A couple of years ago, I wonder now with the naivety of youth, I was heavily involved in leadership in the life of the church and church related things. Full of enthusiasm, I loved getting together with my Christian family, whether that be on a Sunday morning for the ‘meeting’ or on a Friday night for a beer and curry. Full of passion I knew that God could change the world and that He could, and probably would do it through me and my buddies.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am now not anti-church. I do not have the same passion and drive that maybe I did a few years ago but, now in a new congregation, I am once again involved at various levels. My expectations however, have certainly changed. Church used to be where I sought food and nourishment. It was where I sought the top up of passion to drive me through the next week seeking the glory of God. But I no longer look at it that way. This is by no means a reflection on my current church (or maybe it is, but not in a bad way). It’s place where there is a real sense of community and family. As a congregation we impact the local community and have a heart that, generally speaking, is seeking after God. So what has changed?
This is certainly, at least in part, a growth in maturity. I now realize that the main place I will find the nourishment I need is in my personal walk; my time I spend on my own with my God. Also, like crookedshore, I too have been thinking that I placed unrealistic demands on church; the worship must be amazing, the sermon must by inspirational, the relationships must touch places that normal relationships can’t reach. However I’m certainly not at a place yet where I see Church as discipline which should be endured (I also donââ?¬â?¢t like this idea of discipline and I know that this is not entirely what crookedshore was getting at). Thinking about it though, I might be on that road.
A wise man once said to me that if, at 20, you don’t think you can change the world you have no spirit. If at 30 you realize you can’t then you have no sense. Well I’m not 30 yet, but I wonder if I’m already at that point. Am I just cynical or is it a spiritual truth that we will eventually mature to this way of thinking? Are we supposed to move from demanding everything, to expecting nothing, finally maturing to finding strength in the discipline of the whole experience?
Maybe I’m just middle-aged before my time but is Church simply a cross to bare?
I love Ephesians 5 where Paul draws an analogy of how Christ views the church with how husbands should love their wives:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
I don’t believe that Christ would love something so much for it to be something that is a ‘cross to bare’ – or should it be something that we are to expect nothing from.
In fact, as a married man, it makes me realise that Christ really really loves the church – as I can personally feel similar when I think of my beautiful wife. However, the argument we then get into is ‘what is the church?’ and that is probably the subject of a whole other post… In summary for me, it is the body of Christ – the meeting together of Gods people to learn about Christ and to live out His teachings.
I do think there is an important point here though that is well raised – and that is that the responsibility of our personal walks with God remains with us. We cannot be spoon-fed amazing teaching, great worship etc etc all our lives as that becomes what our Christian walk ‘is’ (and by implication, if that dissapears we flounder). However, when we combine the meeting together of Gods people, when our meetings are centred on His worship and hearing His word and with the personal journey of seeking God for ourselves and dedicating our lives to living out what Christ said then I believe we can really grow. I believe we need the church and I also believe we need to have the discipline to seek God for ourselves. The combination of the two is when we really start to take off.
Pauls take on it is that the message of Jesus was made known to us by God – and that message is ‘Christ in us the hope of glory’ (Colosians 1:27). If Christ is in us and we are part of the body (the church) then that places huge importance on the church. For if it is the ‘hope of glory’ then it sounds to me as if we should be making expectations of it – but from the viewpoint of seeing that ‘Christ in us’ starts with us and not with our pastors or worship leaders.
As with most of your posts rob I�m not sure of how much you actually believe what you suggest, I think it�s more a case of you throwing it out there to stir up a response and get some thinking going on *smile*
It sounded like you were suggesting that church sometime feels like a chore, and that once we mature we come to realise that it is silly to have high expectations of church because we will be down. The cynical old man your talking about I sometime see in myself but I think it is a form of self protection to stop ourselves from being hurt. It seems the question is�. Is it ok to expect a lot, to dream etc at the risk of it not working out? Is reliance on your self for spiritual growth not the church, a good thing and where we will all end up when we are mature anyway? Is church just something to bare?
Well rob you know the answer to that along with us all, as much as I would like it not to be the case sometimes, but as Gaz kindly pointed out Jesus loves the church and it is his method or vehicle to reach/save the world. Is it something to bear? No it is some thing that we should be passionate about; easy to say hard to do I know.
Should we expect much from church? I think it is a little sad when we get to the point when we are satisfied with average worship, dull talks and friendships with no real depth. I think our expectations of church should be even higher than for most things. Maybe I am trying to cling on to my youth but I think God needs people who are going to set the bar high and aim big, surely we should be striving to be excellent in what we do, to have worship that enables the holy spirit to transform lives, to have talks that don�t bore us but excite us to make a different on Monday morning and throughout the week. And if we don�t have friends in the church that are going to support us, keep us on the straight and narrow ask the tough questions, where else will we get it?
The problem is there is risk involve because a lot of the time the dream isn�t the reality, our hopes and visions for what church or anything should look like doesn�t always work out the way envisioned it. It helps me to read about Moses, a guy sent to free God�s people from captivity and lead them to the Promised Land (will keep this short). Moses made one mistake and as a result was unable to go into the Promised Land. I am sure that�s not how Moses pictured things working out and yet without his actions the Israelites might not have been freed?
