A plastic Jesus

Decades ago, I was a young preacher driving along the Florida coast late at night. I was returning from ministering at a friend's church. I clicked on the radio to keep myself awake and happened to catch a distant preacher. He was offering a giveaway to anyone who would send a donation. His gift for donors was a plastic statue of Jesus that you could mount on the dashboard of your car. I remember him saying, "Get your plastic Jesus today!"

Do you have a plastic Jesus?

Jesus is still the same today. He is an insurgent, a revolutionary. Study the best source to understand the authentic Jesus. Read the eyewitness accounts in the Bible. These witnesses watched him with shock and awe as he spoke like no one ever had. They saw him heal the sick. They saw demons expelled. They watched him rebuke religious hypocrites. They saw him love the unlovable to the point of sacrificing his life for their freedom.

As an observer of modern Christianity, and a lifelong practitioner of it, I have noticed that we moderns have reduced the gospel to something less than what Jesus preached and demonstrated. Today in America, the ministry is a self-help club, a feel-better exercise to improve our lives. We've substituted Churchianity for Christianity. The original pattern - with Jesus as its center - has been cut short, truncated, gutted, rendered powerless.

Modern evangelicals have lost the fullness of Jesus. We have piety without power, a shadow of the real thing. His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, outpouring of the Spirit, soon return, and power are not mentioned. We downplay what he did to help people - his ministry. We explain away his miracles, the works he did by the Holy Spirit's power.

Modern ministry is about efficient, professional human effort, a business model; church goal setting, educating, promoting programs, erecting multi-million dollar buildings, spending thousands of dollars on air conditioning, PA systems, padded pews, and sprawling parking lots. Even our missions efforts are to duplicate this powerless pattern in other places.

Instead of making disciples who do the wonderful works of Jesus, we model a lesser form of corporate success: crowds listening to sermons. That's the model. We go to church to hear endless sermons. We don't gather to pray and be shown how to break the devil's grip. No one gets saved anymore. We just shuffle crowds. We have wonderful orators, eloquent preachers who weave spell-binding messages but are void of any anointing by the Spirit. Where are the attesting miracles? Where are the testimonies? Words without power can't deliver people from sin's sordid bondage or Satan's clawing grasp.

Based on the institutional model in most churches, the original Jesus has left the building. He's now a puny savior. We've made idols out of our traditions, our rituals, and our preachers. Isn't it time to repent? Isn't it time to find our way to the upper room? Pastor Jack Giles in Meridian, Miss., says, "When prayer time becomes the most important meeting of the week, revival has come to the church."

An old commercial asked, "Where's the beef?" I ask, "Where's the power?" If you aren't regularly seeing God's power, then the kingdom is not present in your midst. Isn't Jesus the same? Has God's word changed? Have human needs diminished?

Don't settle for a plastic Jesus. Accept no substitutes. The risen Christ is alive! Pray to the Lord. Read your Bible. Don't stop seeking God until you've encountered the real Jesus.

-- Ron Wood is a writer and minister. Email him at [email protected] or visit www.touchedbygrace.org. The opinions expressed are those of the author.