Forget Church
This specific topic is one that has been on my heart for quite a while; about a year now. I never really wrote anything on it because quite frankly, it was something G-d was still teaching me. It's been a season of humility having to accept things as they are and let G-d show me what is right and what is wrong. This past week my wife and I have been on a cruise and one night I was sitting on the deck of the ship and G-d told me the season was over. Therefore, I now feel it is appropriate to share the things He has been teaching me and will continue to teach me throughout my life.
Forget church. Forget the Sunday/Wednesday church. In the past few years I have been honored to walk alongside of some amazing leaders and pastors. But also, I have seen some terrible flaws in the church. Which is understandable. We are human and we will make mistakes. It's our responses to our mistakes that truly make us. Before I get into that, let me explain what I mean by saying "forget church". By no means am I saying forget the Body of Christ. That is the true meaning of church. Not the building or the worship service. And I'm not encouraging you to never step foot in another church building again. You see, there are two radical groups out there: one, you need to be in church every time the doors are open because it's crucial to you getting into Heaven. and two, you shouldn't go to church at all because it's corrupt. I guess you could say that I am somewhere in the middle. Now, those that know me, and know me well, know that I am a firm believer in relying on your brothers and sisters in Christ to help you in life. And one of the best ways to do that is by getting plugged into corporate church. However, you cannot make that church that you walk into every time the doors open your salvation. Your relationship with Christ must stand alone and not depend on anything but you and Him. Because the fact is, all churches are corrupt. In some way or another they are doing something wrong because we are human and we cannot be made perfect until we reach Paradise. The trick is finding the one you trust the most. So forget church. Depend on Jesus.
In the past few years I, personally, have seen a lot of horrible things happen in churches that claimed to have it all together. Idolatry, greed, lies, manipulation, emotionalism, adultery, etc. And I've been reflecting on those things lately because some of the leaders that I trusted most ended up being false instructors. If I had not had my roots in Christ and if I was solely putting faith in those leaders, I would have easily turned back to atheism. The whole reason I refused to buy what they were saying all those years about Jesus was because of the distrust I had for Christians. So when things turned out to be not at all what I thought they were, I should have been right back where I started, right? I could have. But I knew my Jesus. And I had seen what He had done with my life and was still doing and I knew that even if there are people perverting His love and grace that He still abounds and He is truth. His Word is true. And I'm not saying that it didn't shake my faith, because it did. I had put a lot of faith in those leaders and that is where G-d taught me one of the most wonderful things. Your worship at home should look like it does at church. I'm all about screaming and dancing, falling out and speaking in tongues. But if that is how the Spirit moves you then it should be like that at home too because His Spirit never changes. You don't need those awesome worship services to experience G-d. They do help and they are wonderful experiences, but that's not all there is to our Jesus.
I was listening to a song by Switchfoot today that had a line that gripped me so hard and it said, "suspicion is the new religion". Wow. How true is this? It seems like we are having such hard time being led by a pastor because of all our church hurt. Again, we put too much faith into people and not enough into Christ. The whole point of Jesus dying was so that we could be with Him. One on One. Before He died you needed priests and sacrifices. Now all you need is to speak and listen. But yet we are still relying on churches and pastors to tell us about our own Lover? The Bible says that you are the Bride of Christ. So basically what we have been doing is like me never really getting to know my wife and only getting information about her through her friends. Sure, if I need advice or if I want a little bit of what they know I can always ask. But I don't rely on her friends to tell me who my lover is. It's the same with Jesus. We should be looking for council, wisdom, and insight from our leaders but not look to them for ALL of it. We've all been in that place, including myself, where the most you know about the Bible is what you heard from a pulpit and not what you read on your own.
When and why did church become about money and greed? Pulling in numbers to see who the biggest and baddest are? About making your building the coolest and most appealing to people? I once heard a good friend of mine preach about Haiti. He had gone there on a mission shortly after the natural disasters that occurred there. He told me that he saw people standing, NOT SITTING, in the nicest things they owned in the blazing hot sun on the top of a hill just to sing a cappella worship songs and hear the Word of G-d as one. Would we do that? What would we do without our trendy sanctuaries and video games in the teen rooms? Do we truly hunger to know G-d like that? We've got it good. But I think those Haitians are on the right track.
Don't get me wrong, church is a good thing. I would not have been able to make it through some of my darkest times without my church family. And even after those churches broke up, those people that were there for me like the Body of Christ should be, are still my family. One group specifically still meets up whenever they can just to love on each other and talk about what G-d has been doing. I love church. I really do. But I don't love being condemned and hated on because "righteous" people don't agree with everything about me. I don't love hearing a pastor say, "I would give money to send women to Atlanta to preach to strippers if it had something to do with kids" when money wasn't even asked for. All that was asked was that it could be publicized in the church that they were doing it. I don't love feeling unwelcome in a church because immaturity has allowed brothers and sisters that used to pray with me and fast with me to slander my name. I don't love going to church week after week to hear prosperity messages instead of addressing suicide, depression, anxiety, the broken. You know, the people that Jesus actually came to save? The people that we once were? I also don't love emotionalism, when nothing about the service is truly truly real. The sad thing is is that this issue has been discussed. People address it all the time. Like it's some big conundrum to solve. When in reality, all it would take to solve it is for everyone to bind their minds to the minds of Christ.
At this point, I'm rambling. To sum it all up, the building church is not your salvation. The Body Church is crucial. But more than anything your own romantic relationship with Jesus Christ is the only important thing. We are human. We sin. Constantly. People and churches and leaders and teachers will all fail you. But Jesus won't. That doesn't mean you stop going to church. It just means that every once in a while it's good to do a heart check and see where your faith and devotion lies. People are selling the gospel coated with beautiful lies. But we need to stand against it. Preach the truth. Pray for strength and grace. And do everything we can to let Jesus shine through us even when we fail. We have to stand firm together as a united Bride of Christ. And we have to appreciate the sweet moments when we feel G-d most. Like singing worship songs in your car. Or a Bible study with friends. Or going camping with your brothers and sisters. Just being united together. Live for Jesus Christ and Him alone. Pain will come, things will be hard, but that's okay. He has overcome and He has made us overcomers.
"Yet again, they beat You down and tear You limb from limb. But we wash our hands and then raise them up in remembrance. 'Bless You, Lord. Leave us be. Rest in peace'. You're not a memory we celebrate. You're not a martyr that we venerate. And G-d forgive us if the church forgets. You are not a corpse, and we're not a movement. You're alive and we're the flesh You'll wear till the world ends." -Curse by My Epic
