It seems that a lot of us 20 to 30 are in the same boat. We are looking for a church home. Many of us have moved and we are no longer find ourselves in the towns we grew up in. We have changed life circumstances. We may even have two home churches, one for each of us. For these and many other reasons, we are looking for a new home, a new family. We have pretty short but significant list that we are looking for right away; not crazy, loves Jesus, loves people, loves us, “unity on the big things, liberty in the small things, love in all things” to paraphrase the Moravians.
I think it is okay to have a few homes. My parents home is home, my in-laws home is home, my home is home, my uncle’s home is home. Friends we lived with for a few years is home. Certain big cities are home. So why can’t it be the same with church? Why do local churches seem to get so jealous? Seriously, they are like a crazy girlfriend sometimes. I am not dating the church, the church is my family ;) Sure, I know there is the whole church hopping trend and then a bad pendulum swing overcorrecting that from some pastor types. This is a legitimate concern. People that never stay long enough to be family because they really don’t want the mutual vulnerability and candor of family, for whatever reason. So how easy is it to be family in the church? Do you have to go to Sunday morning and then to a few more meetings during the week?
Does this local expression of the one Body of Christ reach out and love its neighbours (both local and global ones)? If the church is not doing anything and not really interested in changing, I am really not interested in being part of it. As a matter of fact, going to these places makes me angry and makes me sick to my stomach. Especially if they talk about reaching out but there is no actual reaching out to others. Having a “Field of Dreams” if you build it they will come mentality is a false assumption. The “Field of Dreams” appears to become all about filling up your week with church meetings. When do you have time to reach out when you have so many church meetings? Meetings without actual “in the world” opportunity are pointless.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating the trend of not going to church or in just getting together with an online community. That is no where near enough. I understand that people do this because of hurt or disagreement or whatever. This is not healthy. The fact is that, like any family, you can’t be active with other believers and not get kicked in the teeth. The ones you are most open with can hurt you the deepest but that is no reason to avoid intimacy.
I am looking for evidence of love and a transformed life. “They will know you are my disciples by the love you have for one another.” I am on of the “they” looking for other disciples to walk with. I am not looking for perfection. I am just looking for people who are doing something or at least really willing to start doing something. It’s like this, if you only practice hockey skills and do drills and skate but never, in 10 years of practice, actually play a real game against another team then what’s the point?
Or as previously stated
“Being built up is not an end in itself. If I had an apple tree that grew in my yard and I took care of it so it would grow well and big and tall but it never produced apples then I would conclude there is something very wrong.”
So what is the point of the local church and the whole Church?
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