What CHURCH Has Done To God's Church

I am no longer surprised with the things I see and the way scripture seems to call out with a message as I read. I hope I have mentioned before how I fully believe the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today and is still willing to speak the incredible Word of God to us as was done in the past. I am convinced of how our willingness to listen is an open door for the Holy Spirit in our lives and in contrast, the conditioning of my youth still reminds me how there is only one right message to be found in a text and it is the message men wrote about when writing the commentaries of our heritage.

My mind was obviously primed for something this morning as I listened to a message discussing when we will be ready to allow the spirit of God to work in our lives. I must say how spoiled I have become being able to hear great messages which cause me to think and evaluate what I know about God and today was no different as it came full circle with the first question of the series dealing with who will lead us.

After trying to take a nap this afternoon (hopeless when I have something to say), I got up and did a word search on servant and was intrigued with the 11th chapter of 2 Corinthians. Reading with a bias already established from my notes this morning, I saw something different from what I have seen in the past. I would encourage the reader to stop and read this chapter once again before allowing me the option of "missing Paul's point entirely."

During the lesson this morning, I begin to see how we have taken church, the creation of God, and then personally organized CHURCH to fulfill the purpose of God in a way we desire things instead of the way God desires for His creation to fulfill it's purpose. As the Spirit moved my thoughts, I considered how much work our wives and mothers do when we all come together for a family gathering and meal. It is no exaggeration to say they completely wear themselves out as they serve the family from the love of their hearts. When we all gather around the table for the official beginning, the "official leader of the family" steps up to the plate and leads a prayer! I think this morning my eyes were opened to who is the greatest in the family and sadly, being the "figure head" of leadership is so much less than being the servant. At least we often acknowledge, with a short word of thanks, the value of the true servant.

I believe we might have abused the church in much the same way by focusing on organization and proper roles in our "sacred hour" of the week. For some reason, the perfect family (church) has become defined by what takes place and the proper role playing taking place during the "one hour which matters to God." Outside of this special hour, any of us, male or female, can be the true church of God and serve to the fullness of how we might be led by the Spirit. We can pray for each other, we can sing songs of praise with each other accompanied or unaccompanied and we can tell others the story of the fullness found in Jesus. In short, when we are not with those of our number we are free to be filled with the fullness and joy of Christ as mentioned in 5th chapter of Ephesians and the 3rd chapter of Colossians.

This morning after our "special hour" I had someone mention how the eyes of an individual reflected so many different things. The eyes of some were those of a zombie, those of distress and sadness and yes, there were those with eyes of JOY! Of all the times we might find during a week, I would think the time spent coming together with the body of Christ should be the most joyous time of the week for all of us. I think our organization of a "special hour" a "holy hour" in the week is reflected by the message I read in 2nd Corinthians. Paul says,

"Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!"

Yes, let us recognize the boasting of what man has created and called CHURCH! We are not full of joy because we have accepted the slavery forced upon us as from those who would be the "figure heads" of all God desires from the entire body. Allow the church to do the work of God all week and when the family comes together we will assume proper "man ordained" roles of preaching, praying, singing, and service. In this one hour of the week, men have their roles and women have their roles. We cease to be the church and assume the facade of playing CHURCH!

I am filled with joy to hear of churches of Christ where men and women preach, pray, read scripture, sing, serve communion. Congregations where roles are not played but rather neither male or female is considered important when the focus is on Jesus by all. I am even more joyful to know my daughter attends one of these churches of Christ. The will to play the role of leader has been given up to simply be known as a servant with other servants and yes, the joy of praise together.

I'm not sure I got the answer to the question of when we would be ready for the Spirit to lead us but I do know we first have to recognize the Holy Spirit was sent to give proper direction to our lives and not men. As long as we continue to look to men for direction we fail in our surrender of all to the Spirit.

As the rich young man turned away in sadness because he would not give up all to follow Jesus, I am ashamed to admit there were likely some in our group this morning who sang the invitation song to "Surrender All" and went away with no intention of ever giving up the rights or authority man has surrendered to each other in their attempts to create and govern the "RIGHT CHURCH!"