By Doug Perry

I was wondering what to post today and received this today from a friend in Israel. I thought it was so good, I would share it with you.

"THE UNARGUABLE FACTS" -by Doug Perry. [-Kansas City businessman]

Forgive Us, God!! Big Government. Big Business. Big Oil. Big Tobacco. BIG CHURCH. The Church has become part of problem. We're not living like Christ. Of course they think we're hypocrites - because we ARE! Forgive us, God.

"Scarey Stats"

We fully expect you to stomp away mad, but you might want to consider that our only effort here is to point out facts about how big problem has gotten .

This is a compilation of scariest, most embarrassing, most shocking statistics and information about Church and its affairs. Somebody is going to have to stand before Jesus one day and explain their role in this. We don't want it to be us - or you. We don't quote anything haphazardly without having good documentation and sources.

The FACTS:

38 countries are primarily unevangelized. (i.e. 1.6 Billion souls)

Assets of Church:

US Christians control TRILLIONS in assets while at any given time 200,000,000 Brothers and Sisters starve.

78 countries each have Great Commission Christians whose personal incomes exceed US$1 billion a year. Financial Fraud in Church:

Annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed entire cost of all foreign missions worldwide. Emboldened by lax procedures, trusted church treasurers are embezzling from Church $5,500,000 PER DAY. That's $16 Billion per YEAR! {For reference: TOTAL Christian spending on foreign missions is only $15 Billion. God forgive us!}

Criminal penalties against clergy in sexual abuse cases now exceed $1 billion, causing a number of churches, dioceses and denominations to be forced into bankruptcy.

Wasteful Spending by Church:

95% of all church budgets in US are spent on our own comforts and programs. Less than 1% is spent on evangelism to most unreached.

40% of church’s entire global foreign mission resources are being deployed to just 10 oversaturated countries already possessing strong citizen-run home ministries.

More than 90% of all Christian materials are in English, but only 8% of world speaks English.

All costs of ministry divided by number of baptisms per year. Cost per baptism in India - $9803 per person. Cost per baptism in United States - $1,550,000 per person.

Every year churches hold a mega census costing $1.1 billion, sending out 10 million questionnaires in 3,000 languages, which covers 180 major religious subjects.

91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non-Christians but targets other Christians in already-evangelized countries or people-groups.

Each year,180 million Bibles and New Testaments are wasted - lost, destroyed, or disintegrated - due to incompetence, hostility, bad planning, or inadequate manufacture.

Missions and Church:

Some 250 of 300 largest international Christian organizations regularly mislead Christian public by publishing demonstrably incorrect or falsified progress statistics.

I titled this “Body Life” to contrast it to traditional church or home meeting. Christians get fixated on meetings – where, when and how. They can see how home meeting can be intimate and participatory but can’t imagine how it would work in a larger meeting.

I would not have believed it if I hadn’t experienced it for a number of years – meetings with upwards of 200 or 300 people or more in a large hall that was totally unscripted because Holy Spirit was in control. There was no “order of worship”. Anyone could begin by a prayer, a song, a testimony. Very often Holy Spirit led us corporately in a single theme. Anyone was free to participate at any time. There was no chaos. There was order. The chairs were in a circle. There was no podium. There were elders but they were not visible or obvious. If something got off track, they would bring it back, but they were truly there to facilitate rather than dominate. The spirit and attitude everyone had was to follow leading of Holy Spirit, to sense what to do when – whether to pick a song, read from Bible, pray, praise, testify or teach. Most understood that they were there to glorify God and to share what Lord had done in our lives that week. The meetings were fresh and often glorious.

This is not to say we didn’t have some bad meetings, people sharing inappropriately, etc. but that’s what leadership is all about. When someone goes off track or just plain “off wall”, mature saints need to be sensitive to Lord and bring it back into flow of Spirit. This is not heavy handed or dictatorial. The meeting is still in hands of all saints who are free to share a hymn, a psalm, a testimony, pray, etc.

So what can pastor do who wants to turn his church around from dead one man show to a living body? The pastor may tell people, “okay, folks, I’m going to shut up for next month. I’m just here to encourage you.” Function follows form. Take away pulpit. Put chairs in a circle. Begin to announce a couple of weeks before hand reason for change and how it will work, emphasizing need for all to have fresh experiences and light from Lord to share. Encourage them to be sensitive to leading of Holy Spirit as to which song to pick, when and what to share. Keep prayers and testimonies “short, quick, real and fresh” (as we used to say). If someone drones on for a while without much real to say, it will kill meeting and interrupt Spirit’s flow.

Christians grow when they let life of Jesus they have experienced flow out to others. This can happen in large meetings or small. It may take a little time and prodding to get people used to idea, but it can be done.

Most of these meetings fall flat on their face. Why? A "body life" meeting is only as good as our walk with Lord. If we are living in past, living off of experiences we had last month or ten years ago, we are going to be in for a rude awakening. It may sound trite to say that we need to "have a fresh experience of Christ" daily, but it is true. Many people can tell old "war stories" for hours on end, how Lord did this or that for them years ago. But what counts is what Lord did in my life today, this week - not last year or 30 years ago. An interesting thing about a body life meeting is that there is no place to hide. You are exposed. If your experience is stale, your sharing will smell like a stale ash tray to you and others minute you open your mouth.