Substituting brass for gold 1

Dear Pentecostal/charismatic minister Can we talk ? Are we Substituting Brass for Gold?(1)
2 Chronicles 12:9-10 KJV [9] So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord , and the treasures of the king's house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
10] Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king's house.
The background of these story relates with some instances in the local churches today .
Rather than replace the stolen items with the original specifications for the temple ( gold) ,Rehoboam went for convenience ( brass)
The Pentecostal / charismatic needs to press the restart button in many places today .
I recollect why many trooped out in numbers from the main line churches referred to as orthodox churches.
Btw I believe orthodox is as scriptural for the church as charismatic .
For the apostles taught order and tradition
2 Thessalonians 3:6 KJV [6] Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
Tradition.
1 Timothy 3:15 KJV [15] But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
How you ought to behave not as you are led but As you are instructed Even with the charismatic gifts
1 Corinthians 14:33,40 KJV [33] For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
40] Let all things be done decently and in order.
The church of Jesus is both charismatic and orthodox ( traditional / orderly ) That said .
We left for reasons we felt were reducing the church to mere organizations .
No fire for evangelism and prayer - many left because the churches didn't encourage fire brand evangelism ,door to door ,bus ,etc .
Also,the prayer meetings were hardly attended by anyone ,maybe an insignificant fraction of the church and much more the meetings didn't have " fire "
No sound teaching of Gods word - many felt ,most church leaders even though they went through seminaries hardly could explain scriptures adequately .
They rather would go into very boring stories ,discuss politics etc . The messages were not cutting edge and hardly could call for the sinner to repent and be saved
Many left for smaller bible study groups and didn't care even if they met under mango trees and long as they were teaching scriptures .
The lust for physical structures - many traditional churches invested so much on physical structures .Churches were competing on which cathedral surpassed the other .
At the detriment of spiritual edification came big ,large and beautiful physical edifices .
Many left and were contented with attending a fellowship using class rooms ,sitting rooms ,under trees etc
Emphasis on money - The numbers of collections during a service alarmed us.
Different labels for offerings .different seeds .different envelopes ,different collections . The service could drag so long because offerings were collected .
We left for new " fire brand " churches or even bible study groups which took only ONE offering
Worldliness - The traditional churches were submerged in worldly things in our views .
The clergy was enamored with Titles .
Rt Rev dr so and so,arch bishop ,bishops ,apostle etc . We left for simpler things .
Groups led by bro john ,pastor Jide .as long as the word was taught and the spirit was " caught" and sinners were won in numbers .
Many services then could pass for events .Secular discussions and secular speakers at times .
We left for strong bible teachings ,less ceremonies and less titled leaders
The church then paid too much respect for business leaders ,politicians and men of societal influence , We left for the unknown but for sound theology ,power and prayer .
Ceremonies - The Traditional Church had so many activities .
Each week had a different program, Father's Day ,Mothers day,thanksgiving Sundays etc .
We felt they did this to only raise money .the church had more events than be eventful for the move of God .
We left for more eventful things outside these events .
No room for "this day or that day "or extravaganza. Now ,without sounding critical ,some charismatic churches have taken this same baton and exceeded the traditional churches in glory .
We pursue erecting structures with greater passion than ensuring we are building men .
We have left the pursuit of training believers for prayer and Evangelism / ministry for success motivation ,entrepreneurship etc .
Pray ,tell...isn't this the same condition we complained about How are our prayer meetings ?
Even many of them are praying for our needs ,fighting enemies and not praying for others .
How are our services ? Programs upon programs .
Events upon events .
for example ,we recently and comfortably joined the secular world in celebrating its Days .this day and that day .
Nothing wrong in acknowledging fathers and mothers ,but why make a whole church service to bow to this !
which scripture did we apply ?
To spend weekends celebrating women or men or children ! These are the very reasons we called them " orthodox " churches .
Need I say more ?
Where are the deep bible studies ?
The single largest services in the 80s was the Deeper life Bible Church Monday bible study .
Men poured in from different denominations .
No special announcements ,no tv promo ,just mouth to mouth telling . Even campus fellowships of Unife / OAU ,U.I etc .The main catch was bible teaching ,prayer ,the move of the Spirit etc
How many bible studies do we still hold in major Pentecostal churches .
Do we even have specific teaching emphasis anymore ? People hardly even come to churches with bibles anymore How important have we placed the scriptures?
With the advent of technology ,phones and devices like iPads now replace bibles.
Nothing bad really ( IMHO ) only that the same device has movies ,office work ,emails ,music ,pictures etc .Think about that ! We even project scriptures on screens ,in other words discouraging the bringing of bibles or writing notes . Much of leadership now go for titles .
Imagine an undergraduate asking to be called " Pastor " or " Reverend " and some folks inserting apostle to their names or " Dr "! Do we have short memories ?
What's our project for training church workers into able ministers and solid teachers of the word ?
The amount of time spent on these " worldly " pursuits of programs and projects could have done more for building spiritual men ! Just as in earlier times ,Christians can't explain their faith .infact they blend easily in society .
Like the " orthodox churches " of old !
Haven't we substituted brass for gold ?
Haven't we given away what was precious to us for what we ran from ?
What are we assessing ourselves with ? Sunday services / special programs or bible study And prayer meetings ?
Church buildings or the church itself ?
Very soon ,many of us will experience the same trooping out to more spiritually focused congregations .
We reform, ,re- start or we lose relevance in the spiritual lives of men.
Let's give ourselves some real thinking
Grace to u .