Sunday, January 20, 2013

The AMCC (Part 1: Its Origins)


Around November 2011, when my life was going down the toilet, God was speaking to me about many churches today. Yes, I’m in church, but I noticed a common trend occurring (and it tied into the state of the economy). Many people have asked me, what does the AMCC stand for? It simply stands for the American Middle Class Church. I took some heat from those in my current church, and I’m sure I’ll take some heat for this now. It doesn’t concern me in the least. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the AMCC per se, when the mentality overrides the Bible, then there’s a serious problem (and I believe on some level, it has).

So, where does their origin begin? Well, in life, there are three classes of people and their economic state. You have the rich, the middle-class and the poor. I work in a system where the majority (if not all) would be classified as middle-class. There’s nothing wrong with that. Because of the pressures of the economy, what you find is that attitudes are based on what the economy is doing and not based on the word of God. The attitude I found to be true (especially in 2011) was this: I will do what I can to protect me, my family and my clique within my place of employment. You could call that the dog-eat-dog syndrome also. What you have here is nothing more than a middle-class fight. If you’ve been around me long enough, you would hear me say that the middle-class fight is going to get worse as the years progress.

What is sad is that we carry that same mentality over into the church world. If you have wealth, you’re frowned upon, and if you’re poor, you’re frowned upon as well. In the church world, you have many churches that you would probably call a middle class church. But because most of our demeanor has been protecting me, my family and my clique, that mentality carries over and we use that same principle when it comes to prayer, and if someone is in need. If you’re outside the circle, you’ll get help, but also be snickered behind your back (or they’ll internally gloat knowing that you need them). Heaven forbid someone outside a person’s circle is thinking about ending their life. The simple words “get over it” would be used. If they’re part of the clique, they’ll be showered with prayer and anything else that would show favoritism. If you speak out of this mentality or the schisms within the church that even look like this mentality, you’ll be called out as being cynical. Most people who cry “you are being cynical” are simply immune to it and are comfortable in this mentality. In this mentality, it’s real easy to become complacent and have your head stuck in the sand. It’s easy to identify someone in this church – example: you may have some that want to help others outside their AMCC wall (and that’s a good thing), but because they may feel trapped in the wall, they remain there and end up losing effectiveness because they don’t go down to their level. They’ll stay within those walls, and talk down to you when you don’t measure up to them. That’s not getting a full picture of where others outside your AMCC circle are.

Part 2 will discuss a parable of Jesus and how this ties into the AMCC. Stay tuned.

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