"Houston, we have a problem."

This historic understatement was uttered on April 14, 1970, by Cdr. James A. Lovell while floating aimlessly in a small metal capsule hundreds of miles from earth aboard Apollo 13. Something had gone terribly wrong. Without enough oxygen or propulsion to get home safely, the spaceship crew and the team of NASA experts in Houston faced a great challenge. Well documented in dramatic fashion by Ron Howard in the movie Apollo 13, this episode could have become either a great tragedy or NASA's finest hour. The statement echoing in space began the process of looking for creative solutions to a complex challenge.

Today the Church can say something similar. "Heaven, we have a problem."

The words in this book may not be something you want to hear, any more than Houston wanted to hear those words. But if we are not willing to face our problems, we will never be able to correct our  path. It is a love for Jesus and His church, His bride, that has motivated this writing.

Modern pollsters tell us that a large number of those who are not Christians are indeed interested in Christ but not in attending church. One bumper sticker reads, "I love Jesus; it's Christians I can't stand."

I attended a meeting with several thousand pastors to view Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ before its release to the public. The buzz at the meeting was that this movie was going to be very popular and cause multitudes of people to come back to church. Sermons reaching out to the seekers for this occasion were already written and available for download online. Slick and colorful advertisements were produced to draw the masses to our church services. Entire theaters were rented out to have private showings, assuming that the people that were invited would come to Christ and naturally want to join our churches.

The film took everyone by surprise and sold more tickets than anyone imagined, making more than $600 million in sales internationally. Perhaps even more surprising, our local churches never saw any increase in attendance.

This shows us that there are many people in the United States who want to hear and believe in the message of Jesus but are not interested in the institution of church as it is. This should be a clear and compelling warning to us all. We have a problem.

Apparently, the world is interested in Jesus; it is His wife (the Church is the bride of Christ) that they do not want to spend time with....

... Read the rest of the chapter HERE

To order the book Organic Church click HERE

See also the article What is a Real Hero in God's Kingdom?

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