Answer To All Our Problems

I have been reading through the book of Acts in my quiet time and seeing how the church grew from the very beginning. It is incredible to see the zeal that these new converts had and to see how God working despite the opposition trying to squelch the Good News from being preached. It is interesting to me to note what was preached by the early preachers. Christ was preached. Christ crucified and risen again. This was the message spread across the region. There was no “rockin” praise band or cool direct mailers to promote the service, but friends invited friends to hear the Good News. I have noticed a trend in many “contemporary” churches on sermon topics in the past few years. Parenting, sex, finances, singleness, addiction, and small group involvement appear to be the main topics of discussion. I want to call it the Dr. Phil theology where the church is setup to address and fix everyone’s problems. However, Jesus did not come to solve everyone’s problems, and the church was not founded to “fix” its membership’s issues. Jesus could have solved world hunger, but He didn’t. World hunger was not our greatest need. Jesus could have overthrown the Roman government and had an established Kingdom here on earth, but He did not do that because that was not His primary purpose in coming. Jesus is The Answer to our greatest need, but I do not believe that He came to solve all of our problems. My concern is that the church is “selling” success more than it is preaching the Word. Want a happy marriage; then follow these steps. The steps may or may not be loosely based on a Bible passage taken out of context. What do we tell people that still end up in broken marriages, bankrupt, and with children who make poor decisions after following these steps to success? The fact is that we can follow these steps taught in church and still end up in divorce. Why because we are all sinners and all human. Tithing does not guarantee financial success and following Christ does not mean that our lives will be perfect and all of our problems will be solved. Jesus is the answer to our greatest need, eternity with God. However, to sell Jesus as the answer to all of our problems is not right and will end up doing more harm than good in the long run. The Word of God is to be preached and proclaimed. The Good News still applies today and should still be taught.