The first obstacle to becoming the church God wants is to
decide what God wants from His church and I’m not sure it would look the same
organizationally from one location to another. I do believe the basic answer
can be found in the first part of the “Lord’s Prayer,” “Thy will done on earth
as it is in heaven.” Men and women with good intentions all across our planet
simply confuse the issue by making/organizing church according to their
personal belief patterns. When I was a child, I can’t remember how many times I
was reminded of the church not being the building, but rather the people who
met together in the building. These same people teaching me this concept failed
in one aspect of training because they forgot to extend the analogy one step
further and recognize for themselves how the church is also, not the
organization of the people, but rather EACH individual.
We take on many denominational names to describe the
organization of the people coming together and effectively create an artificial
church. I believe the church God wants is reflected in Romans 14 and speaks to
each individual answering to his Lord. While groups continue to wrestle with
appropriate worship formats, I can’t help but believe we are frustrating the
will of God. My niece just recently made the analogy of picturing Jesus sitting
out on the steps of the church building desiring to be let inside. While I
think it is wonderful to include others in our personal worship, I can’t
believe, at least right now, that God ever intended for us to gather as a group
and worship Him. While I’m sure He finds our outpouring of praise enjoyable,
I’m also convinced He finds our acts of love toward others as a more fragrant
form of worship.
When I think of our organized worship, I think we miss the
point and should even characterize it with different terms void of worship
concepts. I’m not sure we can ever move past the idea of a worship service even
if we wanted to do so and without this being an attainable goal, we must choose
to alter our worship if our desire is truly to be more like God would want to
see from us.
I once dreamed of an opportunity to have complete control
of a building so it could be used by the family of God to honor and glorify His
name in the community. This building would be used by His people in any work of
righteousness. It might be as simple as a free weddings since the people of God
encourage men and women to marry. We might see an evening of Christian rock bands
coming together to share the gospel of Jesus through their music. It could be a
safe place for teens to meet, watch movies and enjoy the company of those in
righteousness for free. Oh, the dream of organizing something to reach all
people with anything good and wholesome. Instead of a church where we hear the
words we can’t do that, will this cause a problem, will I get in trouble for
this, etc. It would be an organization
of a never ending YES!
As I finish this short offering, my mind goes to the
parables of Jesus. I can’t believe He would not approve of anything being done to draw someone closer to a
relationship with Him and the Father. An elder in one of the churches I once
attended mentioned fearing to do something because it might put us on a
slippery slope/slide and looking back, I can only recommend we jump on the
slide with joy. Once we are on the slide in the Joy of the Lord, I can’t help
but think others will want some of our joy for themselves. Since we are getting
close to the end of another football season, I am reminded of something I hate
to see from my team in a game. Whenever we go into a “prevent” defense, it
always seems to have a negative effect. The church has been playing a careful,
safe, and preventing approach to glorifying God all in the name of not
offending anyone and it is time we play hard to honor God and move past any
fouls or penalties we face as we enjoy the gift of joy from our Lord!
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