The American Church: A Baby Church?

By D. W. Glomski

Is the American church a baby church?
Is the American church like the Laodicean church with the Lord Jesus on the outside?
Does the American church even know what Christ's church really is?
Does the American church really follow God's pattern of church meetings?
Why is it that so many of God's people are leaving the traditional church to start home churches?
These are some of the subjects we will talk about in this book, and the American church needs to talk about them. Many people believe that the American church needs an awakening to get out of its rut that it has been in for years. May God use this book to help His church get out of this rut and get excited at following Him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 16, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449772178

D. W. Glomski

D. W. Glomski has been a Christian for over forty years and has studied God's Word seriously for about thirty-five of those years. As he compares the Word of God with the church in America, they just do not mix. D. W. Glomski has been married for thirty-seven years, raised three children who are also married, and has seven grandchildren with more to come. He has worked in a machine shop for thirty-five years. He was born again in 1972 and has his BA in biblical studies. The author lives in Rochester, Minnesota, and enjoys the outdoors. He was born and raised in Wabasha, Minnesota, along the Mississippi River.

Book preview

The American Church

A Baby Church?

D. W. Glomski

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Copyright © 2012 D. W. Glomski

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Verses: New Century Version Bible

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-7217-8 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-7218-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-7216-1 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012919462

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/14/2012

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 Babies Are Dependent on Others

Chapter 2 Babies Are Self-Centered

Chapter 3 Babies Need a Babysitter

Chapter 4 Babies Are Undiscerning

Chapter 5 Babies Are Ignorant of Values

Chapter 6 Babies Are Followers, Not Leaders

Chapter 7 Babies Do Not Feel Shame

Chapter 8 Babies Don’t Like to Share

Chapter 9 Babies Think Only of Play

Chapter 10 Babies Look Down on Structure

Notes:

A Word to the Pastors

A Word about the Wine and the Wineskin

A Word to the Plymouth Brethren

A Word about the Apostles

A Word about Church and Going to Church

A Word about Change

A Word about the Number One Problem in the American Church

Added Reading

I dedicate this book to my wife for all her work as it could have never been printed without her and my son-in-law who helped put it together from the cover to the end.

Foreword

The apostle Paul warned the Ephesian elders, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. So it is not surprising if we should see departures from New Testament Christianity in the church today.

My brother and friend, Dale Glomski, has attempted to identify and correct some of these departures in this book. When he asked me to read it, I wasn’t too interested. I had other things to do, including other books to read, but because Dale was a friend, I finally agreed to peruse it. Though I started halfheartedly, I soon became interested. I saw that the book addressed important topics seldom discussed among Christians but addressed in the Word of God. Dale calls for biblical standards of church polity and practice in areas where traditions of men have taken us in wrong directions. He gives good illustrations of ways in which the church in America has wandered from the New Testament pattern.

Were the English evangelist Leonard Ravenhill still alive, I think he would say amen to much of what Dale has written. Among Ravenhill’s radical declarations were these:

I’m embarrassed to be a part of the so-called church of Jesus Christ today because I believe it’s an embarrassment to a holy God!

The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is the religion of Christ’s church.

Somebody someday will pick this Bible up and will be simple enough to believe it, and when they do, the church will all be embarrassed.

As with Brother Ravenhill, some of what Dale says may offend the reader.

I would ask that you persevere to the book’s end, with a prayerful attitude and an open mind. Some assertions may be a little extreme, but please don’t let that lead you to reject the book’s overall message, which I believe is that Christ’s body needs a transformation; it needs to return to the Word of God and obey what God commands. I commend this book to all believers, especially those in church leadership. Another great English evangelist, George Whitefield, once said, The Christian world is in a dead sleep. Nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it. If that were true in the eighteenth century, how much more so it is today. I hope that this book will help in some way to bring that awakening to pass. May the church go on to maturity and the Lord Jesus Christ be magnified through His body.

A brother in Christ,

Steven Ritland

www.mysteryofGod.net

Introduction

S ometimes God puts us in difficult situations to see things that we never saw before. The story of Hosea the prophet is an excellent depiction of this. Hosea was put in a difficult situation. God told him to marry a prostitute, whose nature was to be an unfaithful wife, and she broke Hosea’s heart. God then explained to Hosea that this is what Israel had done to Him. Israel was His unfaithful wife, a spiritual prostitute. Hosea got to experience the pain God was enduring. Has the church in America done to God just what Israel did? I believe that after reading this book, you will agree that maybe she has.

God has put me in a difficult situation. I live in a city of more than one hundred thousand people. There are many churches in this city, and many people profess faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, as a brother in Christ, among too many of these professing believers, I have no place to lay my head. I feel like the Lord Jesus, who said, Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head (Matt. 8:20). Is that how the Lord would feel in a typical American city with all of its churches? In my city, we have Baptist churches, Evangelical Free churches, independent churches, Community churches, mainline denominational churches, and the list goes on. Would the Lord Jesus find a place to lay His head in any of these churches?

Remember the church in Laodicea, where the Lord stood outside knocking to get in (Rev. 3:20). Individuals opened up to Him, but the church as a whole was closed to the Lord. We read in the gospel that Jesus came to his own people [Israel at the time], but his own people received him not (John 1:11).

The church is God’s own people—those called out of darkness, who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus and have had their sins forgiven. We should ask ourselves a question: do the people who have experienced God’s grace go to a church where the door is closed to Him? I believe most of them do. In America, the church as a whole is not open to Jesus Christ. Most American Christians go to churches closed to Christ and don’t even realize it.

This does not mean that these closed churches are not doing good things. Many good works are being done in most American evangelical churches, and I rejoice in those good works; however, I believe a lot of good works were done in the Laodicean church, and still it was closed to Jesus Christ.

You might ask, How do you know my church is closed to Jesus Christ? We talk about Him all the time. Our pastor proclaims that He is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no salvation in any other than in the person of Jesus Christ. I say amen to that, but proclaiming the gospel is not a guarantee that your church is open to Jesus Christ. I’m sure the Laodicean church preached the gospel, but it was still closed to the Lord Jesus.

How can our churches open its doors up to the Lord Jesus? If all at once our churches opened their doors to the Lord, there would be terrible chaos, and we don’t want that. The Corinthian church had an open door to the Lord Jesus, and yet its meetings were in disarray. In fact, the apostle Paul said it would be better for the Corinthian believers not to gather than to meet the way they were doing. (Read 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 and 1 Corinthians 14).

What was the problem with the church in Corinth? Believers there were still babies in Christ. Even though they had some of the best teachers (Paul, Peter, and Apollos), they were still spiritual babies and never went on to maturity. This is true of the American church. It has not gone on to maturity.

Like the Corinthian church, the American church must be taught little steps at a time before it can open the door and let Jesus Christ enter. That is why I wrote this book. I want to bring American Christians from babyhood to maturity. Any teacher, pastor, or evangelist in tune with God will have that desire.

On a news program one night, reporters were discussing the evangelical church in America. These secular newsmen said that the American evangelical church preaches the same message as in the past, but is much shallower today. What a sad comment from a secular news channel! Have our church leaders failed us? Have all our Bible colleges and megachurches failed us? If that is the way our secular media looks at us, they have.

God’s Word tells us to advance to maturity, not to stay baby Christians. Baby Christians are saved. They have eternal life, but they are shallow. They haven’t gone on to maturity.

I hope this book will stir your heart to grow to maturity. If you are a teacher or pastor, I hope you will see the need for the people you lead to reach