JesusWalk Bible Study Forum: Q4. Combatting Apathy and Lukewarmness - JesusWalk Bible Study Forum

Q4. Why are so many churches a "hotbed of apathy"? How can we combat spiritual apathy and an insipid witness in ourselves?

Why are so many churches a "hotbed of apathy"?
We are often tempted to take a back seat in our spiritual life, better to let other Christians do the work while we settle and sit down to criticise, to praise or to turn a blind eye. The reason for this would be the unwillingness to give up things in life in order to be a "hot" Christian. Unwilling to spend time to read the Word of God. Unwilling to give up TV to pray. Unwilling to stand up for Christ afraid to lose one's job. Unwilling to give up a drinking session for a witnessing session for fear of losing friends. The list is endless.

How can we combat spiritual apathy and an insipid witness in ourselves?
The complete giving of our life to God. He wants our all, not just a part. We need to hold to the commitment that no matter what happens, no matter in what situation, God is first in our lives.

'Why are so many churches a "hotbed of apathy"?

Matt.24:12; 'As wickedness increases, in the end times, the love of many shall wax cold'

Why do we get 'apathatic'? Cold love.
By loosing our zeal for Jesus, and allowing our selves to become luke-warm in our walk, we run the danger of finding ourselves possessing a love that has grown cold.

Jesus's words spoken in Matt. 24, were not a 'maybe or 'if', they were prophetic in speaking of those who belong to Him, in the last days.
Many churches today, have become self-satisfied...have stopped looking outward into a lost world, and are looking inward, unto themselves.

Wickedness, (or lawlessness) abounds today; We see it when we step out the door, on our TV's, in our news sources (papers TV's etc.)
The danger of this 'over saturation' is in allowing our conscious to become seared..which will result in a hardened heart. (unfeeling)
We will find ourselves no longer caring about our brothers and sisters in Christ, no longer caring about the lost, poor or needy;

Much of this 'coldness' has been brought in, to our houses of God, by the trend of glorifiying man, and discrediting the supremacy of God.

I believe this is a danger, all Christians face today...cold love, luke-warmness...I admit that I myself have had to fight through this many times...push on, in fact, when I didn't feel like it. It can come upon you like a 'cloud' of passivity. I believe it is a spirit, one that needs to be fought off daily.

'How can we combat spiritual apathy and an insipid witness in ourselves?'

By regaining our first love, and if need be, doing our first works over.
Asking God for a fresh vision, eyes to see and ears to hear, what He is saying to His body today.
Looking at others, saved and lost, through the eyes of our Lord; And remembering that this life is just a vapor, fleeting, and that there is an eternity ahead.

That sounds like opposites--"hotbed" and "apathy"! But, in reality, many churches are content to be a "club" of agreeable people--people who look and seem like ourselves--and oppose those who are different. "Who wants THOSE people in OUR church!" We go to church because it may help our business, or to hear the music, or chat with our friends, or comment on the behavior or clothing of someone in attendance. Or sometimes, even to check on rumors--and perhaps spread some gossip ourselves! Blasphemy! Or, because it takes guts and work to get concerned about those outside the church, we settle back in our padded seats and piously fold our hands! How can we call ourselves after the name of Christ and refuse to weep tears--as He did--over those who do not know Him?
How to fight apathy in ourselves? Face it. We ARE too apathetic. In the light of our Lord's suffering for us, how can we merely grab the salvation He wants for all as our "earned" right, and pass by on the other side when we see someone in need--whether that is physical or spiritual need? We are to become more and more like our Lord! Well, if we are thinking only of ourselves and our comfort, are we more like Him, or satan? God forgive us! We must turn to Him and ask Him to forgive and renew a right mind in ourselves, that is, the mind of Christ that He wants to give us!

We have become apathetic because we have forgotten (or we never learned) that everyday is precious opportunity to live in God's presence. Every moment of breath we are given is truly a gift that we may revel in or squander. We are creatures designed for worship, and without the energizing power of that worship, we lose our passion to be His well loved children.

We have become a lazy generation of people. We want to be spoon fed and we do not take time to get into the precious Word of God. We are not serving for God and our own agenda is before God's. i.e. see my answer question 3.

Maybe also we are weary of the battle. We have a "Life Chain" for one hour of prayer against abortion, a very quite and solemn expereice here in Texas once per year and I have seen the folks that turn out reduce drastically each year.

