I started this site to discuss spiritual topics and hopefully have a portal to learn from each other. This week my wife was asked on facebook by a Christian friend, who was doing research for a class, about her experiences in churches. The responses from everyone on facebook to this question was surprising and interesting. It started dialogue between my wife and I about our experiences in many different churches as we travelled with the military.
We experienced many different things, and I tried to keep an open mind, as I grew up in the same Independent, Fundamental Baptist Church for about the first 22 years of my life. My wife grew up in and attended a traditional and historic Methodist Church for even more years. So we both had our own idea of what a church should be. We both agreed on this topic and looked for churches that usually reminded us of our home churches.
As we travelled though we discovered no two churches are really alike. The Christian traits we looked for in a church were not always present in a church, and we have attended churches we did not really feel at home or comfortable in. We had also attended churches we loved, and still connect with brothers and sisters from those churches. Most of the people on this “Facebook” chain were military and had many of the same experiences.
Being transient, many churches do not really welcome and bring in military families as they know they will only be there for a short time and leave. They do not get brought into the closed social groups of the church. I don’t even like to mention the “closed social clubs” of the church, as they should not be something that exists in churches, but they are in every one I have ever been in or known of.
I was somewhat surprised though at how many people were disappointed and even disgusted at their experiences in churches. Then I thought about many of the negative experiences we have had in churches we visited. There was an Independent Baptist Church we visited one time at a new location we were assigned. As soon as we walked in, we got a strange feeling. We looked at each other as we sat down and my wife said she wanted to leave. We had just walked in this church. There were several large in number families that pretty much stared at us most of the church service, the message was good and the pastor said hello, and that was about the only one. Of course I think my wife was almost running for the vehicle as soon as the service was over. We felt like we were intruding on a secret occult ritual. Its interesting considering I have attended a church in the south, where I was the only person not of African American decent, and I felt welcomed and had a great service, even though you could tell this church had a specific group of people attend it, they were welcoming and invited me right in as a brother in Christ. I had an expectation that attending a new church of the same denomination I grew up in would be the same as my home church, not so. I have seen people who looked down on their luck, told they could not come into the church by the security guards “bouncers” because of how they looked, really happened!!!
Is this the Christian love we should show to others, I know the bible is pretty clear on our main purpose as his children, the great commission in Matt. 28 is pretty clear, and we should strive every day to be the salt and light to the world. This topic got me thinking this week, so I googled and searched the internet for church issues, wow! I found websites, blogs and articles all over the web discussing how disgruntled people are with churches, my biggest surprise though was the pastors, on the web talking about their being disgruntled with their congregations and churches in general. I found sites that “blacklist” other churches and pastors.
After thinking about these things this week, I thought of a few specific things, one, is there one overarching reason for all this, two, is there anything I can do about it, and three, have I been guilty of this issue. Starting with one, my personal opinion is that the church has become an organization “institution”, the church is like joining a social club. You follow the ritual to become a member, you learn their rules and regulations, you get the hat, tee shirt or polo, and of course the ring to show you are an official member. Then you have to work your way up the latter to more prestigious positions.
My wife is one of the greatest Christians I know, but she could not join many of the churches we attended, as her practice for baptism (infant baptism) in the Methodist religion is different than the Baptist, so it doesn’t matter she is a sister in Christ and they will spend eternity in heaven with her the same as all the other believers, she cannot join their church. I know what the Bible says about baptism, but something to think about.
I thought about not mentioning this, but I am going too. I have known many, many friends and brothers who are in the ministry serving. I know there are frustrations and I respect anyone who hears the call and follows it to the ministry. With that said, I witnessed a pastor have a breakdown a few weeks ago in the middle of his sermon and chastised the entire congregation for moving around too much and not paying attention during the sermon. After the service, I heard much rumoring about this and unhappy people with his actions. I grew up in a church where if you were passing notes in church, I am probably dating myself with this, and the pastor saw you, you were being singled out in the middle of the service, which is not fun and I experienced.
I did not think it was probably a good idea, especially in a large church like I was in, but I also know the frustrations and what the pastor goes through. Then the following week the pastor had a sermon on how to behave in church. I don’t think it was wrong in any way, but It will be interesting to see in recent weeks the reactions. Why do we have all these rules in a church? Should we only allow people who follow certain rules into a church?
I think the Bible is very clear on this. I like I Corinthians 3:1-23 (Entire Chapter) when it comes to this topic. I also like Paul as an example, I have listened to messages my entire life on Paul and his example to the modern day church. It is interesting that Paul was not without controversy with a fellow brother in Christ. I am sure we are all familiar with Acts 15:36-41, where Paul and Barnabas, two that were chosen to travel and preach to the churches, had a dispute and verse 39 says the contention was so sharp between them. This dispute was because Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark with them on the journey, but Paul did not like John Mark and was mad at him for not going with them on the first journey.
It is interesting to note that later in scripture we discover John Mark visits Paul in prison and it seems they came together as brothers and sisters in Christ should. I have said all of this to say the overarching reason for all these issues is that we are all sinners, and we all want things that are carnal. I think I Corinthians 3: 1-4, spells this out for us. For number two, I am only one person, but I have posted this as it has been on my heart that we should follow Gods word, I have entitled this site the sword of the spirit as the Bible should be our complete and only source for living the right life for God, which includes the church and what it should be.
The two main passages for this issue, there are many others, but Colossians chapter 4, and Philippians chapter 4 ,are the ones that came to me this week. Paul talks about the characteristics, attitudes and actions that a church should have. The third one as I thought about it, there are actions I have done and words spoken in the past which did not benefit the church. If you have attending church for along time and are honest with yourself, you have also.
The only real fight I had with my wife, I know it is hard to believe for those that know me, was over what version of the Bible to use. Those that know me, know I only use the KJV, this is a conviction for me , not a preference. My wife used the Living Bible at the time, and I made comments that her bible was not the real Bible and contained things that were not true. As you can assume this caused a rift. We did settle it the right and biblical way, and we have had a great marriage for over 19 years now, thanks to always trying to put God first.
As Paul and Barnabas had their dispute and ended up splitting up and going with different people on their journeys, I think we get blinded by sin and our own pride. It sometimes has a catastrophic consequence, The church I grew up in, was the greatest church I have ever attended, I had the “glory bumps” stand up more times than I can count and felt the presence of God in that church so many times. The church (Brothers and Sisters in the building) was full of Christian love for each other and I witnessed that if there was a need in the church it was met.
I witnessed everyone being welcomed to the church it didn’t matter what you were wearing or looked like. I saw an outreach to the entire community and the church being a light to all that it could. That church doesn’t exist anymore, shortly after I left to go onto active duty in the Army, there was a dispute. My parents and many family members were involved and the church had a large split, several years later there was another split in that church, and today that church no longer exist at all. The members are scattered among several other churches in the area. It is sad that we as brothers and sisters in Christ will spend an eternity together in heaven serving God, but we cannot spend the few years we have on this earth together in unity.
In summary to this post, I am posing a question is the church the building we meet in, the “organization/institution” we belong to, the “Club” we meet with once or a couple times a week and feel good about, or is the church the brothers and sisters in Christ who want to meet together somewhere, anywhere, study and grow together in God’s word, and fellowship, encourage, help and be fellow laborers for Christ. I think John 13:34-35 and John 17:11-26, are pretty clear on this subject of how we should act towards each other as the Church. I pray we will all do our part to follow the great commission, and be the light and salt to the world until our Saviour comes back for us. In Christ.
The Sword of the Spirit 