Many people, myself included, feel let down by the church. We have expected perfection, or at least something close to it, but have instead found flaws. We have hoped to find answers, but have only found more questions. We have hoped to get our problems solved, but only found more. The real issue seems to be that in a way, we are worshiping the church and expecting it to be God for us. We see the church as the place to go to have everything fixed for us. Instead we need to see the church as a way to worship God with other Christians. We go to church thinking that if we find the right one that it will profoundly change us, but we only find that everyone there is just as messed up as we are. So we get frustrated and walk away, mumbling all the while about how hypocritical THEY all are. And then after this happens a few times people start to give up on church…
We expect out of church what we should actually expect from God: Righteousness, Holiness, Lovingkindness, Grace, and the ability to work through us and in us. But you see everyone at church is looking to get that. They worship the church then crumble to bits under the baggage that is a organization lead by people who are not perfect but trying so hard to be.
What if we thought of Jesus as the Answer and Perfector of our Faith and we saw the church as a place to worship Him and rejoce and be thankful together? What if we went with the intention of not making our world perfect but of telling how perfect God is and how He forgives us for not being perfect? What if we went to focus on confession, repenting, and reveling in the presence of an Almighty Savior? And what if we forgave each other for not being able to be God? What if we instead encouraged each other and held each member accountable out of love and a desire to help us all grow closer to our Maker?
Maybe then they would know we are Christians by our love.
The problem with people’s idea of church is that they, and I constantly do this myself, are looking for the perfect church that will transform them. But we are here to SERVE the church not BE SERVED by the church. A church cannot transform me…only the Holy Spirit can do such a thing. We are not attending church for any reason other than to worship God. That’s what it was created for…fellowship of Christians, coming together to sing and love and wonder at their mighty, dangerous LORD, learning His commandments so we may better serve and obey Him. We should therefore confess our sins and faults so that we may be worthy of His presence and thus rejoice in our salvation together, as one body, worshiping in reverence, love, and truth.