Churches have retooled to become social clubs and not houses of God. We are putting God neatly on a shelf and using Him as we see fit. Maybe we just don't fear God anymore......by fear I mean the awe inspired reverence when we go before His throne...

Another thought is that we are driven by emotions not obedience. I think of the Israelites in the desert complaining about the manna. They had everything even God with them and it still wasn't enough. They wanted to satisfy the cravings of their flesh. As it says in 1 John 2: 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the **** of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. [17] The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.We are all out to satisfy the cravings of sinful man, **** of his eyes, boastings, etc. The Good News is yes, we are human but we are blessed because the Holy Spirit always gets us back on track! Praise be to God for that.

We should pray daily Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Shalom!

So many of our churches have heard that Jesus is coming back some that they have forgot to look for him prepare for him and they now are to the point that they do not live day by day looking for the coming of the Lord. We do not find pray come Lord Jesus as we should instead we are praying for other things. Lukewarmness will be the fall of many if they are not careful. I know to combat spiritual apathy is for us to witness and stay in pray not just for us but for all Christians fasting praying reading Gods work We have to stay prayed up and stay in the word at all time communication is very important between you and God. Help us Jesus to love and serve you more.

It seems in our churches that a lot of people have the I don't care attitude. They like to sit in their pews and let others do the work of the church. They want to be served instead of serving others.
I think by looking at the life Jesus lived. The way he served others should make us want to serve others. By serving others, we serve him. We need to keep him in first place in our life's so that, we will always want to do what is right for others as well as ourselves.

Q4. Why are so many churches a "hotbed of apathy"?
In Matt. 24:12, lawless will abound and the love of many will grow cold. We have become a church whose love has grown cold. A church who cares about itself and the building up of our kingdom; not Christ’s; although we may say it’s for God’s glory we are in denial and really doing it for our glory, for our wages, for our self-esteem.
We have let organized religion take the place of Christ’s ways. We tend to get into our holy huddles thinking we are doing a good thing and forget the needs of those that are hurting, in and out of the church. We get into little clicks showing prejudice in many forms and many ways. Our focus becomes distorted, becoming inward instead of outward, blinding ourselves by our own light and compromising because we do not want to offend or loose a friendship or someone from the church, but in Matt. 18:15-17 we read we are to go to our brother and tell him of his sin against you and if he listens you have won a brother.

How can we combat spiritual apathy and an insipid witness in ourselves?
We can start by getting back to the basics of Christianity which Jesus taught in “Matt. 22:36-40, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with your mind.” And the second is like it, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We can combat spiritual apathy by staying close to Jesus, reading His Word, and by not forsaking the fellowship of other believers. In other words remaining faithful and true, with no other gods or idols above our Lord.

