What is Church?
I have to make several qualifications and explanations before I ever begin typing this blog post. My thoughts are all over the place. My brain feels like it has been completely flooded with thoughts and revelations that I just have to get on paper before I lose them completely.
Things to note before reading:
I believe with everything I am that gathering weekly to worship Jesus Christ is vital to the Christian life.
There are groups of believers doing exactly what I am about to describe.
I am not targeting anyone in particular (it burns my britches that I even have to type that, but I've been accused of being passive aggressive in the past, which I am not, so there is THAT qualification just to chill people out)
I realize I was just passive aggressive in acknowledging I am not passive aggressive, but whatever.
The last 10 months I have essentially been without a church home. There isn't a lick of Southern Baptist work going on in Henry (or the entire county), and although I don't pledge my allegiance to the SBC I do align myself with the Baptist Faith and Message so it has been rough finding a church home. This information is just that; information for you. I'm not looking for suggestions on how, where, and when to worship, and I don't say this to sound cocky, but we are spiritually mature believers and we are well aware of our options and possibilities. We've spent hours in prayer over the matter. I share this to let you know how much our perspective has changed on "church."
My entire life has revolved around church and its functions. I was raised on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night church attendance. I've never known a moment that "church" wasn't somehow involved. As a child, I grew up knowing Jesus loved me and I had many, many adults that nurtured His teachings into my tender heart. As an adult, I read scripture for myself and made Jesus my own; fully. As I grew in adulthood, I also grew in spiritual maturity and continue to do so, daily.
The last 10 months have been spent without that base, without what I thought was my foundation. I haven't had a Wednesday night prayer meeting to attend and share my burdens or to help take on the burdens others are carrying. I haven't had the privilege of opening God's word with other believers and sharing its truths or delighting in the love God has for me. There was an ever widening hole in what I thought was my foundation.
Then, God did something amazing. He started bringing other believers to me. I would receive private messages from sisters that were in awe of what God was doing in our lives and they wanted to pray for us. I would run into someone, just completely randomly, and they would hug me and share how our obedience had increased their own. During a time that I was mourning a life I once knew, God was bringing the church to me. It was incredible. It got to where when I received a message or a phone call, I no longer was super surprised by the direction the call would take.
It was even more than that. Because of Curt's YouTube channel, we had the incredible opportunity to meet other believers from all over our nation. Curt would be on the trail and suddenly meet someone that was watching his thru hike and had been awed by Curt's obedience in leaving all he knew; the security of a job, the shelter of our home, the love of his family, and hike a trail that would require days upon days of hardship and loneliness and the whispers of people that think he is either insane, or a giant liar.
We met "the church" all over the trail. From other hikers, to trail angels to YouTube viewers, we were SO blessed to fellowship with other believers for 181 days of a journey that was all about walking by faith, and not by sight.
I've known in my head that "the church" is not a building. I know it. I believe it. There's no question that scripture teaches that the church is the body of Christ, but this past summer it went from my head to my heart. God was teaching us a lesson on exactly how global His body is, how diverse, and how scattered. But God was teaching us something else...
He was teaching us how broken His body of believers really is.
This is the part that will take some explaining and may not come out the way I want so I am praying for clarity in my words for you, the reader, to hear my heart.
The church is broken. We are diseased and it is more than sin. Obviously sin is the root of all of it, but we have a cancer running through us that has to be healed before we can make any type of impact on the darkness in this world.
Frankly, we suck.
Got your attention?
We have exchanged being the church for going to church. We have exchanged fellowship with one another for Sunday morning, Sunday evening, or Wednesday night attendance. We've settled for a checklist to mark off instead of real, authentic, living life together moments. We've mistaken the tears on Wednesday night while pouring out the desperate pleas of a prayer request and the token praying for you card mailed once a week with living life together as a body of believers.
We've become shallow.
I am NOT saying that we don't care for one another. Most of us do, but we are superficial and ankle deep in one another's life at best.
I was part of the problem, so don't think I'm sitting here in Henry, IL looking down my nose at my brothers and sisters. Absolutely not, but the depth of the issue has been revealed to me over the last 10 months and I. am. BROKEN.
I am completely broken and here is why:
There are many, many people that know their foundation should be Jesus Christ, but their foundation was built upon a building or a group of people and so the foundation itself is cracked, weak, and broken. They are saved, but they have no idea what to do with that knowledge. They don't really know who God is, nor how to grow and they are going through life barely keeping their heads above water, as they file in to church, sit in a pew (or chair), listen to the pastor speak, attend their weekly Bible study, go to prayer meeting, become part of the prayer chain, volunteer for every short term mission trip possible, and in general look the part of "good" Christian.
