How we think of God and what we think he expects of us are hugely important when it comes to how we serve him and especially how we respond when things don’t go the way we thought they would.

I wonder how you answer that question? What’s your instinctive first reaction?
What is God like?  How you answered that first question ‘what does God want from his people’ is largely determined by how you answer that question.  How you think of God.  Is God a headmaster or boss setting challenging, or impossible, targets and demanding results?  Or is he happy go lucky, chilled out and more of a people person than a target setter?  How we think of God will determine what we think God wants from his people.  What he expects of you at work, at home and in the community, at church and as a church.
How we think of God and what we think he expects of us are hugely important when it comes to how we serve him and especially how we respond when things don’t go the way we thought they would, or when things just seem slow.  That’s when we can feel like we just need to work harder to produce.  Or we feel like a failure.  Or think of giving up.
I’m sure you’ve seen quiz shows where they stop the action and ask ‘What happens next’?  Sometimes it’s helpful to do that with the Bible.
In 1 Kings 19 God’s people are ruled by evil King Ahab.  They’ve been led to ignore God and worship Baal and other idols.  God disciplines them by withholding rain for three years as he promised he would, but Israel won’t turn back to God.  They won’t recognise the covenant curse, God calling them back through his discipline.  They won’t repent.  And so God, through Elijah calls for a showdown on Mount Carmel.  In one lonely corner stands Elijah Yahweh’s prophet and in the other stand 450 prophets of Baal.  It’s a battle over who is God, who is worthy of worship and loyalty and love and who isn’t.  It’s last God standing, a display to once and for all stop the people wavering and call them to follow one God.
Each builds an altar, each puts wood on the altar, each puts an offering on the altar, but mustn’t light it.  Instead of matches they’re to pray for a divine conflagration and the God who sends fire from heaven is the real God.
You can feel the tension can’t you.  The priests of Baal go first.  They pray, they plead, they shout, they cut themselves, they dance from morning till evening getting more and more agitated and frenzied as Elijah taunts them asking if Baal is busy, or travelling or if he’s dozed off.  But despite all the activity, all the energy nothing happens.  There’s no fire, not even a fizzle, because Baal isn’t God.
Then it’s Elijah’s turn and you wonder if he’s been out in the sun too long.  He calls the people to him and rebuilds God’s altar, digs a large trench around it, sets up the wood, cutting up the bull but then, in an act of seemingly staggering stupidity he has 12 large jars of water poured all over it.  Then finally, at the time of evening sacrifice, he prays to God asking that God would act “so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
And instantly, whoosh, the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the soil, and all the water in the trench.  And the people fall down and proclaim “The LORD – he is God!  The LORD – he is God!”  Then slaughter the 450 prophets of Baal, and Elijah prays and rain falls for the first time in 3 years.
Here’s the question; what happens next?  Or rather what should happen next?  Everything should change shouldn’t it?  Ahab should lead the nation in national repentance, and chapter 19 should be the story of Ahab and Elijah leading God’s people to live in his land enjoying his rule as his people for his glory. Revival should break out, the nations see Israel basking in the joy of being God’s people and chapters 20 following should document the nations turning to God.
But that’s not what happens.  No sooner has the smell of BBQ drifted away with the rain and any hope of revival is washed away too.  (1 Kings 19v1-2) Ahab runs home and tells Jezebel everything Elijah had done.  And how does she react?  She isn’t repentant, she doesn’t weigh the evidence and think ‘Wow! I was wrong Baal isn’t God, Yahweh is the one true God, I’d better repent.’  No, she ignores all the evidence and sets out to kill Elijah as soon as she can.
That’s really helpful for us to see.  Sometimes we’re naïve, we think repentance is the result of logic and argument – if I can just show someone who Jesus is, build a case and prove he’s the Messiah then they’ll repent and come to faith.  That’s what our evangelistic courses are built on and why when we reach the end of them we’re a bit stuck as to what to do next with people who liked the course but haven’t trusted Jesus yet.  And so we look around, send a few WhatsApps for recommended courses, and invite them on another course.  Or perhaps we think it’s about seeing the miraculous, surely that will bring them to repent.
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“So, the dones are leaving behind the church. But they do not necessarily leave their faith. In fact, it seems they have a strong desire to maintain their spiritual lives. The reason the Dones have dechurched themselves is not that they no longer believe in God. Rather, it is because they feel the church is no longer fostering an environment in which they can spiritually grow.”

I have a dim view of Mallory Challis’ glowing review of “Church Refugees” by Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope. (https://baptistnews.com/article/these-christians-are-leaving-behind-the-church-but-not-their-faith/) There is a celebratory glee in reporting upon strong, faithful, and committed  Christians leaving the oppression of the church. The author reports at least four reasons justifying these heroic former members walking away in a fit of pique. These include hateful teachings about homosexuality that offend their friends or family members. Some are done with church because of a lack of support for a member’s pet projects. While others have walked away because of the time and resources dedicated to Sunday morning corporate worship that could be spent elsewhere. And finally, some have walked away because the church has too great an emphasis on doctrine, rather than on personal relationships.
The book and the article term these people as the “Done.” Many were a part of the 20 percent who did 80 percent of the work, but have become dissatisfied. That name, “Done,” is instructive. “I’m done!” connotes anger to such a degree that one is committed to cutting off any further contact or communication. Hardly a mature and faithful response to issues within the church. And yet, amazingly, the author of the review claims,
“So, the dones are leaving behind the church. But they do not necessarily leave their faith. In fact, it seems they have a strong desire to maintain their spiritual lives. The reason the Dones have dechurched themselves is not that they no longer believe in God. Rather, it is because they feel the church is no longer fostering an environment in which they can spiritually grow.”
But the church is the place for spiritual growth, as the Westminster Divines said:
25.3. Unto this catholic visible church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and doth, by his own presence and Spirit, according to his promise, make them effectual thereunto.
The Divines based this high view of the church on Scripture and not on feelings:

I Cor 12:27—Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.. (NASB-95).
Eph 4: 11—And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (NASB-93).

