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The majority of Americans are responding to the traditional church’s invitation to”come meet with us on our terms ” with a polite (sometimes not so polite)”no thanks.” -Aubrey Malphurs
As I sit as ponder the question,” How 0ne loves God but hate church I become dumbfounded by the truth that rests in the statement. ” Many times in my life I have heard this and also said it myself. I hear people asking me all the time, ” do you have a church yet.” Matter of fact someone asked me that today. The last couple of months have all been the same response,”I am one of the few people you know that will tell you I love Christ but hate church.”
See I wrestle with the statement and the reason behind the statement. I do believe that their are many good churches that are doing the work of the Lord. They are seeking after the lost and teaching the word of God. But I believe that they are far and in between. Now that may be an incriminating statement for the body of Christ but I think it is true.
I have seen to many pastors that promote themselves and their knowledge more so than the grace of God. I have seen how the pastor introduces new thematic issues to the congregation and then preceded to brainwash them with stuff that he only knows. When he is challenged he proclaims that person to be out of order or causing division. This is becoming the norm for many churches. They have forgotten the importance of their mission and tried to build a spiritual conglomerate that is camouflaged by the Gospel. Once I step foot in this kind of church or any church for that matter my apologetic antenna goes up. So I start to dissect the entire message for the truth and always come to the same conclusion- the dude is wack.
You have pastor that preach the same hodgpdge every Sunday and just give it a different name. They refuse to deal with the scriptures but rely on quotes and clinches to entertain the people. The people have been so anesthetized by this garbage that when someone comes and unpacks the scripture, they do not think that he preached at all. If there was no hooping and hollering then he was lame. Though I am not a fan of the hooping I can get with it if the person is saying something in the midst.
As I wrestle through my dilemmas I try to put all this in perspective. My total dislike for church is really disheartening because I see the how beneficial it could be. The things I have to deal with come from the fact that I know my wife would really enjoy the fellowship with others that my attend certain churches. As I gage this I have to be so careful that I do not get her to look at churches like I do, but it is a little too late for that. Some of her coworkers have engaged her with spiritual folly and she kindly rocked their world.
So here stand wondering what in the world to do. I told her I am going to find one of these traditional churches without a pastor and apply for the position. But then I say I will become just like them and start playing the same game. We have been engaging in the church plant for almost a year now and I just refuse to go further because of my thoughts. I remember one Sunday taking my wife to the movies at 11:00am because I was so disturbed by the whole church scene.
Are house churches really the answer ? Let you know in a couple of weeks.
For the past couple of months, I have been trying to write and read but to no avail. What I saw myself doing was relaxing from a lot of vigorous reading because I drew tired of explaining myself all of the time. Many have become some engulfed in their own world, that they think that they are never wrong. So if you introduce them to new concepts they immediately start to defend their point without first hearing your concept.
With that being said I have changed the title of the blog to from the Boondox. This is to reflect my mindset at this time. I have come to a place where intelligent dialogue is welcomed and warranted. The title denotes a place that is far from the norm or familiarity. Simply stated,when I look at the church my view is from the Boondox because it does not resemble many churches I see in the world today.
There has been a buzz around the web about the cd, Identity Crisis by Tedashii. In his song Make War he contends for the believer to make war with himself over sin. It made such an impact on me to really check myself. Being one that is not afraid to tell people of the error I have done and do, I had to rethink some of the things I say. The concept is not to just highlight your sin but make war against that very same sin.
I have found myself so prideful of the fact that I was able to stand before others and confess error like it was a good thing. When in actuality I should have been challenging my flesh. As Flame says in the song not realizing “that we have been sterilized” we constantly talk about our sin. But we must ambush our flesh with the truth of the gospel. Within the scriptures we find the ammunition to combat the very thing that plagues our flesh. But we must be willing to engage the enemy which is out flesh and indwelling sin.
Based on what I read we can win…..