All the while desperately seeking that one person they can confide in. That one person they can share their doubts, their hurts, their confusion, their joys, their life with.
And it is an ever growing issue.
It is the recently widowed woman. It is the mom of 3 children under the age of 6. It is the dad working 40+ hours to make ends meet. It is the college student leaving home for the first time. It is the high school boy that feels like his family doesn't hear him. It is the pastor's wife that plasters a smile on her face and prays with you. It is the minister that stands before the congregation weekly preaching the good news of Jesus. It is each and every one of because we have substituted going to church with being the church.
Yes, we love our church family. Yes, we hurt with them. Yes, we feel a bond to them like no other, but we are not involved in their life.
We back off from messy people. We shy away from answering hard questions. We run from people that are confrontational with thoughts and ideas and worries and hurts. When someone makes a choice we disagree with we build a wall. When others do things we don't understand we shut down communication. When we have no answer and don't know what to say, we remain silent.
And they hear our silence.
Our next issue?
We are too busy to get involved. We have our own issues. We have our own families to worry about. We don't have time for high maintenance because we have our own life to live.
We are too busy to be the church with one another. Church attendance is hard enough for the vast majority of us, let alone BEING the church to one another.
We are broken.
I've spoken to so many women lately that just need one mentor to come along side and guide them through some tough times. They need a mentor to remind them of key components of Who God is. They need a church family to walk with them every single day to grow in faith.
They need people who will earnestly pray with them and for them.
They need the church.
I'm convicted by scripture. In Acts 2 we are told this about the early church: "Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved."
Words that jump out at me:
EVERY DAY
HOUSE TO HOUSE
JOYFUL AND HUMBLE ATTITUDE
PRAISING GOD
FAVOR WITH *ALL* THE PEOPLE
and the big one....
EVERY DAY THE LORD ADDED TO THEM
Church... we are broken. Healing can and will come.
But it requires change. It requires a shake up.
For us, it required resigning from a job, moving, living as a nomad, and having only God to rely on.
But my heart and eyes are opening to what my mind always knew. It is time to *BE* the church.
Father, forgive us. Forgive me. Help me to refocus on You, Your body, and Your desires for my life. To cast away the temporary useless things of this world and to help grow what truly matters. Eternal treasure.
Things to note before reading:
I believe with everything I am that gathering weekly to worship Jesus Christ is vital to the Christian life.
There are groups of believers doing exactly what I am about to describe.
I am not targeting anyone in particular (it burns my britches that I even have to type that, but I've been accused of being passive aggressive in the past, which I am not, so there is THAT qualification just to chill people out)
I realize I was just passive aggressive in acknowledging I am not passive aggressive, but whatever.
The last 10 months I have essentially been without a church home. There isn't a lick of Southern Baptist work going on in Henry (or the entire county), and although I don't pledge my allegiance to the SBC I do align myself with the Baptist Faith and Message so it has been rough finding a church home. This information is just that; information for you. I'm not looking for suggestions on how, where, and when to worship, and I don't say this to sound cocky, but we are spiritually mature believers and we are well aware of our options and possibilities. We've spent hours in prayer over the matter. I share this to let you know how much our perspective has changed on "church."
My entire life has revolved around church and its functions. I was raised on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night church attendance. I've never known a moment that "church" wasn't somehow involved. As a child, I grew up knowing Jesus loved me and I had many, many adults that nurtured His teachings into my tender heart. As an adult, I read scripture for myself and made Jesus my own; fully. As I grew in adulthood, I also grew in spiritual maturity and continue to do so, daily.
The last 10 months have been spent without that base, without what I thought was my foundation. I haven't had a Wednesday night prayer meeting to attend and share my burdens or to help take on the burdens others are carrying. I haven't had the privilege of opening God's word with other believers and sharing its truths or delighting in the love God has for me. There was an ever widening hole in what I thought was my foundation.
Then, God did something amazing. He started bringing other believers to me. I would receive private messages from sisters that were in awe of what God was doing in our lives and they wanted to pray for us. I would run into someone, just completely randomly, and they would hug me and share how our obedience had increased their own. During a time that I was mourning a life I once knew, God was bringing the church to me. It was incredible. It got to where when I received a message or a phone call, I no longer was super surprised by the direction the call would take.