Is this to say that every one of the estimated 300,000 particularized congregation in America is a place of spiritual growth? Certainly not. The Scriptures speak of synagogues of Satan. The Scriptures speak of false teachers. The Scriptures speak of the Lord extinguishing the lampstand of faithless churches. But the Lord promises that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matt 16:18).
We may well ask the Dones what the Lord asked Elijah in I Kings 19:13b-14: “And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
But Elijah was not the only believer left. Just a guess, but I doubt all 300,000 churches are false churches. A true church is one that faithfully preaches and teaches the Word of God, that rightly administers the sacraments, and that practices church discipline. Every aspect of the church involves the Word of God. We see the Word preached. We see the Word on display in the sacraments. And we see the Word in action via church discipline. It seems more likely that the Dones are consumer-oriented connoisseurs of boutique Christianity than that all churches in America are false.
The mission of the church is to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt 28: 19-20). And yet, if accurate, this quote, from Miss Challis, is quite disturbing:
“Outside the church, the dones often seek ways to foster spiritual growth. Small groups, Bible studies and other non-institutional activities that prioritize relationships and conversation over doctrine and business-like decisions provide spaces in which they can explore their personal relationships with God free of judgment and structure that is holding them back.”
The very offices (elders and deacons) that God has ordained to oversee, teach and care for His people are the very people accused of holding back the Dones from spiritual growth. No evidence is proffered. Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep. That is a high and noble calling.
One of scariest verse in the Bible is in Judges 21: 25, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” It seems history is repeating itself, even though we have a king. Our king, the Lord Jesus Christ, has ordained that His church be ruled administratively by elders. Our rule may be imperfectly executed, but it is the Scriptural pattern for the church.
As elders, we need to examine those imperfections. We need to redouble our efforts to ensure that the Word of God is preached well, that our doctrines are taught to the next generation, that the sacraments are rightly administered, and that discipline is practiced at from the local congregation to the General Assembly.
The sheep are scattering. As under shepherds, we must seek them out and call them back to the church.
Al Taglieri is a Ruling Elder in the Providence Presbyterian Church in York, Penn.
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When done properly Christian worship does not just target the intellect, but also the whole person. The singing and praying, the sermon, the sacraments of baptism and communion, the entire liturgy, appeals to multiple senses—the ear gate, the eye gate, the nose gate, the taste gate, the touch gate. Worship, therefore, is incarnational, affecting both head and heart—both soul and body—which are not separate entities but enmeshed.

You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
— Augustine

As James K. A. Smith reminds us in You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, Augustine’s prayer reveals several aspects about the human condition. First, human beings are made by and forthe Creator. Furthermore, to be human is to be for something—for a vision or some perceived good. Finally, the heart is just as important as the head. That is to say, the pull of a vision toward a perceived good is not primarily a pull of the intellect, but the heart.
Bob Dylan put it this way:
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna serve somebody, yes
Indeed, you’re gonna have to serve somebody
Or think of it like this: A guy goes to a marriage counselor and says, “I want a divorce from my wife.” The counselor says, “Why do you want to divorce your wife?” The man says, “Because I don’t love her anymore.” The counselor says, “Well, who do you love?”
Augustine (and Dylan) are saying it’s not a question of whether you love something because we all love something. You cannot not love. The more difficult question is who or what do you love? All people have a longing for God because it is built in—a distant echo from the Imago Dei. The problem is that sin has warped this longing. So, people spend a great deal of time trying to fill this vacuum. In doing so, they are all looking for some version of the Good—some version of the Kingdom.
Smith reminds us that people live for what they love. They get up in the morning and they do their thing day after day and this forms them. Our loves are formed by what we think and do—our habits. The ancients said that good moral habits constitute virtues and bad moral habits constitute vices. From a Christian perspective, virtue is what we mean when we talk about godliness. Likewise, vice refers to ungodliness.
Essentially, Smith’s book addresses the subject of sanctification, which is described in the Bible as a two-step process: renouncing and reorienting. Paul says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12 ESV).
In the same way, Paul says in Ephesians that the way of Christ teaches us to put off the old self, which belongs to our old way of life corrupted through deceitful desires, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:20-24).
Perhaps the most significant contribution of Smith’s book is his notion of cultural liturgies; that is, the daily rituals or routines that take up our time and affections, which tend to form our loves. For example, Smith says the American affection for shopping is a kind of cultural liturgy that holds out the good of consumerism.
Likewise, one could say the time we spend in front a television screen is a kind of cultural liturgy that holds out the good of entertainment. The time teenagers and preteens spend with their cellphones—taking it to bed with them—is a habit of the heart that constitutes a cultural liturgy. Facebook time is a kind of cultural liturgy in its own right, especially if the first thing you do in the morning is turn on your computer to see if someone has messaged you.
Of course, not all of our pursuits are not necessarily bad within themselves, but they shape us in ways we don’t always realize. Here is what we need to understand: People who design cellphones, build malls, or produce television programming don’t really care what you think, but they very much care about what you love.
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