Would Jesus Be Welcome In Your Church?

Would Jesus Be Allowed To Do What He Did In Church Today?

I can’t speak for churches in other countries but after 34 years of being a Christian in America, I have a pretty good finger on the pulse of the American church.

One of the things that the American church seems to value is a sanitized church service.

When I read the gospels I do not see this same value for everything being programmed and in its proper place.

We all know that Paul told the Corinthian church that everything should be done in decency and in order. (1 Corinthians 14:40)

The question is whether or not our American value of neat and tidy fits Paul’s definition of decency and order.

In my own personal life, there have been times when God had to break my pride and sense of propriety. They were idols in my life.

On one occasion I had been speaking negatively about a method being used by a famous healing evangelist. My problem with this evangelist was the hype that he used and still uses in his ministry.

I would constantly tell people that I would “never” do the things he does. That is a dangerous heart attitude to have.

One day while we had a guest speaker at our church the Lord spoke to me. He told me that the guest speaker was going to ask me to pray for them. That was no problem. I had prayed for a lot of people.

The problem was that the Lord spoke to me that I was to “blow” on them when I prayed for them.

Ugh!

The exact thing that I had said I would never do!

Well after a long bout of wrestling with the Lord and trying to squirm out of it, I finally surrendered my pride and respectability and told the Lord that if they came to me, I would obey.

Well they came and I obeyed and a glorious healing miracle happened with a spinal injury being healed.

The Lord has never asked me to do this again and I would not make a practice of doing it just because it worked once.

However, I learned a valuable lesson that not always is our sense of propriety the same thing as decency and order.

So as I share this list of the things Jesus wouldn’t be allowed to do in church, please understand I am not advocating a practice of these things, but instead trying to make a point that we should at least be open to God doing some things that are not always according to our sense of decency or order but always fit with His sense of decency and order. We need to make sure that Jesus is welcome in our church.

6 Controversial Things Jesus Did

#1 Blowing On People

John 20:22
And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Since I mentioned blowing on people, I just thought it would be appropriate to show you that Jesus blew on the disciples.

How many churches in America would allow this to happen during their worship service?

#2 Spitting

Mark 7:33
And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.

I can just imagine someone starting a spitting ministry after reading this article.

I don’t totally understand the significance of spitting.

I have read articles conjecturing that spitting was a common medical practice of the day but it is inconclusive to me.

What I do know is that except for some churches in tobacco country that still have spittoons in the aisles, spitting is not something that would be allowed in the church today.

#3 Putting Mud In People’s Eyes

John 9:6
When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

Once again I can see some guy going off half-cocked and starting a mud ball ministry.

However, I can tell you that if he did, people in the American church would tar and feather him.

Putting mud in people’s eyes would not be considered something that was in decency and in order. It would not be allowed.

#4 Talking To Demons

Luke 8:30
Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him.

There have been times when men have had exorcism ministries.

Unfortunately, they have usually had more hype than the Holy Spirit.

However, that doesn’t negate the fact that casting out demons would not be allowed in the typical American church service. It would violate our sense of propriety.

I would never suggest that it be a regular thing that happens in a church service but we should be aware and willing to cast the suckers out if they manifest all the same.

I personally do not talk to demons. They have nothing of value to say. I just tell them to shut up and come out.

#5 Washing Feet

There are some groups of Protestant churches that practice foot washing but they are rare.

Most seeker sensitive and other types of churches do not practice this and they would consider it inappropriate.

I have attended a couple of foot washing services in my life and they are very humbling.

I think that the American church’s response to foot washing would be the same as Peter’s response was to the Lord.

John 13:8
Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

#6 Whipping People

John 2:15
When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.

Years ago there was a fad where people would say WWJD. (What would Jesus do?)

I never saw them apply this scripture to their premise.

Can you imagine the scandal if the pastor or evangelist got out a whip and drove people out of the church for being unethical in their business practices?

Many of them are using unethical practices in funding their churches with manipulative tactics or unscriptural promises. They are the money changers.

So let me ask you, is our definition of decency and order really what God was talking about?

Is it possible that we need Jesus to do a few crazy and controversial things in our churches today?

Would Jesus really be welcome in your church? That is something to think about.