The Way Church Was Meant To Be

Anyone who has ever been to a church service knows the routine.  You show up to church about 5 minutes before the start, park your car as close to the front as you can get, walk in, exchange quick but pleasant banter with 1-2 greeters, find your seat quickly, the show is about to start!  The stage fills almost magically with the best talent around.  Guitars, drums, pianos, and heavenly voices: they're all there.  One fast song from the latest and greatest Christian pop group, followed by two slow songs which are mentally stimulating and emotionally stroking all at the same time: check.  Now the speaker.  A sharply dressed man walks onto the stage and delivers the most dramatic performance of your life, while referencing different scriptures that back what he is saying and never once does he say something you don't agree with.  You're moved to tears and laughter all right before the closing song, which you use as your time to exit the building smiling and waving at a few people you recognize.  Ahhhh....you leave feeling good about the service and yourself for the week, saying to yourself, 'now this is the way church was meant to be.'  But was it?!

Now, I am not condemning people who participate in church services.  I'm a big part of our church services and by all means, we need to have a regular place people can meet to fellowship, have communion, and get saved.  What I am addressing is why we do what we do.  When did the above mentioned template become the church standard in America?  Church is not supposed to be a place where you come and 'enjoy the show.'  That's lazy and quite frankly, it does nothing for your spiritual growth, the real church, or the Kingdom of God.  The real church is you and me, my friend.  Church is the gathering together of people who love Jesus and love each other (notice I didn't say anything about 'liking' each other) and are unified around the same purpose: salvation.

Sometimes I think that small groups are actually a better representation of church than big services are.  In Acts, they had accountability.  Ooooohhh....I just said the word we don't speak of.  Well let's start speaking about it.  What is true accountability?  You tell me your sins and I beat you over the head with scriptures about why you are wrong and what I think you should do?  No, that's control.  Biblical accountability is being responsible to someone else, allowing yourself to get close enough to another human being to know what's going on in their lives.  It's spending time in prayer for another person, encouraging them along the way, and yes, bringing up scripture to them when they need it.  If we never get close enough to another person to develop this relationship, we're not really being the church, are we?  We're being 'Me Monsters', saying things like:  "I don't have time to talk to others because Sundays are my only days off," and "I choose a church based on if my spiritual needs are getting met."  Church is not about YOU or ME!  It's about WE.  You are only one person and can only see as far as where you've been (and for most of us, that isn't much farther than our own state or country.)  That's why God gave us the provision of the church, so we wouldn't be condemned to only seeing from 1 person's vantage point.  Thank God! 

You see, you actually aren't a very good judge of whether or not your church is a good one for you.  The Apostle, Paul says:

As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.        I Cor. 4:3-4

If the Apostle Paul, who paid an enormous price to see the fullness of his ministry the way he did, isn't qualified to judge whether he's right by his own conscience, than how can we?  My point here is that your conscience is not how you navigate your life.  God's voice and His Word are how you navigate your life.

So then, how should we chose a church?  WE don't.  GOD does.  If you are saved, then you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.  He'll tell you where to go and I can almost guarantee that wherever you go, at some point, will be difficult for you to stay.  Not because you're called to be a martyr, but because where God wants to bring you, will be a place where you will experience growing pains.  You're going to be pushed to what you think your limits are, because again, you likely don't know what your true limits actually are.  God does though, and He won't give you more than you can handle.  He will give you the opportunity, however, to rise to your own potential. Who better to do it than the One who created your potential in the first place?!

If we want to get down to brass tacks here, emotions are what guide most of us.  For instance, you like this person or that person, so you befriend them.  You feel stressed so you take a vacation.  You want something sweet so you eat a whole box of Twinkies.  These are obviously natural things we deal with, but the point is clear that emotions/feelings drive us to action.  The reason the Lord says so many 'different' things to different people is not because God is bipolar, and shame on us for making Him appear that way.  It's because we think whatever's talking loudest at the moment of our decision, is God.  That's just not the case.  I'm not saying God couldn't be talking loudly to you in your struggle, He's a God of grace.  What I am saying is that your emotions are loud too.  Jesus taught us that 'the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.' 

Emotions are not to be ignored, but they are to be put in check.  We recognize this principle in the natural world.  In that world, unchecked emotions could make you do things like quit your job after a bad day, punch a hole in your wall because you are angry, not change out of your pajamas for 3 days because you are sad, etc.  It's the same way with God.  Let Him check your feelings and sift out what is you and what is Him.  Hint: the 'feelings' that make it through the sifting process will line up with the fruit of the Spirit as laid out in your Bible: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  It's not that we will 'feel' self-control, it's that when we 'feel' anxiety or chaos, we swap God for His self-control.  It's the same way when you diet.  At first, you crave sweets and you have to starve yourself of them and it's hard.  But gradually, as time goes on, you begin to crave things that are good for your body like salads and vegetables.  Your feelings change.   You take on the nature of a healthy person.  That's the way we are to put on God's nature.  Starve ourselves of pouting, sadness, bitterness, etc., and let God give us the 'feeling' of joy.

This is where the rubber meets the road.  You are called to live a life of trusting God, not your feelings.  He was faithful to pull you out of your own personal hell and bring you into the Kingdom of Heaven, so you know that He won't let you down now.  He's got a purpose for you, one that is bigger than what you can dream of.  So let Him place you where you're supposed to be.  Seek Him for the answer and He will answer you.

I encourage you today that if you don't know if you're in the right place, do some serious business with God.  Ask Him where He is not the lord over your life.  Ask Him where your emotions or feelings have led you astray and pray for the strength and wisdom to make the right decisions in the future.  God is on your side and He is here to help, so utilize Him!