Church People Are Tired: Part 2
My first message almost 3 years ago was kind of to "unchurched" people and to people who stopped going to church.
If you haven't had a chance to check it out here's the link: Church People are Tired
Anywho, this post is to us. What do you think of when you hear the word church? Ok, so how many of those thoughts you just had were negative, and why?
The church's flaws have be stereotyped and capitalized on for years, (the pastor is stealing the money, they hypocrites, deacon so and so is sleeping with sister such and such and she's 14, they hate everyone who's not cisgendered and straight). It's in movies, it's in jokes. Okay, bad stuff happens because people are flawed and it leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. I don't know how long it will take for unchurched people to see that all "churches" aren't the same, but why do "church people" have the same reactions, about THEMSELVES? How long is it going to take us to stop seeing one churches flaws as the downfall of Christianity, instead of being the solution.
Here's my issue. The world has had problems with "the church" for a long time. It's really nothing new. So if they are always focusing on how "the church" has failed, why inside "the church" do we have to do the same thing? Who benefits from that? Our message should always be of the love and hope of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we acknowledge and want to relate to the pain that some people have felt while attending "church" but how long do you stay there before you change the narrative? There are too many times where we try so hard to identify with the non-church by magnifying what the church doesn't do, pointing out what we haven't done right, and relaying the damage that was caused. But how long do we constantly focus on what the church has failed to do? Again, I'm not talking to people who have no clue what being a real Christian is about and just wants to jump on a bandwagon to find fault with us. I mean US "church people", Christians, pastors, and the like, bashing ourselves. Why?
My whole point is not to ask you to ignore the fact that the "church" has faults. I'm just simply asking why do we put so much emphasis on the faults, from our songs to our sermons. Seriously, what's our goal when we do that?
My church just got out of a series called "Stop going to church, start being the church". If certain assemblies have lost sight of their goal, what is the purpose of separating those assemblies and putting them down? Does that make the global church look good? What does that say about Jesus?
Do you feel high and mighty because "you got it" and all these other "churches" don't? Do you just want the people who've dealt with church hurt to join together in misery to pay attention to you and like your profound social media posts. Meanwhile, you've really done nothing to up-build the Kingdom?
I urge us to just start BEING! Remember, for God's sake, that we ARE the church! We are human beings who are flawed and make mistakes even with our best interest. We want the world to understand that but the way for them to understand is not to tear our own selves down. Hopefully that's not what you think I'm doing. I just want us to change our perspective when we talk about Christ's body like we aren't part of it. The gathering of the church is important because Christ said it was. Period. No matter how "woke" people become about being spiritual instead of religious.
The world does enough of pointing out what's wrong with us. We don't need to keep adding to it. We just need to add to the solution which is to BE the needed change and stop talking. If you see bad things happen, it makes no sense for you to add to the fire saying things similar to, "see that's why people don't like church now". What fruit does that bare? Let's just BE who we're supposed to be and facilitate change. If you love "the church", then stop slandering YOURSELF.
We don't have time. There's an urgency for us to BE and Do what we were created for.
If you haven't had a chance to check it out here's the link: Church People are Tired
Anywho, this post is to us. What do you think of when you hear the word church? Ok, so how many of those thoughts you just had were negative, and why?
The church's flaws have be stereotyped and capitalized on for years, (the pastor is stealing the money, they hypocrites, deacon so and so is sleeping with sister such and such and she's 14, they hate everyone who's not cisgendered and straight). It's in movies, it's in jokes. Okay, bad stuff happens because people are flawed and it leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. I don't know how long it will take for unchurched people to see that all "churches" aren't the same, but why do "church people" have the same reactions, about THEMSELVES? How long is it going to take us to stop seeing one churches flaws as the downfall of Christianity, instead of being the solution.
Here's my issue. The world has had problems with "the church" for a long time. It's really nothing new. So if they are always focusing on how "the church" has failed, why inside "the church" do we have to do the same thing? Who benefits from that? Our message should always be of the love and hope of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we acknowledge and want to relate to the pain that some people have felt while attending "church" but how long do you stay there before you change the narrative? There are too many times where we try so hard to identify with the non-church by magnifying what the church doesn't do, pointing out what we haven't done right, and relaying the damage that was caused. But how long do we constantly focus on what the church has failed to do? Again, I'm not talking to people who have no clue what being a real Christian is about and just wants to jump on a bandwagon to find fault with us. I mean US "church people", Christians, pastors, and the like, bashing ourselves. Why?
My whole point is not to ask you to ignore the fact that the "church" has faults. I'm just simply asking why do we put so much emphasis on the faults, from our songs to our sermons. Seriously, what's our goal when we do that?
My church just got out of a series called "Stop going to church, start being the church". If certain assemblies have lost sight of their goal, what is the purpose of separating those assemblies and putting them down? Does that make the global church look good? What does that say about Jesus?
Do you feel high and mighty because "you got it" and all these other "churches" don't? Do you just want the people who've dealt with church hurt to join together in misery to pay attention to you and like your profound social media posts. Meanwhile, you've really done nothing to up-build the Kingdom?
I urge us to just start BEING! Remember, for God's sake, that we ARE the church! We are human beings who are flawed and make mistakes even with our best interest. We want the world to understand that but the way for them to understand is not to tear our own selves down. Hopefully that's not what you think I'm doing. I just want us to change our perspective when we talk about Christ's body like we aren't part of it. The gathering of the church is important because Christ said it was. Period. No matter how "woke" people become about being spiritual instead of religious.
The world does enough of pointing out what's wrong with us. We don't need to keep adding to it. We just need to add to the solution which is to BE the needed change and stop talking. If you see bad things happen, it makes no sense for you to add to the fire saying things similar to, "see that's why people don't like church now". What fruit does that bare? Let's just BE who we're supposed to be and facilitate change. If you love "the church", then stop slandering YOURSELF.
We don't have time. There's an urgency for us to BE and Do what we were created for.
Comments
Post a Comment