The Church 1

²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵ Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:24-25



Over the last several months I have had conversations (electronic or "real") with a number of people who have become disillusioned with church.  These are not people who have lost their faith in God mind you, but instead are people who have lost faith in the institution.  They are folks who have grown tired of "organized religion."

Some of these folks have decided to leave the church -- at least for a time.  Others are searching for a new place to worship.  Still others seem content to stay where they are, but they lack any real enthusiasm and have minimal expectations of their church experience.

I would like to be able to say that the people I am thinking about were just complainers who are overly upset about trivial matters, or maybe people who are pouting about not getting their way.  But, unfortunately, that is not the case.

One of the folks I am thinking about has had an extremely challenging last couple of years.  None of the challenges she has faced were problems or developments of her own making.  But, in a time when she needed sympathy, consolation, support or understanding, her friends from her church met her with words of condemnation or judgment.

I have never done a series of blogs on the same subject (unless you count Christianity/God/the Bible as one subject -- in which case pretty much all of my blogs count as a series!) but feel compelled to do a series starting today.  And, the subject I want to write about is "the church." 

As you might imagine, I strongly believe that church attendance is a critical spiritual discipline.  While I recognize that there are times when church attendance is not possible (physical limitations, for example) I have no doubt that God desires for us to live and worship in community.  And, we will probably explore some of the reasons for that belief as we go along.  But, I want to start this first blog in what might seem like an unlikely place.

Both before His death on the cross and after His resurrection, Jesus promised His disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit.  (See John 16 and Acts 1)  And, in fact, on the day of Pentecost the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit ... and everything changed.  Suddenly, the church was clothed in incredible power.  Peter was transformed into a confident leader, many miracles were performed, and thousands were brought into the faith.

Can you imagine how unbelievable it would have been to have experienced the early church first hand?  What must it have been like to have known Jesus when he walked the earth in human form?  Or, if you weren't around to witness the cross or resurrection, what it would have been like to see Peter address the crowd on Pentecost (Acts 2), to see Peter heal the crippled beggar near the temple gate (Acts 3) to see Peter courageously address the Sanhedrin (Acts 4) or to see the apostles perform many miraculous signs and wonders among the people (Acts 5)?

And yet, despite the palpable presence of the Holy Spirit in the early church, despite the awesome display of wonders and miracles, the early church almost immediately began to experience problems.  As early as chapter 5 of the Book of Acts, we see Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, losing their lives for lying to the Holy Spirit.  In chapter six, we see that seven men full of spirit and wisdom had to be appointed "to wait tables" because there were complaints that the widows among the Hebraic Jews were being favored over those of Grecian Jews in the daily distribution of food.

In fact, if we look at the epistles of Paul and others, what we see is that the purpose or emphasis of many of those writings was to correct problems in the early churches:  e.g., 1 Corinthians (division and disorder); Galatians (false teaching or understanding concerning the law); Colossians (false teaching); 2 Thessalonians (idleness); 3 John (arrogance and control); Revelation 1 - 3 (various).

Now, I realize that this is not exactly inspiring stuff.  If you are struggling in your church it may be little consolation that the church has always had its problems.  Indeed, that fact may make you that much more frustrated with your current circumstances.

But, the Bible urges us to "not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing ...."  And, I believe that incredible things will inevitably come out of your consistent church attendance.  Because I can take no credit for it, I can tell you that I see incredible things happen in the lives of people in the church virtually every week.

But, part of the key to success is perseverance.   For some people I can see that church attendance has an immediate impact.  I have seen any number of people come to church who either had been out of church or were disillusioned by church walk out with a new joy after just a service or two.  But, for others God works more slowly.

I also think, though, that in order to get everything out of church that God intends, we sometimes need to step back and remember what church is primarily about.  Or, maybe that is something we need to learn for the first time.  So, what is the primary purpose of church?  Well, that will be the subject of my next blog.