So many Churches of today are "Hotbed of apathy because they are self-satisfied and they dont have Christ's presence among them.Their hearts have become cold and know longer feel Christ knocking at the door of their hearts.So many Churches are busy enjoying worldly pleasures.Worldly pleasures can be dangerous because they are only temporary and not a lasting satisfaction.Our hearts should always be open to God and not the things of the world.Im not saying that God doesent want us to enjoy our life,and our homes ,our friends and families"BUT"we should not make odols of things in this world letting the world take over.Prv.4:23 Above all else,guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.
~~Our heart-our feelings of love and desires-
Dont get sidetracked on detours that lead to sin.We must not become spiritless.
Im going to use a few words from a email a good friend sent me.
~~~Satan comes to cause you to doubt your relationship with God,But pray without ceasing,walk daily in the garden of your (heart) with God that the tempter find you not alone.Let him find you about the Father,s business that you be not tempted and draw away into sin.And know every man after the spirit.And God will show you His strategy against Satan that you dont have to walk in fear of the tempter.Blessings Linda

How are so many churches a "hotbed of apathy"? When I think about the many reasons this happens I am reminded of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Costly Christianity. We become apathetic when things are too easy - without cost. We become self-reliant rather than God reliant, we become comfortable and since we like being comfortable we resist anything that would compromise our comfort or interfere with our lives outside the church.

One thing that keeps the church from becoming apathetic and insipid is to first focus on God, not ourselves and our comfort level, and instead pour our efforts on service - bringing the Gospel out of the church into the world - to be missional - both local and international. What excitement is generated when we see people come to Jesus, when we see the power of Christ in action bringing sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, freedom to captives and comfort to the poor If anything will revive a apathetic church it is seeing spiritual reproduction and transformation going on. Whether its going on a short term mission internationally or serving on the streets with the homeless - serving is a sure way to wake up the church.

Now the kicker - to get the people be willing to get out of their pew.

Q4. Why are so many churches a "hotbed of apathy"? How can we combat spiritual apathy and an insipid witness in ourselves?
Apathy is the wanting to do good no matter who you are around or with---you wnat to do what is right at the moment or what is wrong at the moment(doing wrong and not caring for the moment <apathy> )....to conform to the world and trying to please everyone. Being politically correct. Churches today are giving up the real love of their life for the comformity of the world. It seems that the bigger the congregation numbers the better the church administrations feel, it's not the numbers but the attendance and what those in attendance are getting from you; it seems that it looks better when you have a 300 (plus) congreagation on your reports, but underneath you may only have 100 (plus) in attendance on a regular basis-----the apathy is that the church admin doesn't care...they've lost their first love....and the real apathy is that they don't care---
We can combat spiritual apathy by remembering what we did when we found the true love of our life, we were so on fire and so hot to spread the news and just tell everyone, we must rememebr how that felt and get that feeling back and the joy that came with that.....if nothing else remember the first love and how it felt to please that person. it should be the same with the church.

Q4. Why are so many churches a "hotbed of apathy"? How can we combat spiritual apathy and an insipid witness in ourselves?

Cold Hearted
Dry in Spirit
Asleep
Weariness
Hardened
Laxity

I believe our main concern should be Jesus being our first and foremost Love.

If anything is done toward our brother and sister it should be out of the will of God and not by our own will... but a willing heart to do these things brings both joy and sorrow and one never expects a return for their Works.

No pat on the back, or good going, or honoring, or gift certificates to the steak house.

Do it unto them as you would want them to do unto you... and don't expect anything in return, because really you are not doing it for yourself or for others... you are doing it because God asked us to. Obedience.

sunshine

We have an apathetic attitude because we have become used to having everything we want and we don't have to work hard to get it, so we have developed a me first attitude, in turn we have become cold in our christian life because everything should be easy and if it is not we don't get involved and if we are not involved in other peoples lives especially those that are hurting and Christ in there life we become lazy.

Why are so many churches a "hotbed of apathy"?
So many churches are a hotbed of apathy because of a lost of zeal for God. They have become complacent, no feeling, no emotion and have lost the fire for Jesus. Their devotion seem to be divided. God is not satified with the churches that find themselves in this position.

We can combat spiritual apathy by turning to God. We can draw near to him through confession, prayer, worship, study his word, and praise.

Just as the spark of love can be rekindled in marriage, so the Holy Spirit can reignite our zeal for God when we allow him to work in our hearts.

A little more zeal is needed on the whole. If we were told that we only had a couple more months to live I am sure things would change. I know I would.
We get in our routines and try and make it to the end of the week.
The church should be a balance between reaching the lost sheep and feeding the flock.
In individual christian needs To live for Christ and not him or her self.
More love (action) for the lost.
More sacrifice from self.

How can we combat spiritual apathy and an insipid witness in ourselves?
Be Christ like or better yet be a true christian.
Shawn

Worldly interest are given too much importance in many churches. Programs and activities take the place of inspired preaching and intensive Bible study. Numbers and the quality of the members take precedence in the minds of the church leaders and the members. We must keep our hearts and minds on the message of the gospel and grieve over those who have not accepted God's gift of salvation. We must seize any opportunity to witness both in deeds and words.

I just want to say thanks to everyone, by honestly answering these questions you have helped me. I am going to try and take what I have learned here and apply it to the church I am now attending.

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'Combatting Apathy and Lukewarmness'
There seems to be a lot of finger pointing when we discuss this subject. "Judgement is mine." sayth the Lord. Also I have heard that I wouldn't even notice if it wasn't also in me. Having said that, and believing that I'm saved by God's Grace; all I have left to say is that I intend to be the best, Child of God, that I can be today.
Dear Lord Jesus, where there is 'apathy' and 'lukewarmness' in my heart ... let me offer it to YOU; that YOU may untangle it, and make me more useful to YOU, to myself, and to others.