The church has glorified the ministry of missions to an unhealthy degree. "Missions", as I will define it here, is traveling to a location, whether nationally or internationally, to do ministry. There is a heightened awareness, excitement, and emphasis within the church today on missions; that could be defined as idolatry. Many churches advertise their mission trips and sponsored missionaries on bulletin boards, emails, and bulletins. A significant amount of the congregations tithes go to different countries to fund all sorts of projects; and yet the state of the neighborhood that the church is in, remains unchanged. Now before I continue, missions are a central part of Kingdom work, and I don't have any issue with international or national mission work; short term or long term; however, missions has become the high point of christian service, and it should not be so. I will note, that these statements do not define every church...