Oh Church! Uncomfortable wooden pews, old men with bad breath and more
nose hair than Chewbacca, sermons that would successfully put an insomniac to
sleep and people speaking as though they are from the 15th century. No
wonder so many people don't go.
I never used to go to church willingly as a child and so it was a no brainer for me when I was finally old enough to make the decision to go.... or to not. When I finally decided to give church a second chance, I was 17 and on the verge of migrating toAustralia
In a book I read recently called 'Courageous Leadership', the author Bill Hybels writes with such passion about how God instilled in him that the church was not just another religion but 'the hope of the world.' When we study God's vision for the church, it becomes very clear that being the hope of the world is exactly what God had in mind for his people to be.
Think of the church like a glass bottle shattered into many small sharp pieces, think of all the potential damage it can cause, the cuts and scars it creates if left broken and unattended to. Let's not waste time making the mistake that church is the remedy for fixing the brokenness in the world, only God can restore what is broken but he will do it through us the broken pieces. I am so grateful to God that he sent Jesus to collect those individual broken pieces that make up the church, and in a way that only He could achieve, repair and mend those pieces back together to create a vessel that can carry hope to others who are also broken and in need of repair. We carry a beautiful message in a delicately restored vessel.
I never used to go to church willingly as a child and so it was a no brainer for me when I was finally old enough to make the decision to go.... or to not. When I finally decided to give church a second chance, I was 17 and on the verge of migrating to
In a book I read recently called 'Courageous Leadership', the author Bill Hybels writes with such passion about how God instilled in him that the church was not just another religion but 'the hope of the world.' When we study God's vision for the church, it becomes very clear that being the hope of the world is exactly what God had in mind for his people to be.
Think of the church like a glass bottle shattered into many small sharp pieces, think of all the potential damage it can cause, the cuts and scars it creates if left broken and unattended to. Let's not waste time making the mistake that church is the remedy for fixing the brokenness in the world, only God can restore what is broken but he will do it through us the broken pieces. I am so grateful to God that he sent Jesus to collect those individual broken pieces that make up the church, and in a way that only He could achieve, repair and mend those pieces back together to create a vessel that can carry hope to others who are also broken and in need of repair. We carry a beautiful message in a delicately restored vessel.
2 Corinthians 4:7 (New Living
Translation)
We now have this light
shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing
this great treasure.This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not
from ourselves.
Here comes the bride
One
of the main themes that runs through the Bible is God's great love for the
church. The church is described as 'the bride' and the Bible goes into detail
of God's love for His 'bride'. When it comes to marriage, attributes such
as commitment, romance and meeting the needs of our spouse before
ourselves are vital to the health, strength and longevity of the relationship.
We must approach church in the same manner, understanding that what we put in is more important than what
we get out. It is unhealthy to constantly be the consumer in a marriage and in
the same way it is wrong to expect that all the love comes from the
church but none of our love returns. That is not love!
The Church is a family and families are made up of beautifully unique people who love each other in spite of their imperfections. They may have arguments but they reconcile, they love and support each other through thick and thin. People say that church does more damage than good to people, and I can't defend every church family in the world because every family is different. However these differences result because of upbringing, culture and what resources they have at their disposal. Do these families set out to create hurt? I don't think so, but families always live out of their core beliefs, and so the sooner we create bridges rather than barriers between these beliefs the better. So what can we do to love and accept the church? How can we help her realise her potential beauty of becoming the 'hope of the world'?
The Church is a family and families are made up of beautifully unique people who love each other in spite of their imperfections. They may have arguments but they reconcile, they love and support each other through thick and thin. People say that church does more damage than good to people, and I can't defend every church family in the world because every family is different. However these differences result because of upbringing, culture and what resources they have at their disposal. Do these families set out to create hurt? I don't think so, but families always live out of their core beliefs, and so the sooner we create bridges rather than barriers between these beliefs the better. So what can we do to love and accept the church? How can we help her realise her potential beauty of becoming the 'hope of the world'?
