
I am going through this stage in my life where I am really searching out what Church is…what it means…why its important.
I’ve been in church all my life and I’ve never really had the questions and the contemplations about it until a few years ago and just in the past year I’ve really struggled through tough issues regarding Church. I have not come to any type of resolution or understanding…I am still very much in the middle of murky and unclear waters…but I am wading through one step at a time…so please bear with me.
In the midst of my bad attitude at times, lies a heart that wants God to be portrayed like He really is…I guess…and I know in most churches He is not portrayed correctly or attractively for that matter.
Let me also begin by saying that church is not everything. Learning who God truly is and His attributes and personality begins in the home…BUT…church plays a HUGE role in how we perceive God and how we live out our faith in front of the world.
I run the risk of seeming judgemental but I am only stating my opinion from what I have seen in my short lifetime.
Most, not all, but most churches are…well… B-O-R-I-N-G. I mean…painfully boring. I did a Beth Moore study and she made a statement that rocked my world. She said that if your life is boring…then you are out of the will of God. You know why? Because God is not boring!!! Nor does he wish a boring life for His children. At times I have been in churches and I look around and everyone just seems absolutely miserable. The songs and hymns are mumbled with such gruff and stiff faces…who can blame them when they sound as bad as they do!
Did you know that David was a musician and a skilled one at that? 1 Samuel 16:17 says that David played the harp well. Some music ministers need to get with the flow and do music well…to be great at it…to be skilled at it…not so that this church can be “cooler” and more hip than all the others…but because its God we are singing and playing to! A lot of the songs sung in churches are so sad sounding…so funeral-esque…so boring. And when God is portrayed and painted as boring then no wonder when children grow up and go to college…they never darken the doors of a church again. I’ve seen it over and over…kids get off on their own and they wave a happy little hand good-bye at the Church or being involved in it.
I think some of the problem also has to do with seeing a lot of empty promises and claims. A lot of pastors will hold “revivals” and tell the church how God is going to use them mightily to change their city and revive their community…when at the end of the weekend…everyone goes on leading their lives like they did before and nothing really changes.
So…as I sit in the pew and I look around at the sad faces and I listen to the less than mediocre music and I shake the hand of the stranger in front of me and I say “Good Morning! How are you?” …I have to stop and wonder…
God, Where in the world are you in all of this?
Where is the God of the Bible who threw hail stones down on the Amorites to help Joshua and the Israelites gain the victory?
Where is the God of the Bible who allowed Himself to enter into human skin so that we might be justified and put in the clear?
Where is the God of the Bible where in Psalms 97 it says that clouds and thick darkness surround Him…fire goes before Him…and the mountains melt like wax before Him?
Where is He who formed the little fire fly and also the enormous hippopotamus or crocodile whose bite could kill you in an instant?
Where is He who invented sound, light, color, the eye-ball, sex, a flower, air…?
Where is He in all of our futile and meaningless rituals and traditions?
I don’t know!
God help us…we are merely humans and we aren’t going to get it right for sure…but honestly…church should be…WE should be as THE CHURCH growing in love for one another…eating meals with one another…serving with one another IN our community-not inviting the community to come to church…growing in skill and talent wherever that may be…laughing and crying with each other…seeing and experiencing the God of the Bible in all His glory and might…we should be doing this marvelous and difficult Christian life together.
I don’t know about you, but I think thats a start.
I’m sorry if I have offended anyone…just venting I guess. Once again your comments and opinions are always welcome here.
Hope you are staying warm 🙂
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