I�m going on a bit so will wrap up, I believe God wants us to dream big, I think he wants us to take risks even it there is a chance it wont work out and we will get hurt. Church in my mind should reflect God in every way and although we fall short of that time and time again surely that should be our aim???
Gaz, i think you make a really important point there. Any relationship, in any guise, has to be a 2 way thing, that’s why it’s called a relationship. Our relationship with God is surely based on our own discipline in approaching Him, but also on our part in the church which Jesus will one day be coming to (re)join. In a sense, we are helping to prepare the banquet for the biggest celebration the world has ever seen, or ever will. The challenge for me recently has been in how much time i am spending with God, reading his word and just being at His feet.
In a way, i feel like i have come way past the early days of my walk, where everything was fluffy and new, and i had expectations that every meeting or event had something for ME to gain. I admit this didn’t last long, thanks to some wisdom and guidance from those more learned than me. What i discovered was that the excitement and joy of knowing God is based in what He has done for me in my life, and what He is yet to do. That is the greatest thing i can say, that our God is absolutely nailed on guaranteed to be working in someones life at any given time, and has a plan to prosper those who truly follow Him. The ‘here and now’ is hard from time to time, and putting expectations on church can’t really be the best way to go.
I love my fiancee, and praise God i get to marry her in a few months. Now, i know that i cannot put expectations on her, because i have to love and respect her just as she is. Jesus loves his church just as it is, for all its blotches and imperfections, so isn’t our role simply to be available and love the church as He does? Or is that oversimplifying things?
Not criticizing, just speaking from an ‘adolescent’ Christian viewpoint.
Hey Rob (& Rich, Gareth and Dan), I’ve enjoyed your reflections which have helped sharpen my own, and I’ve posted a further piece on http://crookedshore.typepad.com/crookedshore/2006/06/more_on_church_.html.
Here’s a couple of questions from the middle-aged man referred to above: Is it possible to be passionate about a cross one must bear? Was Jesus passionate about his? I think yes! is the answer to both. In fact, without passion for the cross we would just as soon walk away. I fear that we are too influenced by materialistic thinking when we see cross carrying as a fruitless or unnecessary thing. Nor is seeing church membership as a cross to bear the same as saying expectations for the church must be low. Another question: did Jesus have high, visionary expectations for his cross carrying? Of course, he did.
One more thing, I’m wary too of turning from the body of Christ to personal devotions as if they are substitutes. Being part of the body will always trump individual devotions.
What do you think?
Another great post Glenn. I must say that I whole heartedly agree with you. I have been concerned for some time now with the way that consumerism has invaded the church. I believe not only, as Rich mentioned above, that God�s chosen vessel for His message is the Church, but more than that, it�s also local Church.
For me there are two main reasons for this; both are totally tied up by the fact that God knows what makes us tick. The number one thing that the Church has going for it, especially in the current social climate of the west, is the offer of acceptance and community. A result of the nomadic lives we now live (as well as other factors I�m sure) many local communities no longer function as such. Also, the dysfunctional family is now the norm. Family and community have broken down.
I do not think that it was an accident that Jesus said ââ?¬Å?ââ?¬Â¦ by this all men may know that you are my disciples, by the way you love each other..ââ?¬Â. Note, itââ?¬â?¢s not by your great worship, your amazing teaching, the top draw coffee or your pretty buildings. Itââ?¬â?¢s not even by the prophecy, miracles, healings etc that you can perform (for want of a better word). It is by the way we love each other. This is what the church can offer. This is what the world needs.
Why can this only happen in local church? Because it has to be more than Sunday morning. If you are going to get to know your fellow congregation members you need to have time and opportunity to see them outside of a meeting setting. If you are a commuter Christian then this simply is not going to happen.
The second reason, and I might get a few backs up here, is that we are inherently selfish. I have been in churches before who have attracted a large number of people from some distance. For whatever reason, it was full of Sunday morning commuters. The Church, quite rightly, had God�s heart its local area (a less desirable area of the City). They wanted to see God impact it; they had a real love for the local people and worked hard to that end. They even had some success. However, a tension was growing because basically, most of the congregation didn�t care. That sounds a little harsh, which is not my intention. If I�m honest, I was one of them. Let me try and be clearer. Of course, the members of this Church would have loved to see people come to know the Lord. But whether they did or didn�t, actually never made a great deal of difference to their lives. Aside from the leaders, very few people lived in the area they were trying to reach. Now, I believe that if God is moving in an area we are going to see some physical signs. Crime rates will drop, schools will improve, families will get along better etc,. (I�m obviously talking general trends here). Now I want this to happen where I live. I would work and pray hard for that. But probably not so hard for the next neighbourhood along. Does that make sense?
I�m not saying that this is a right way to think, but it is a very natural and probably totally unconscious thought process. If everybody in a church lived in the locality then they are more likely to be sold out for its mission field. If everybody commutes in then they are probably there for the dynamic worship times or the great preacher. Churches have become a commodity. I wonder if this is why their impact is not as it should be.
Rich is probably right, I�m a big believer in local church. You only have to read the New Testament to realise that God has selected this as the way forward. How do we break out of this consumerism? Can we?