1) Be there
I once heard a preacher say that if you stand in a
garage all week it doesn't make you a car, the same can be said about going to
church. Attending church doesn't make us more or less Christian than
other people, it was never meant to be about trying to score brownie points
with God through regular attendance. But 'being there' puts us in a position to
hear from God, to see other people's needs and most importantly to meet
those needs. Planting our lives in a church is much like a tree planted in rich
soil. Trees don't grow well in unhealthy soil so it is important that we are
planted in the rich soil of church. Trees don't move around they stay in the
same place week after week and by doing so, they are able to let those roots
grow deeper and deeper into the ground. As the roots grow deeper and wider into the rich soil, it
allows the tree to absorb more nutrients from the ground, grow, and produce
delicious fruit. So make every effort to stay planted in good soil!
2) Pray
Prayer has the power to shape every area of our lives. If we are sick, we pray, if we are worried, we pray, and if we are in need of answers, we pray. When we pray for areas of our lives intentionally with a genuine heart, God begins to move. Praying for your church should be as high a priority in your life as praying for yourself and your family. We especially need to pray for our leaders, pray that they would have great wisdom and vision for the church, that they would hear clearly from God, and that God would bless their health both physically and spiritually. Throughout the new testament, the apostle Paul prayed for the church, that God would give them grace and peace, that everyone would live in harmony with each other, that they would discover more of God's incredible love. Imagine how much more our churches would flourish if we started to work towards this kind of church through prayer!
Prayer has the power to shape every area of our lives. If we are sick, we pray, if we are worried, we pray, and if we are in need of answers, we pray. When we pray for areas of our lives intentionally with a genuine heart, God begins to move. Praying for your church should be as high a priority in your life as praying for yourself and your family. We especially need to pray for our leaders, pray that they would have great wisdom and vision for the church, that they would hear clearly from God, and that God would bless their health both physically and spiritually. Throughout the new testament, the apostle Paul prayed for the church, that God would give them grace and peace, that everyone would live in harmony with each other, that they would discover more of God's incredible love. Imagine how much more our churches would flourish if we started to work towards this kind of church through prayer!
3) Unity
Unity is simply being united in one cause, the dictionary also uses words such as, 'harmony' and, 'togetherness'. The Bible says 'where there is unity, God commands a blessing,' the problem is a lot of the time we aren't nearly as united as we need to be. Our level of unity is not how we are we are in public, but how we act behind closed doors. What we say and do privately is a huge indicator to how united we really are with our church family. I know disunity is very easy to fall into because we all have different opinions on what works and what doesn't, but I think the essence of the unity we are to strive for in our churches, is sweetly captured in the passage below.
Unity is simply being united in one cause, the dictionary also uses words such as, 'harmony' and, 'togetherness'. The Bible says 'where there is unity, God commands a blessing,' the problem is a lot of the time we aren't nearly as united as we need to be. Our level of unity is not how we are we are in public, but how we act behind closed doors. What we say and do privately is a huge indicator to how united we really are with our church family. I know disunity is very easy to fall into because we all have different opinions on what works and what doesn't, but I think the essence of the unity we are to strive for in our churches, is sweetly captured in the passage below.
1 Corinthians 12:25-26 (The Message
translation)
The way God designed our bodies is a
model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on
every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see
and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the
hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into
the exuberance.
Bottle
Last
week I was about to write a new blog on a particular topic I had in mind, when
suddenly I felt so strongly that God wanted me to write about how much he loves
the church and how much he longs for us to see it through his eyes, not our
own. I wrote this blog with many people in mind; people who have never been to
church, people who have walked away from church due to many factors ranging
from hurt to loss of faith, and people who are still attending church but have
fallen out of love and are thinking of leaving.
We are all essentially a message in a bottle, the bottle may be cracked, but
the message that the bottle contains is the real remedy to our life and I pray
that you would take that message into your heart and then take it into the
world around you.
