God has been showing me so much lately, regarding His church. We typically go to church to get something, not to give something. We pick things out of the service that bother us. Maybe we didn't like the way the pastor said something. Maybe the songs didn't move us. Childcare wasn't running smoothly. The people aren't as dressed up as we expect them to be.
More and more I wonder, is this what church is supposed to look like? Where we are more worried about child check in, than worshipping with our own kids? Where we are first with an opinion, but definitely not the first to volunteer? What if we came to serve? To be conduits, instead of always consuming. What if we realized that people fell on their faces in awe of our God, and we barely mouth words to the songs, not even recognizing the majesty of our creator.
I see people church shopping on facebook about once a week. They list what they're looking for. Good nursery, how's the praise and worship? We need a church that's casual, that's got a youth group, that is a small church, big church, Baptist church, Pentecostal church, hipster church. Sometimes they even mention how their church has done them wrong. I wish I could say I haven't done this. I actually told a pastor once that I wasn't attending his church because I thought the worship team sounded like music played at a funeral. I've once been asked to leave a church because Kaden was talking during the sermon. He was about 6 months old. It was the most embarrassed I have ever been in a church, and I sure used it enough times as an excuse when I didn't feel like going. In America, we church shop. Other Christians in other countries are getting killed for their beliefs, and we are literally asking people to cater to ours. When Jesus told us to pick up our cross daily, is this what He meant?
This might offend you. It offends me, but maybe we need to be offended. Maybe over the years we've learned to shove down that feeling of conviction in lieu of the American Christian life.
The church isn't called to be comfortable. We are called to be Christ-like.
'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.' John 13:34-35.
This was a commandment. Not a suggestion. Imagine how hard that is when we see each other for one hour out of the entire week, speaking hello and goodbye. Is this what Jesus meant? These past few weeks in my church, as we gathered, I got a glimpse of what I think Jesus intended His church to look like. It was beautiful. The people in the pews came together in real fellowship. The children and the people in one place worshipping. It was joyful. It was real. It was church. Why aren't we doing this every week? In every church?
Jefferson Bethke said 'the church isn't brick and mortar, it's flesh and bone.' The church didn't even become a building until hundreds of years after Christ's death. The church was people, serving each other and spreading the gospel to the world. We've taken something so simple, and complicated it. Love God, and love each other.
We're not going to change the world by going to church. We will only change the world by being the church. It isn't something we go to, it's a family that we belong to.
Here is the church, here is the steeple. Tear down the doors, church is the people!
More and more I wonder, is this what church is supposed to look like? Where we are more worried about child check in, than worshipping with our own kids? Where we are first with an opinion, but definitely not the first to volunteer? What if we came to serve? To be conduits, instead of always consuming. What if we realized that people fell on their faces in awe of our God, and we barely mouth words to the songs, not even recognizing the majesty of our creator.
I see people church shopping on facebook about once a week. They list what they're looking for. Good nursery, how's the praise and worship? We need a church that's casual, that's got a youth group, that is a small church, big church, Baptist church, Pentecostal church, hipster church. Sometimes they even mention how their church has done them wrong. I wish I could say I haven't done this. I actually told a pastor once that I wasn't attending his church because I thought the worship team sounded like music played at a funeral. I've once been asked to leave a church because Kaden was talking during the sermon. He was about 6 months old. It was the most embarrassed I have ever been in a church, and I sure used it enough times as an excuse when I didn't feel like going. In America, we church shop. Other Christians in other countries are getting killed for their beliefs, and we are literally asking people to cater to ours. When Jesus told us to pick up our cross daily, is this what He meant?
This might offend you. It offends me, but maybe we need to be offended. Maybe over the years we've learned to shove down that feeling of conviction in lieu of the American Christian life.
The church isn't called to be comfortable. We are called to be Christ-like.
'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.' John 13:34-35.
This was a commandment. Not a suggestion. Imagine how hard that is when we see each other for one hour out of the entire week, speaking hello and goodbye. Is this what Jesus meant? These past few weeks in my church, as we gathered, I got a glimpse of what I think Jesus intended His church to look like. It was beautiful. The people in the pews came together in real fellowship. The children and the people in one place worshipping. It was joyful. It was real. It was church. Why aren't we doing this every week? In every church?
Jefferson Bethke said 'the church isn't brick and mortar, it's flesh and bone.' The church didn't even become a building until hundreds of years after Christ's death. The church was people, serving each other and spreading the gospel to the world. We've taken something so simple, and complicated it. Love God, and love each other.
We're not going to change the world by going to church. We will only change the world by being the church. It isn't something we go to, it's a family that we belong to.
Here is the church, here is the steeple. Tear down the doors, church is the people!
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