Lately I have been seeing a lot of blog posts, Facebook posts and Myspace posts commenting on faith, or lack thereof. Most start with comments about how their faith has been damaged or tested or hurt in some way, however they usually end by saying they need to re-think their role in the "organized church".
Let me first say, that I, too, have a problem with organized religion in America. Over the centuries, it has bounced back and forth like a ping pong ball. It can't decide if it should please the "people" or please God. Why? If you ask the proverbial "church hopper" why they left their last church, they probably said something like, "it had nothing for me", it wasn't meeting my needs", "we weren't learning anything", "it doesn't have the right kind of programs" and this list goes on and on, with the key words being me and my and programs.
Is that the purpose of the church? Should it meet everyones needs? Should it provide a program for every scenario of life? But it's true! I see it or hear about it every day. The "church member" becomes disgruntled because the church they are attending does not do things "their way"? And if the leadership (however it is setup) doesn't change or implement another program, or exile an opposing member, then it's "hasta la vista baby", we are packing up our toys and going to another playground. This is a whole other subject for a future blog.
Am I being too harsh? No, because none of this is about Faith. Not real Faith. If a person feels scorned by the church, or the pastor, or another church member, is it God's fault? Did God cause the argument over who is a sinner in the church, or who is squabbling with who, or who is too conservative or too liberal? Did we have a "crisis of faith" over these sorts of things? I don't think so. If we did, it was a faith we put in other people, not the faith we put in God. Are we stupid? Of course people will fail us. We are ALL sinners. We are ALL flawed. But God is not. So, we go into a church, put our faith in our pastor, our friends, programs, groups, etc and then, at some point, we get disappointed. Duh! But, if we truly put our Faith where we are supposed to put it, then we will never be disappointed. He does not disappoint us. He does not fail us.
If your faith is in people then it will surely be shaken and at some pont there will surely be a crisis. If on the other hand, your faith is in God and God alone, your Faith cannot be shaken and a crisis of faith is simply not possible.
3 comments:
You know,Robert, when I first read your blog I was pretty mad at you and what you wrote. It brought to my mind alot of hurt in my heart. But, I've been sitiing here thinking about your thoughts and what you really mean through your writing. Of course, when you read something someone else has written you can't hear a tone in their voice and you don't even know their motivation. So, you just read the words that are written and you take it all in and then you either discard it or you use it to better yourself. After reading I came to the conclusion for me "Becka" that faith is not only about trusting in God but it is also about trusting in people. If it only had to do with God then He wouldn't have put us here on earth to live with people every day of our life. He would have just kept us in heaven. Church is a great place and it is intended to be a comforting place. A refuge from the world we live in. We build Faith in the people we worship with Sunday after Sunday. Year after Year. And yes, church(People) can bring either lots of joy into our life or lots of pain. So, we go in with the faith believing that we can trust and hopefully most of the time we can totally trust but sadly we live in a fallen world and even in church we are dealing with imperfect people so we hurt eachother. I've also wondered why there have been many blogs about the discontent people are feeling towards the church. I personally believe it has nothing to do with organized religion but all to do with the fact that our churches have in a very dangerous way reached way inward and the focus to self has caused the church to forget about the hurt and dying world that is out there waiting to hear about the Lord. It really isn't as complicated as many might make it out to be . We are a selfish society that has forgotten about the lost souls. I know, I'm just as guilty. Yes, I've been hurt deeply by a "church" and so I've locked myself away in the safety of my home and family. Hurt will do that to you. So, here I am an injured church member wondering how in the world to pick up the peices of my broken heart and move forward with no bitterness and once again embrace the church, once again so that I can make a difference for the Kingdom. Oh, that I can move on and allow God to work a miracle of forgiveness in my life so that the time will come when I can love and cherish the friendships of my christian brothers and sisters. Thank you, Robert, for making me STOP and think. May God Bless you, friend.
What an excellent blog post (and subsequent comment)! My pastor has been speaking recently on our walk with God and its relationship to how we view "church". We've learned that the closer you are to Christ in your day-to-day life ... the more Christ-centered you are, the less you "need" from a church. Programs and service times and worship styles and all that stuff fade into the background when your walk is in the moment with Christ. It is when we are growing closer to Him that we find ourselves relying more on the church. I believe the role of the church is to take the believer through a progression of discipleship that will lead each individual to an intimate in the moment walk with Christ. As the church is able to grow its membership towards this intimate walk with Him, the worries about programs, ministries, facilities, services, etc. will begin to fade. But the church MUST realize that at any given moment there will always be a significant portion of the congregation that is not yet at that in the moment walk with Him. These are the folks that "need" the church to nurture them down that path. Some churches overfocus on outreach and miss the discipleship boat altogether. Some churches only worry about growing their own people and never reach outside their own four walls into their community. A great church, a truly Godly church (in my opinion) finds a way to lead its congregation through discipleship so that our daily lives become the outreach ministry of the church. If we, as churchgoers, are on fire for Christ and walking in the moment with Him we will be the face of God to our world in need.
Soapbox dismount!
Thanks Becka, You are right. We should show some faith in our fellow brothers and sisters, but we must be prepared for them to fail us and be the first to offer forgiveness or ask to be forgiven. Reason being that we are ALL sinners and come short of the glory of God. Meaning we could just as easily fail them as they could fail us. As long as we know this, our faith will not be shaken, in fact in most cases it becomes stronger and we become wiser and more tolerant and compassionate.
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