It was even more than that. Because of Curt's YouTube channel, we had the incredible opportunity to meet other believers from all over our nation. Curt would be on the trail and suddenly meet someone that was watching his thru hike and had been awed by Curt's obedience in leaving all he knew; the security of a job, the shelter of our home, the love of his family, and hike a trail that would require days upon days of hardship and loneliness and the whispers of people that think he is either insane, or a giant liar.
We met "the church" all over the trail. From other hikers, to trail angels to YouTube viewers, we were SO blessed to fellowship with other believers for 181 days of a journey that was all about walking by faith, and not by sight.
I've known in my head that "the church" is not a building. I know it. I believe it. There's no question that scripture teaches that the church is the body of Christ, but this past summer it went from my head to my heart. God was teaching us a lesson on exactly how global His body is, how diverse, and how scattered. But God was teaching us something else...
He was teaching us how broken His body of believers really is.
This is the part that will take some explaining and may not come out the way I want so I am praying for clarity in my words for you, the reader, to hear my heart.
The church is broken. We are diseased and it is more than sin. Obviously sin is the root of all of it, but we have a cancer running through us that has to be healed before we can make any type of impact on the darkness in this world.
Frankly, we suck.
Got your attention?
We have exchanged being the church for going to church. We have exchanged fellowship with one another for Sunday morning, Sunday evening, or Wednesday night attendance. We've settled for a checklist to mark off instead of real, authentic, living life together moments. We've mistaken the tears on Wednesday night while pouring out the desperate pleas of a prayer request and the token praying for you card mailed once a week with living life together as a body of believers.
We've become shallow.
I am NOT saying that we don't care for one another. Most of us do, but we are superficial and ankle deep in one another's life at best.
I was part of the problem, so don't think I'm sitting here in Henry, IL looking down my nose at my brothers and sisters. Absolutely not, but the depth of the issue has been revealed to me over the last 10 months and I. am. BROKEN.
I am completely broken and here is why:
There are many, many people that know their foundation should be Jesus Christ, but their foundation was built upon a building or a group of people and so the foundation itself is cracked, weak, and broken. They are saved, but they have no idea what to do with that knowledge. They don't really know who God is, nor how to grow and they are going through life barely keeping their heads above water, as they file in to church, sit in a pew (or chair), listen to the pastor speak, attend their weekly Bible study, go to prayer meeting, become part of the prayer chain, volunteer for every short term mission trip possible, and in general look the part of "good" Christian.
All the while desperately seeking that one person they can confide in. That one person they can share their doubts, their hurts, their confusion, their joys, their life with.
And it is an ever growing issue.
It is the recently widowed woman. It is the mom of 3 children under the age of 6. It is the dad working 40+ hours to make ends meet. It is the college student leaving home for the first time. It is the high school boy that feels like his family doesn't hear him. It is the pastor's wife that plasters a smile on her face and prays with you. It is the minister that stands before the congregation weekly preaching the good news of Jesus. It is each and every one of because we have substituted going to church with being the church.
Yes, we love our church family. Yes, we hurt with them. Yes, we feel a bond to them like no other, but we are not involved in their life.
We back off from messy people. We shy away from answering hard questions. We run from people that are confrontational with thoughts and ideas and worries and hurts. When someone makes a choice we disagree with we build a wall. When others do things we don't understand we shut down communication. When we have no answer and don't know what to say, we remain silent.
And they hear our silence.
Our next issue?
We are too busy to get involved. We have our own issues. We have our own families to worry about. We don't have time for high maintenance because we have our own life to live.
We are too busy to be the church with one another. Church attendance is hard enough for the vast majority of us, let alone BEING the church to one another.
We are broken.
I've spoken to so many women lately that just need one mentor to come along side and guide them through some tough times. They need a mentor to remind them of key components of Who God is. They need a church family to walk with them every single day to grow in faith.
They need people who will earnestly pray with them and for them.
They need the church.
I'm convicted by scripture. In Acts 2 we are told this about the early church: "Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved."
Words that jump out at me:
EVERY DAY
HOUSE TO HOUSE
JOYFUL AND HUMBLE ATTITUDE
PRAISING GOD
FAVOR WITH *ALL* THE PEOPLE
and the big one....
EVERY DAY THE LORD ADDED TO THEM
Church... we are broken. Healing can and will come.
But it requires change. It requires a shake up.
For us, it required resigning from a job, moving, living as a nomad, and having only God to rely on.
But my heart and eyes are opening to what my mind always knew. It is time to *BE* the church.
Father, forgive us. Forgive me. Help me to refocus on You, Your body, and Your desires for my life. To cast away the temporary useless things of this world and to help grow what truly matters. Eternal treasure.
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