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"Why I Don't Like Church Anymore" is a discussion for those who are sick of church, bored by tradition, and frustrated with religion. It's for those who were once involved, but over time (for whatever reason) have disconnected.
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posted by bryan @ 5:11 PM
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3 Comments:
Cities of Refuge...Repairer of Broken Walls....Restorer of Streets with Dwellings (Numbers 35, Isaiah 58)
I know these references are not exactly talking about the church…but I always thought that if these phrases described what the church of today was actually like, that we would have a church that would be alive, attractive, authentic, relevant and vibrant.
But here are some of my thought s regarding what I believe is one of the primary problems regarding church life after many years of wrestling through the issue:
One of the apparent failures of the church’s lack of being alive, attractive, authentic, relevant and vibrant is a shared failure. We have to come to grips with this. I am only now beginning to more fully understand the limitations I have put on God in my life and on myself as a person by having a less than healthy perspective on church.
First, it certainly is not God’s failure for the simple reason that God established it with purpose and design. The church is everything it needed to be from the first minute of its inception, right up to this very present time. The church is something God meant to be. It has all the ingredients and chemistry to be the most formidable force on earth…because it has The Designer as its Author.
The problem exists elsewhere.
The amazing part is that he uses us human beings to be His agents in making the church everything it needs to be…fallible, frail human beings empowered by His Holy Spirit. This is an example of a word that Leonard Sweet uses in “The Gospel According to Starbucks”; that is, sprezzatura. Sprezzatura (an actual word – just ‘Google” it) is a word to describe an inherent contradiction; the bringing together of opposites. In the case of God’s church, He brings together mere, fallible human beings together with His Holy Spirit to make the most influential force on earth: the church. Isn’t that just like God – it’s really what makes Him not just amazing, but utterly amazing!
It’s this condition that ultimately defines the problems we experience with church. But, it is a shared failure: it’s my failure and your failure to relate to God Himself and to others around us as Christ did; and since it is you and me and leaders that make up the greater church, the problem comes full circle, and is therefore equally shared.
We each come to this place called church with unrealistic expectations (“surely the people here will meet my needs….”); with ego-centric perspective more often than not (“why don’t people come around me and “minister” to me…..”; and with a judgmental, consumerism mentality (“this place is a joke…it’s not at all what they preach about….I’m outta here!....”).
Simply multiply you and I with your /our egos by 100, 200, or 500…and you have “the church”….which can’t offer anything back to you because you and I help to make it anemic and ineffective.
Leadership is not necessarily any different, and so they are also characteristic of the same problems, although we “expect” that they will fix (our) church problems, because after all…they are the leaders, right? That’s what leaders are supposed to do.
But the best leaders will admit their shortcomings so that they can model how to deal with them in the proper spiritually mature manner.
In a great book called ‘The Emotionally Healthy Church” by Peter Scazzero, he says that there is a vital link (he says it actually is the missing link in the discipleship process) between emotional health, relational depth, and spiritual maturity that can shed new light on helping to lead church to be more like the place God has designed it to be.
I believe he’s right. We evangelicals shudder at the mention of words like “emotion” and “feelings”, which is ironic since God gave these to us to help us to experience Him and the world He gave us to live in. We are too quick to equate these words with the “sinful flesh” which must be destroyed and in so doing even “destroy” or wound those who are on a journey to find God.
We need to learn to do things differently. We’re too afraid of the world, and it shows. The challenge is the need to engage the world, and yet not allow it to shape our thinking. I believe they are dying to hear from God, and as much as God loves them beyond all measure, He will wait to use you and I despite all our spiritual and emotional immaturity and self-centeredness (another example of the sprezzatura of God!)
Maybe if we first start by embracing others simply because they are created in the image of God, then I believe we will begin to see a church that is more alive, attractive, authentic, vibrant and relevant. And as God blesses our courage and pure desire to love others like they’ve perhaps never been loved and understood before, then maybe we can start to slowly break the trend of our self focus just enough to bring about a real change.
Revelant to our time, culture and our community. Many see this as a trap and misinterpret revelance as void of doctrine or the truth of the scriptures. It must be Christ centered and focused on those in your surrounding community. The Modern Church can be revelant and hold true to every teaching of the Bible. Paul the missionary became a slave to all that he might win some for Chirst. This is how we should see our church communities today; unwaivering truth, cuturally revelant and focused on reaching out to people right where they are. There are a few dangers that we need to be aware of as we become all things to all people. In Desiring God we are presented with two tests:
Are you becoming more worldly minded than they are becoming spiritually minded? If so, you have probably crossed the line of the law of Christ. Christ does not call you to lose your holiness, but to gain theirs.
Is your passion for winning your friends and family growing, or is it shrinking as you become all things to them? If it is shrinking, then you are not in the law of Christ at that point.
Christian Cutural Revelance that lacks communication with God, Focus on God and the Truth of God is just a self help seminar, a place to make you feel good but has no substance.
As a parent of college students, I would like to ask a very frank question. Is it possible that some young people are avoiding church because of guilt? I observe many parents insisting that their children wait to get married until they are well into their twenties. I also observe once godly young people experiencing a sexual frustration they don't feel safe discussing with their parents or in the church. Statistics make it clear that the parents are in denial if they think all of these young people are practicing abstinence. I believe there are some adults pushing young people to or past the brink of celibacy with the expectation that these young people have that much self-control. These "good kids" would rather lead a secret life than openly challenge or disappoint their parents. Does the guilt keep them away?
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