Prophetic Words

Prophetic words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from the Birmingham City Jail” (April 16, 1963)

"But the judgment of God is upon the Church as never before. If the Church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early Church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I am meeting young people every day whose disappointment with the Church has risen to outright disgust. Maybe again I have been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?"

Of all the controversies that are raging through the churches, this one has to be the most important and greatest challenge that the church is facing - irrelevance. Many have circled the wagons, grown comfortable, or just satisfied with the way things are.

Organized religion won't save the world. We somehow have to come to grasp that. MLK's words are not just prophetic, it's happening. People are watching and so many are saying "So what", and not just those standing outside the church but those on the inside trying to remember why they are supposed to be loyal to this organization.

Status Quo needs to be a dirty phrase, something avoided at all costs. It is sometimes so hard to realize that we don't have all that we need that we don't even realize that we are drinking from a lukewarm, dirty fountain (Rev 3:14-22). We need to be a thirsty people who are drinking their full from the eternal source, so much so that it spills out onto a dry world that is clamoring for something more.