The Good Life Sermon 7--"My Church Is the Problem"

On December 28th, I taught the seventh lesson in The Good Life series. We looked at David Goetz's sixth myth of suburbia--"My Church Is The Problem."

In suburbia, we treat churches like consumers. If we want some pizza, we go to the local pizzeria. If we want a haircut, we go to the local hairstylist or barbershop. If we need our car fixed, we go to the local auto mechanic. If we need some Jesus, we go to the local church. If we don't like the haircut we get at one barbershop, we go to a different one. If the local auto mechanic is too expensive, we go to a different one. If we don't like the Jesus we're getting at First Baptist, we go to Second Baptist.

Is that the role that church should play in our lives? When we aren't connecting to God very well, is our church the problem?

We looked at Jesus' interaction with Simon Peter. In The Gospel of John, Peter is contrasted with Judas. Judas denied Christ; Peter denied Christ. While Judas went off and hung himself, Peter took responsibility for his spiritual life and came back to Jesus. Like Peter, we need to take responsibility for our spiritual lives.

Most of the time, when we are not "being fed" at church, we're the problem, not the church. If we want to live the good life, we need to start taking responsibility for our own spiritual lives.

You can download this sermon, the other sermons in The Good Life series, and all the most recent sermons by me and Gary Albert here.