“You have a reputation that you are alive – but you are dead.” This was the diagnosis Jesus had of the church in Sardis. Ask anyone who doesn’t visit a church on Sunday morning and they’ll agree. It seems like those inside are the only ones who are in the dark.

Jesus wanted his disciples to be salt and light in the world. Two thousand years later we are in the dark and rather than preserving and seasoning like salt – the 21^st century church is lying like a dead body in the yard. Ask anyone in San Francisco if they’d like to see another church being planted there. We all know the reaction, and the reason for it. Those outside the church despise the ones inside.

It wasn’t long ago, as an atheist, I also had a loathing for the church. Eight years after God opened my eyes, he finally pried the lid off my heart. Now I am beginning to see the problems in church again. The list is long. We in the church are perceived as divisive, narrow-minded, greedy, hypocritical, judgmental, self-righteous, environmentally ignorant, socially insensitive, uncaring, unloving and untrustworthy. Yeah, I know – there’s more.

We believe we are the body of Christ, but our own music laments the fact that the hands ofJesus aren’t healing, his feet aren’t going and his love isn’t showing. The band Casting Crowns and many others have been sending a message to the church, but a dead church can’t hear it.

I could go on, but this message isn’t about complaining; I just wanted to establish the nature of the problem. Now it’s time for the solution. In the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, after condemning the churches, Jesus warns them to repent, or else! The church has ignored those warnings, so God is going to do something unheard of.

I heard a nice British fellow preaching in church this week from the book of Habakkuk. He read the verse where God said, “I am about to do something so extraordinary that even if you saw it with your own eyes you wouldn’t believe it.” I waited for him to tell us what it was – but the answer never came.

Most of the prophets know God is about to do something suddenly in the church, something big and something dramatic. What is headed for the church is nothing less than a tidal wave that will completely transform the landscape we now see.

Today God told me what’s going to happen. Because the church has refused God’s mission to reach its community and has failed to show His love to those who need it, because the church has destroyed His healers and shunned His prophets, God is going to take his poweroutside the stained-glass arcade.

What the reformation of the 16^th century didn’t accomplish, this reformation will. The last one was about doctrine, this reformation will come in power and healing and miracles. This movement is about those whom the traditional church has deemed unworthy.

Many people believe the miracles God did through Todd Bentley were a kind of first fruits. “God is going to do more miracles,” they say. Well, they are right. But they see the pierced and tattooed, wild and undisciplined man as a weirdo, just a blip on the radar who crashed and burned. Yes, Todd is a kind of Kamikaze, but what the church doesn’t know is that there is a squadron of several thousand Todd Bentleys approaching, just out of view of their radar.

The church believes the miracles will happen inside its holy and sacred spaces. But the church is “dead” wrong. The church has failed its mission. God is going to do His new miracles in the community. Todd was the right man in the wrong place. Not only is God going to do miracles like the ones He did through Todd, He’s going to use people just as weird in the eyes of the church. If Todd’s ministry had happened on the streets, people would still be rejoicing. But the church did what it does best – criticize and destroy those that are different. It’s the only human organization that eats is young and kills its wounded.

God is going to raise up prophets and healers from the coffee shop owners and race car drivers of America. His apostles will work in art galleries. His pastors will be high school coaches; his evangelist will be a punk rocker. God is going to bless the people he wants to bless and the church won’t be able to stop it.

I happen to love the people I attend church with. They are some of the most warm and sincere people I’ve ever known. I love my pastor. He’s funny, loving, and a wonderful teacher. But this isn’t true of many churches. God is going to do a wonderful work in Olympia (and other places) The traditional church has no place for artists, dancers, poets and dreamers. But my hometown is a community of artists. God is the master creator, the master poet and master painter. We honor His creativity in our own artistic expression. God is going to use the arts for His glory.

We have ignored the native culture of our region and in doing so we have dishonored our heritage and earned the resentment of our neighbors. The new move of God in this area will use the arts as a unifying force. His healing will be felt by the gays and lesbians, his love will be brought to the Wiccan, His message of hope will reach the tree-huggers. And the traditional church is going to have a holy cow over it. The grave has been dug, it’s time to bury the corpse and move on.

A prophet, a healer and an evangelist walk into a bar. They shoot a few games of pool, and love on the patrons in the bar. They are invited back, and this time they interpret some dreams and pray for a healing. They are invited back and this time the evangelist opens his mouth and declares the incredible love God has for these folks. A new church is born. Are you seeing the picture?

If the traditional church folks repent and decide to show God’s love to their neighbors, God will honor them. If not – His work will be done among those outside the chapel anyways. To those who embrace the new wine God is preparing: you’d better bring a new wineskin to the party, the old kind won’t do.

I hope you will join in the new and wonderful work that God is going to do. Cheers!

By Dave Hayes

The Church is Dead (Does Anyone Care?)