In September of 2007 I went from working 70 to 80 hours a week to about that same amount every month. It has gotten even worse since then. Back when I was so busy I barely had enough time to read some news, check television schedules and pay my bills while online. I had heard of bulletin boards, forums, blogs, and other forms of communication on the internet but had never read or participated in them. When the work schedule changed so drastically, I started reading more but I also started stumbling across blogs and forums and such. Sometimes I wish I had not.
One of the first things I stumbled across was a site where a lot of ministers in my own denomination hung out. It was also right before the General Assembly which is when the Church of God votes on change of leadership and other important issues. I learned way too much. I read a lot of things that ministers were saying and are saying and it makes me just want to run. I want out of my denomination, out of my church and sometimes wish I was even out of the Kingdom. If it truly could just be about me and Jesus, all would be fine. But it can’t. It is about relationship, community and the mission.
What I see coming from most Christians though is that it is about them. Or for some, it is about their denomination. If I hear another minister say how great a man of God someone is because they have did so much for the Church of God denomination instead of for the Lord of all the Church, I think I may explode. I love the COG, it has done so much for me, how can you not love this grand old institution; these are a few of the many types of things some, and sadly they are usually the older ministers, say to anyone that questions the corruption that is so evident from the facts. The corruption I am speaking about is the corruption of the mission. But there is obviously even more.
I just finished reading Forgotten Ways, The: Reactivating the Missional Church
by Alan Hirsch. He wrote the following statement in it.
“In catering to the religious needs of some (largely the insiders) it has as a consequence failed to respond to the wider spiritual hunger of not-yet-Christians.”
He is referring to the institutional church; the denominations, the buildings, the hierarchy, the dogma, and the self-righteousness of our religion in conservative American Christianity. We do not seem to want to do much more than token mission anymore. We do enough to feel good about ourselves and even then, we ask those that need us to come to us instead of us going to them. My own denominations problems seem to bear Hirsch’s thoughts out exactly. The leaders at a certain level seem to only care about themselves and the continuance of the institution that caters to their aggrandizement.
This book has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I was already seeing and feeling. I was just too busy to notice it until about the last year and a half. The book is about becoming missional again. The early church was missional but some of the older people in the COG seem to think this is some new spiritual fad or something and that we just need to get back to the old ways. They don’t know how wrong and how right they are. They are wrong about missional being a fad and right about needing to get back to the old ways. But the old ways are much older than they think. They are pre-Contantinian. The early, persecuted church had it right. So that is pretty old ways.
I think all ministers should be required to read this book and see if it does not check their spirit. It has my own and I am nothing but a layman. I am just so tired of seeing the people of God the same way I saw them when I was an atheist. And I am not forgetting that I am one of them now. I am going to figure out a way to be the person God needs me to be in His Kingdom today. If it means changes are in store, then that is what will happen. I wish more would join me in this endeavor to become what God meant for us to be.
One of the first things that I wish would be gotten rid of is this almost idolatrous view of “my” church, “my” denomination, “my” leaders, “my” ministry, and anything else we are so proud of because we see it as “ours”. All of these things belong to Jesus, if they should really even exist.
I am sorry if anyone takes offense at anything I have written. I know there may even be repercussions if I keep on saying some of the things I am saying. But I am more concerned with the eternal repercussions if I keep quiet.
We do seem to have forgotten that it is not about us. It is not about our comfort, our contentedness, or even our happiness. Church is not an institution. Church is a living, breathing, organism that is gasping for the breath of life because that breath, the Holy Spirit, seems to be slowly being pushed away by our inward instead of an outward focus.
Get the book. Read it. Come back and let me know if it woke anything in you. It certainly has in me. And not everyone will like it.
Love you all
He was probably a little older than me, maybe mid fifties, and a pretty big man. A couple of inches over six feet and his wife looked small beside him. He was almost throwing their bags in the trunk and as I got closer I heard a couple of racial slurs and quite a few choice phrases and words that I hope none of you use. Someone had definitely raised this man’s ire.
The greatest calling on the life of any Christian is to become more and more like Christ. This necessitates something called growth. Spiritual growth. We toss around words and concepts such as discipleship, maturity, and Christ likeness so easily yet I find that when I discuss or read about most Christians I find very little of any of these.
“What they crave is reality.”
I used to serve Satan even while denying he existed. A lot of people do. I was an atheist. I know how some of them think and the questions and arguments some of them have. I want them to join in here so a dialogue can be initiated. So far there have not been any, except possibly one early on, actually post any comments. But there is a lot of traffic so maybe, some day.
