How Does it Help Again?

The osmosis that is the local church.  This is the magic show that many expect to happen.  Like being together with a group of people in a building is the solution to all of life's problems.  We are led to believe this! We live our lives in such manners. I am not against people going to church, far from it, just upset at what the church has actually become to most.  How does the modern church setting  actually help?  I look for a blessing like the next person, but sometimes I think we just lie to ourselves.  

You get the kids loaded into the car, probably late from kiddy circumstances, you rush to the church, get them out, one of you takes the little one to the nursery, the other takes the older kids to the special kids churches or Sunday schools.  And you, the adults go to the big peoples church.  You shake hands, see smiling faces, maybe even take part in some chit chat or banter.  The music director takes center stage, and you find your places.  You all begin to sing in unison.  

Are we reading the words, or thinking about the words? Do the hymns speak like they used to?  We have a few announcements after the singing, then it’s the offering time.  The deacons and ushers do their thing while some young person does a special, or we have special music played during.  

Then the message, while we stare at the back of others sitting in the pews in front of us, unless you are a good front row Christian.  The distractions, the teenagers talking, cell phones going off, visitors coming and going, one man talking, ushers getting the head count, ushers letting parents know about Nurseries to get the babies out of the Sanctuary.  Then the preaching, speaking, sharing or screaming, whichever man are found doing today. Then the altar call and the slow invitational music.  Next, the show of hands.  Then the closing in prayer, then the shaking of hands again on the way out.  

How does it help?  Does it just make us feel like we did our faithful duty?  Do we appease our consciences by simply showing up and making our appearances?  We are faithful members to a local church.  We all got to show off our Sunday best while we were at it.

How does it really help?  It helps the ministers and laborers in the church, as they get a place to practice their gifts and "callings".  They get to have a nice Christian job.  They get to talk about all the blessings of the ministry.  Not that they are wrong in doing so, but what about the regular folk, the members?  How does it really help them?  They get the pastor's take on things, the song leader's take on things, the assistant's take on things.  

All of our ways, our manners, and traditional observances play into the order of service and worship.  Are people getting edified or fossilized?  Are people able to contribute ideas?  Can other men have a word of testimony or encouragement?  Do people feel like they have true family ties upon leaving, or can they simply not wait for it to be over?  

If church is family, why do we coral them out the door like cattle as soon as the service is over?  Because we have other ministries to attend to, 500 kids from the bus ministry to get back home, people to drop off at their houses, lunches to have with our friends in the church (ministry partners).  What we desire so much to have, the true unity, the true fellowship is within our grasp, but our duties and traditions starve us of any opportunity to have it so. In light of this, how does it all really help?

“Forsake not the assembling” is all we have to give to someone, a straggler, someone deemed "unfaithful" to the “house of God”.  Even then, it is stripped of its placing and context. That's all you throw at a person who asks legitimate questions about standard operating procedure?  It won’t work!  It is so backwards now, I see the solution now may be to forsake the assembling.  It is not assembling anymore, it is traditions.  All of it.  Look around at it.  Pay attention to things that are done.  Pay attention to how and why they are done.  Maybe start asking why folks are leaving. Listen to the reasons and the answers given, and take it to the Word.  

What does it really offer to you aside from an umbrella of security?  You feel that you are in His protection because of your allegiance to the organized church? Even at that point, it is false.  Do we not see how it conditions us to put our faith in man, hence we become inclined to fear man?  It’s why we continue down our path of traditions that defy the word of God.  It’s why we allow men to distort scripture to teach  made-up doctrines.  We respect the pastors so much that we  think there is no way they could lie to us or lead us astray.  So we believe their words.  Never turning to the right or left to check the validity.  We are slaves to them.  They have blinded many people.  It’s fear of man disguised as honoring the pastor.  

Traditional church has taught me to be stupid, to listen to man, to only read the church's source material, to only give time and money to the church, to spend 3 days a week at the church doing varied tasks and commands.  Church in many ways is anti-family.  The whole system is deceptive.  The pre- fab idea of a “Christian home” works great for the Christian man in the ministry.  He can absolutely make it to every service 3 times a week, have devotions with his kids, talk about the great doctrines, study the great doctrines, study the Bible, make the visits, etc.  

What about the laymen?  What about the family that has both parents working?  What about the man who works 75 hours a week so his family can have a roof over their heads and food on the table?  How does our church today help them aside from pestering them to be more faithful and to give more to missions?  They are just expected to come hell or high water everytime the doors are opened!  It is always conveyed as a duty or expected task.

Pastor's kids fall, and we blame their rebellion and the world.  We never think at how the ministry starved their Daddies of time with his their kids.  We never think about how the Christian is just told what to believe, and they trust the people who are telling them.  We never think how the rigidity of the Christian home can seemingly protect children in early youth, but seriously come back to bite them when they gain independence.  We never think about the thousands of Christians who are doing things and they have no idea why.

Consider the flip side.  Every action has a reaction.  Just because this is "how things are done" does not mean they should be done.  We can’t just say "the Bible says" and skirt these tough issues.  It’s what has been done for years.  The whole point of having the final authority is having an authority to look to, to reason out of together, and that authority is not us, a seminary, a camp, or a preacher.