When the Church Starts to Look Like the World…
I have had many different takes on the church. I have loved it, felt indifferent to it, became enamored by it, and have been utterly devastated by it. At times I have asked how it is any different than the world and felt that it is not any different at all. It is broken and messy and at times seemingly more heartbreaking than the world.
At times I had turned it into a good Christian checklist in which I could remain detached and mark as complete. At times I had become bitter and angry to the hurt and pain from people I trusted to love and lead me. Still other times I watched the Lord move so miraculously through the heart of His church. And that is the key word of difference, His. Through all the loving, angry, mundane, and confusing emotions, when I set aside my pride I see Him. I see Him calling a church to be a family that forgives, rebukes, presses in, and loves from within so that we may learn to do good for everyone.
Called to this because we have decided that His grace, that leads to eternity, far outweighs the cost we have on earth.
“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
Galatians 6:10
If this is true why does the church often look so much like the world? The world that is unforgiving, prideful, and wrapped in evil devices that are far from love. Why does it often show most in our leaders?
And when it looks like this, what do we do?
Do we jump ship and say let it die?
Sometimes yes, but often times no.
It’s easy to jump ship and find somewhere new especially when you live in a place that has churches on every corner. It feels easy to just leave and start over. It feels easy to leave every annoying, painful, and bitter piece behind. But when you jump ship you often become the very thing you first despised. You become an individual whose heart is hardened to your own pride that only seeks to gain comfort and peace for yourself. Excusing and diminishing the impact that you leave as you exit. An exit that often comes with unresolved pain that always is left unaddressed. A pain that stays waiting to ignite any situation that even closely resembles your past.
So why is this the impact?
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 ESV
The impact is this deep because we are one body and we are one family. Imagine the pain you feel banging your knee against a counter and now imagine the pain of completely cutting it off. It’s shocking at first, and then the blood starts to pour out and then the realization of pain becomes so much that you question if you might die. This is the impact in the Spirit. So if you question whether it matters, whether you matter, it does and you do.
Now if you’re reading this and currently are facing church hurt or have in the past this is hard to read. Because if this is true then the pain you’ve diminished to get by is now surfacing. Thoughts of how they were wrong and hurtful start to scream. Thoughts of shame and condemnation may even be lingering around. Only the hurt wants to scream louder than the shame. Keeping you stuck in a place with a hard and embittered heart.
Please do not hear me diminishing your pain because I will not and I can not. What you have felt and experienced is real because the church often slips into becoming like the world.
I have experienced it and I know it well.
What I also know is what I have missed far too often for my friends in the church is the kind of grace Jesus calls me to extend. The kind of grace that meets others with discretion and love. The kind of grace that does not boast in arrogance and pride through gossip and slander. The kind of grace that I dismiss because I forget the healing it can do. This I have often missed the mark in.
So is our pain dismissed because we extend grace? Truthfully the answer by the world is sometimes yes. But by God the answer is no, our pain is not dismissed. Our pain is addressed to its deepest core by the balms that come from His healing wings. The wings He sets us upon when we choose to forgive and choose to have grace.
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”
James 3:1 ESV
To my leaders of the church this is your call to a higher standard. If it feels unfair then maybe it’s time to step down. If it feels hard, it should. If it feels overwhelming, at times it will. Don’t let these moments of hardship transform you to look like the rest of the world. God is calling you to raise the standard, knowing you will fall short, and asking you to walk in humility and acceptance when it happens.
It doesn’t mean you leave, it just means you muster up enough courage to ask for help.
This is what will make the church look different from the world.
Not a false perfection but an authentic heart for
repentance and humility.
To the congregational body, pray immensely, fight to stay, and forgive as you have been forgiven.
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
Hebrews 13:17 ESV
When the church starts to look like the world be the one who stays to look like Christ.
Opmerkingen