It has been awhile since I have had the ability to write here. Many things have happened and naturally I have been trying to keep up with all the things that occur in life. I was married to my best friend about a month ago, had a wonderful honeymoon and currently learning a lot through married life. I will write something on this soon, but today I want to cover something I think that as a Christian I have come into contact more frequently than people who blatantly hate the church or Jesus. I am speaking about common phrases that we hear and I want to choose one of them today.
As a pastor I talk to many people, but sometimes I talk to people who tell me they believe in God or Jesus but they simply: "don't believe in organized religion." How many of you have heard this before? I hear this phrase more often then others. This phrase bewilders me because there usually is never an actual explanation as to what they mean by that statement.
Is it I don't like worship services?
Is it I don't like people who worship?
Is it I don't like organized bodies of people singing, hearing God's word, and fellowship?
Is it I don't like those hypocrites in the building singing and praising?
Whatever it is it has never been clearly defined and every person has their own take on what "organized religion" is. Either way they don't like it.
Here are some insights to consider:
1. Defining organized religion:
If by organized religion you mean church then you must understand that the church is one body. If you do not like worship services, which are designed to put our hearts and minds focused on Christ as a collective local body, then you do not have a problem with religion you have a problem with worship.
2. We are called to meet together corporately.
I wrote about this a while ago so for the sake of not repeating myself the author of Hebrews encourages the body of people to" not neglect meeting together as some people do..."(Hebrews 10:25). Here the author has laid out for the community to motivate one another to love, to good acts, to affirmation in Christ as the whole context of the passage is to persevere especially as the "day of his return draws near."(NLT) Some people had already abandoned the community and stopped meeting corporately. There is strength in numbers, and fellowship is vital for a community to grow. The early church set this standard--Read Acts 2:42-47, 5:32-36.
3. Finally this statement is a mask for idolatry:
If someone loves Christ, serves Christ, worships Christ, wants to see Christ exalted, wants to grow in Christ they will not make a statement like this. It doesn't say your church is perfect but that you want to worship corporately with believers, and work to bring people into the kingdom through coporate missions, tithing, discipleship, etc. It is a group effort through the power of One God: Jesus Christ. But this statement also reveals that the problem again isn't the church but something deeper: our idols.
The idol of experience: "Well I had a bad experience about 15 years ago and I haven't been back!"
The idol of mismanaged time: "We stayed up really late on Saturday hanging out with friends and so it just would have been too hard to get up."
The idol of sleep/laziness: "I just wanted to sleep in today. I stayed out late, or was up watching a movie or I just wanted to have a "me" day Ten in the morning is just too early."
The idol of work: "I decided to go into work today so I could get some overtime or time and a half or just to get extra hours."
The idol of sports: "I didn't want to miss the Redskins play today! Its football season!
The point is we make room for a lot of things that we know "moth and rust will destroy" (Matt. 6:19) yet we make excuses for worship, fellowship and growth.
4. A church must be organized:
Lastly, we are an organized church body because, "God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people (1 Cor. 14:33---keep in mind this is used in context about the disorder and lack of organization of the church's use of tongues). Paul encourages organization by selecting leaders (elders, overseers--1 Tim. 2, 1 Peter. 5:1-3; Titus 1:1-5) to run things along with deacons to help get ministries and people cared for. So organization is a good thing for the church body. If they have a problem with simply religious stuff, well then so do we. Come join us for worship of our Creator, our Savior, Our Lord in whom we have a relationship beyond anything religion could ever give you. Folks someone who loves Jesus, serves Him and worships Him will want to be around people like Him, and in a place that worships Him.
Be Blessed.
Speaking as one whose personality profile (however legitimate those things are) defines her as one who naturally "dislikes organized religion," I do think there are deeper issues for people than that fall into these aforementioned categories. I don't skip church because I'm lazy, sleepy, want more money or want more play time. From what I have experienced myself and what I've heard others say, the church has a way of claiming they accept people as they are, but then they're only interested in preaching at the people. These people came into a church building, after all; they must expect to hear teachings and sermons and prayers. The point of church is to spread the gospel, it's true. However, that end is precisely the reason some people simply won't go.
ReplyDeleteThere are people who aren't ready for those things. They need someone to listen to them first and to accept their beliefs and understandings with an open mind, encouraging them in who they are before encouraging them toward things a guy wrote in prison thousands of years ago.
This isn't to deny that we have idols in our lives. Everything you've written is legitimate in certain cases. My point is simply that those people's experiences and words are just as important as our own. We should spend more time listening.