Church these days.
As I sit and watch a video of a church choir recorded, I can’t help to think about my church home, The Metro. I see the children’s choir in the video is bigger in numbers than our church all together. This sheer difference in numbers makes me ponder about the body of our church.
Breaking free from the constraints of men is always difficult. People ask, “What is that church doing? Because they are clearly reaching people”. I have to sit back and think about this statement for quite a while. Coming to a conclusion is not easy to digest and is difficult to comprehend. There is no way I can know the hearts of the people attending “mega churches” (a church of 200 is mega compared to our community of 50 or so), but the result seems to lie somewhere within the message.
It seems there are so many that do not want to go to church for myriads of reasons. The top of the list seems to stay, “Church is full of hypocrites”. I have news for everyone who thinks this. Come closely to listen, because it may be quite shocking. You may want to be sitting down...WE ARE ALL HYPOCRITES. We are all sinners, living together on this earth, causing friction and dealing with the life we live. No one can be perfect, no matter what. I dislike greatly when people try to hold the pastor on a pedestal, as if they are incapable of sinning. We can only continually seek to make Jesus famous and glorify Him. There is no way on this earth that we will ever be fully satisfied by our pastor, our spouse, our children, our friends. There is always going to be a part of us that LONGS to be filled. We must always seek to be filled by the spirit and love of Christ. We go to church for one reason. To praise Jesus. To thank God for the sacrifice he made in giving His son. To pray the spirit fills our hearts and minds. There is a theme to this. It is NOT about us.
We do not go to church for us.
We do not go to church to have a fashion show of who has the best designer dress or the cutest children. We do not go to have a free babysitter for 2 hours while we “sit through” the service.
We do not go to find entertainment on a Saturday Night (Or Sunday morning).
We go to be filled with the spirit and to praise God. Whether this be through singing or by the message the preacher has to convey to us from God himself.
It seems that a vast majority of the “mega churches” are filled, filled to the brim with people who are constantly asking the question, “What can church do for me?” Instead of “What can I do for the Church?” And in CHURCH, I mean JESUS! So the preacher puts on a good show. The choir does a fantastic special. The offering is collected. People leave feeling warm and fuzzy. Good with their lives they are living and happy that they are healthy and wealthy. Not realizing we are dirty sinners who have been made clean ONLY by the blood of Jesus.
We are called to pour out our lives for Jesus-To follow Him and do His work here on earth. If that means serve somewhere in the community (church) we are involved in, then do it! Of course I’m not saying pour, pour, pour until we come crashing down out of exhaustion. I’m saying, pour! And be filled by the Spirit. Because that’s what He does. If we are going to use the Spirit-we may as well use Him for what He is made for.
Metro is a place where we are free from the constraints of fancy dresses and 3 piece suits. We are free from holding each other on a pedestal. We are free from Holy robes and Holy water.
We are free.
In Jesus.
Together in a community.
The best family I’ve ever had.
We hold each other accountable and hold each other in the light of the love of Jesus. We are all sinners. We will all make mistakes. But we are free in Christ. Now, if only there are others who are willing to break free of the constraints of man and ask what they can do for Jesus and not what Jesus can do for them.
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