Why Not Church?

Over the last few years I have witnessed ‘mature’ christians decide to sever their relationship with a particular body of believers (church). Most times it is for very good reasons; bad theology, manipulative leadership, legalism, abuse of power, unwillingness to listen and the list could go on. Once they decide to leave there is a decision to take some time away to heal and so church takes on a different look. Walks on the beach, yard work, sitting on the deck with a great cup of coffee and a book (Christian of course), family time or just sleeping and lazing the day away, if that can be called church...we know it really isn’t It’s starts out as a time for healing but ends up becoming a habitual ritual of selfishness.

The reason I use such harsh words is because it is completely inconsistent with the gospel to isolate ourselves from other believers and be under the preaching of the word of God, in person. Christ came to break down the dividing wall of hostility between people. He came to make us one. Think of all the imageries that God has created to show connectedness, or dependency for the sake of demonstrating His sufficiency, his headship. There is: The Body of Christ; the Vine and ‘we’ the branches; the Household of Faith; a Temple with each of us being one of the bricks; Marriage; Adoption into a family; Kingdom; Priesthood and others. Then there are the scriptures of assumption; ‘and on the first day of the week when you come together’. You would find Jesus in the temple weekly to hear the word read and then to stand up a declare that He was the fulfillment of that word. There does not seem to be any indication in the NT that believers would ever not consider meeting weakly in an organized fashion, the concept was foreign. Or what about brothers and sisters in other countries under intense persecution who are executed, slaughtered for wanting to be together on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s supper, worship Christ and hear from His word.

Forgive, Forbear, have compassion, show kindness, humility, meekness and above all put on love. This is the call of God on His children. They require interaction and cannot be attained insolation. He knows that we will be hurt and hurt, be frustrated and sin against each other, that is why He has given us His spirit to show that we are spiritual people, that we have the supernatural living in us, that the love of Christ can compel us to love the unloveable. It takes no supernatural grace to isolate yourself from your sinful brothers and sisters and then we seek to justify and spiritualize our actions but it is not of God, it is of the flesh. You miss out on blessing your brothers and sisters and being blessed as God has made us to be conduits of His grace to each other. When we step away we are not trusting in the mediatorial work of Christ, we begin to walk counter to the gospel and God’s intentions. The sad part is that in not trusting Christ to be our savior in this situation the testimony of Jesus’ glorious grace is marred.

Each of us have been made uniquely by God and in His image according to His wisdom. We need to stop trying to fit people into the image, our image, of who we think they should be. We must humble ourselves and once again come to the cross and ask for God’s Spirit to once again reign. [From Why Not Church?]