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* There have been numerous studies done & articles circulated over the past few years about a developing trend in the U.S.: the growing number of people professing to have become “Christ-followers” with no real connection to the church (don’t particularly need to specific stats to realize there’s a problem). I guess for me, it seems so contradictory: that if life is all about being with God and being with each other, any attempt to live otherwise means that we are “less than whole” (and that’s why God came). * And, having been in the church for so long, I can sympathize with those who love God, but just have a hard time with many of his followers. I calculated that I have been alive for approximately 2288 Sundays. Out of those, I have probably been in church for 2200 (and out of those, was “saved” 2100 times!) * The Bible reminds us early and often that the church is an all-too human institution. Can you imagine how small the New Testament would be (not to mention how many trees could have been saved) if we took out all the parts that dealt with our failure to get it? * Many of Paul’s letters were written in order to address some inter-personal conflict between people in the church; or some sin or blatant misunderstanding of God and his purposes (we call that ‘heresy’). If you need further evidence, take a spin through 1 Corinthians (divided loyalties, arguments, people getting drunk at the church “potlucks”- fellowship meal which surrounded the Lord’s Supper, taking each other to court, a man shacking up with his step-mother, etc.) * Amazingly, Paul goes on to say, despite our inability to get along and our obvious brokenness, we are the “temple of God” (I know, I can’t believe it either!) 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” * The temple is where people met God and Paul says that we encounter God in the midst of spiritual community. Paul also goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 4:7… “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” * Peter also reminds us (2 Peter 1:3-4) that we’re not “only human”. That we have a divine nature; and as a church, we gather to call attention to those things and call out those Godly urges in people. * So, God chooses to meet us here…right in the middle of this mess and entrusts us to be his light and his life to the world. * I sat in the car at McDonalds and attempted to formulate and answer to the question, “Why do I still go to church?” * I would just like to offer you a few of the reasons that I came up with:
My apparent dominance in such church competition secured a host of rewards such as Burger Chef coupons (a.k.a. “Burger Death”), a Ten Commandments paper weight, a Green Bay Packers replica helmet and a plastic cross necklace which I proudly worn around my neck like an Olympic medal. [Not sure I was committed to real spiritual development, just crushing the competition!]
It was a “low budget” production; not a lot of complicated make-up and wardrobe, just my bathrobe and some sandals made from cardboard and string.
* But, somewhere amidst the disillusionment and dysfunctionality, I fell in love with Jesus; and my life started to reflect little glimpses of his character. I’m not sure when it “took”, but I knew I was “saved”; “born again”; “a new creation”. * I keep going to church because I need to know that I belong…not only to God, but with you! I keep going to church because it’s there I get glimpses of what we were meant for. It’s there I receive subtle reminders that I am loved and I am not alone. Declaration: I still love God “in spite of” and “because of” the church. * Several years ago, my friends moved to Houston into what is identified as a “Master Planned Community”. Here was the website’s description: “Quiet streets and carefully planned villages complement an aquatic center, golf course, hiking trails and greenbelts in a community large enough to offer an abundance of recreational opportunities , yet small enough to provide a sense of place”. * This is the kind of life-management that seems to drive the American dream: a controlled environment where you hand select everything from the tile and brick to your choice of neighbor. Even with all of our planning and strategies, we still end up with little more than “customized seclusion”. Genesis 1-3 offers us the “Master’s Planned Community”… VALUE (worth)- our sense of personal value and worth would be directly connected to our Creator who creates for no other apparent reason than the shear joy of relationship! MEANING- reason beyond mere existence; some centralizing factor to help make sense of everything else. It’s the “one thing” principle that we discovered in Jer.32:38 (‘singleness of heart and action’). Although God will never be the “only” thing in your life, He must be the one thing! PLACE- sense of “belonging”; a “place”; sense of contribution. If God created us and he is good (and what he created is good), why aren’t our strongest inclinations toward him? What went wrong? * Interestingly, in the creation story in Genesis 1-3, God reviews everything and determines that “it is good”. Except for Adam, he looks at Adam and says… Genesis 2:18 “The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." * Adam had no companionship; he was alone and couldn’t identify why he felt this way (like us, many times). He needed revelation….God to tell him. * We cannot identify Adam’s problem at this time as “sin”. What we discover from the narrative is that God has created us with vital needs to not only connect with him, but with others. * In Genesis 2, we find man “alone”; in Genesis 3, he is “fallen”. * People are “fallen” and “alone”: characterizes the worst possible scenario… disconnected from God and each other. FALLEN: even the very word seems to denote that something has gone terribly wrong. God tries in various ways to communicate to our hearts that “we are special” and that “he is good and can be trusted”; but another urge in us keeps reminding us that we are “broken” and “we can’t risk losing control”. ALONE: as a result or our fallenness, God whispers, “I have come…”; life has a way of saying to our heart, “You’re on your own!” * That gnawing feeling in your heart that keeps telling you there’s more to life than working, eating, sleeping and snowmobiling? A deep-heart longing for the restoration of VALUE, MEANING & PLACE. Reflections… ► We all enter life spiritually and relationally handicapped! The fall drove us in the wrong direction; away from life…away from God and away from each other. ► People have a deep, heart-longing for relationships because of their aloneness, but pursue them in all the wrong ways because of their fallenness. ► We need God and one another. God could have chosen to create us in such a way that all of our relational needs were met in him, but he didn’t. He chose a more indirect route. The church helps combat my tendencies toward individualism (i.e. words to a popular song when I was growing up: “Me and Jesus, we got our own thing goin’. Me and Jesus, we got it all worked out.”)
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