It bugs me that every Sunday I have to find a reason to go to church. I have been to church for the last 8 months and still found that I have no reason to be there. I am troubled because I have been thinking about why this is the case since I have grown up in a church.
I have been looking for an answer why I don't want to go to church. Bizzare as it may be but I found something that could explain why I was feeling this way. I met my friend Helen and for a long time she has been trying to get me to read this book on Organic Church. On my way back from lunch with her, I read through the pages of the book and I am taken in.
The church as I have always believe it to be, should be a place for people to go in and seek for peace, relief, help of any kind. But most of the church doors are closed till Friday. Some open for the occasional Ladies Fellowship, Man's Fellowship or Breakfast but not many of those who go in there are those who don't know about the Lord or who really want to know about the Lord.
SInce my return in 1996 I have noticed the church scene to be one that "Christians" meet and eat and then go back to their lives like they have never met God. Perhaps God was not there at all. I listened to many of the messages and none came close to asking all of us to get up from our seats and get out there and bring them in. Not by our standards but by God's standards. What is God's standards of bringing these people in?
Jesus sat by the well and waited. He found a woman who gave him water and found this woman to be needing security. He knew she had 5 husbands before and that her life was one that was troubled. Jesus went to the lepers. He went to the blind. He waited for the sickly. Such is our Jesus.
If Jesus was here today, where will he be? He will be in His workplace and he will be working hard to bring His colleagues to God. He will be where God wants Him to be outside the church. God has sent us OUT with a GREAT Commission. Not send us back into the church and sit.
Then there is this issue with bigger churches and big budget with the building funds. Why is the church getting bigger? Why are we spending money to build a church so big that only lock the doors till Friday for the Big Welcome? Bigger churches are now built with bigger car parks for some of us who drive to church. Can we have smaller churches like in a home? Where people who don't know God feel that they don't have to play church to get to know Who Jesus is.
I may be shot at by many who have been to church and still going to be "FED". I believe there must be a group out there who feels the same way as I do right now about going to church. I hope to meet these people and we worship our God together and bringing the people into His presence.
For a long time now I have been troubled with this lack of desire to be in the church but a great desire to use my Sunday just to get out there and meet the sick, the widow and the old. If there is any church at all to bring them in, good. But not the kind that will make their lives better just by the mere attendance of a church but also one that will meet their physical and emotional need.
Church has no meaning if I cannot grow. If the pulpit is about how I should live this week. It has to be more. Because my eternity matters to God and me. So the pastors have got to do more than preparing me for the week to come. The pastors has to prepare me to meet GOD and what I should expect throughout my journey. The commitment to GOD cannot be a week by week living but it has to be eternal.
If this message confuse you, just wait till I turn those pages. I left it at my sister's and will get it back today since I don't have work. I will read it and blog again.
Church is a place that can be formed by 2 or 3 people. It doesn't have to be 200 or 2000 or 20000. But it must be a place where the 2 or 3 people can come together to praise, pray and live for God.
You think I sound so GODLY. Well, you are wrong. I am just a sinner saved by grace and happen to think the church has to do more than just be there with doors closed.
