06:44 - 7: The idol of Success
07:19 - 8: Congregational preservation
08:15 - 9: The way we always did it (tradition)
08:20 - 10: Church as substitute for God
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