The Church Needs Rehab

Today’s church needs rehab!  Rehabilitation, is the process of restoring to a condition of health or ability to work. It means to restore to a former capacity, standing, rights, and/or privilege. It can also mean to reestablish a good reputation.

When a person has an injury, they must often set up an appointment with a therapist for rehabilitation for that injured part of their body. Or, if a person has fallen into a lifestyle of substance abuse, for instance, they sometimes must undergo rehabilitation. Rehab allows the person to regain what was lost by the injury or abuse, to take back their life and again start living more fully.

I believe the church has come to the place that it needs rehabilitation. The Body of Christ, is in need of restoration, renewal, or to use a better known term associated with the church, revival. 

We are not operating at our former capacity of faith.  Our ability to ‘work’ has seemingly been stripped away, by complacency and American commercialism. We’re losing rights and privileges daily. We are losing our good reputation as we are so wrapped up in our own agendas that we fail to be the light of Christ that we are called to be. We have lost effectiveness because we operate like a club, rather than a living entity.

The church has wandered from the standards of biblical holiness, and I’m not referring to style of dress.  We have shirked responsibility in our communities. We have compromised, because we didn’t want to seem politically incorrect. We have failed to love those who are in opposition to us, acting as though we can win them by some militant action.

The truth though, is that the church is a living body.  It includes many members, who each have a function.  Christ is the head, the one who is calling the shots. As members of His Body, it’s our responsibility to act according to His mandate. 

This is why I say we need rehab. The head (Jesus) is sending signals to the body, but the body (the Church) isn’t getting them. We’ve lost our ability to hear his instruction, and we’ve been acting independently.  Rehab, renewal, revival, can fix that.

You may be thinking, if we go back to some former capacity, we will lose our edge in being relevant to today’s world.  That’s completely untrue. Our God is bigger than history, he’s bigger than our present.  He’s certainly God enough to handle the future. Jesus has just what this world is in need of, and if we the church can get the signal from the head of the church, we will be fully equipped to handle the challenges of today, and the days to come. We need to be rehabilitated.

So what does the rehabilitation of the church look like?  I believe it starts with prayer and returning to the Word of God (the Bible).  We need to reestablish the communication with the head of the church, Jesus. We need to hear what Christ is saying in His Word, not just what we hope or believe He is saying.  We need to pray together, until the walls of our pride and arrogance fall.  We also need to begin to talk to one another, across our lines of demarcation and love one another again.

We need to then create new habits. We need to learn to walk again, according to His Word. We should ‘be’ love personified. Not just showing love, but habitually being love.  Not some watered down version that condones godless living in the church, but love that will speak the truth to a world going to Hell in a hand basket. Love that says that you don’t have to stay in the bondage you are in, because there is a way to become new in Christ and that freedom comes by His power not ours. We need to bring integrity back to the pulpit and the pew, and make truth a habit like it was in the past.

Rehabilitation in the church may be difficult, and it won’t happen overnight, but regaining what was lost is rarely easy.  Rehabilitation takes commitment and determination, but it’s worth it, and it’s needed. The church needs rehab right away, and the good news is that our therapist (God’s Spirit) has openings available. Won’t you sign up to regain what we have lost? Make your appointment for rehab today.