Some more "church" talk!

It's interesting to see people spending a lot of time and energy to debate, discuss and figure out whether we should attend institutionalized churches or "house churches". How did a institutionalized church become institutionalized? Was it because it was in a special building? Or was it because people implemented their agendas, knowledge of half truths, ideas, personal preferences, rituals, falsehood etc? If so, how much it takes to have a "house church" institutionalized? It wouldn't take much. It's even easier because you have more 'control' there.

Some people all of a sudden get influenced by a "liberal demon" and jump from Presbyterian to Wynyard or Emergent and think that they are 'free' now. They aren't. The only difference is now they are thinking the Emergent church is "the" church or the Wynyard is "the" church (BTW, I have nothing against any of these organizations in particular). None of these are churches, there are merely some organizations. And yes, there are people under those roofs who are truly part of the invisible, universal, ever growing church of Jesus Christ.

None of these "movements" are going to resolve anything. Doesn't matter how frustrated you were when you were in the Baptist church and how "happy" you are in the Pentecostal church. The happiness we get when we jump from one building to another is not really the happiness God supplies. It is just the happiness coming from a sense of adventure, that you think that you are doing something "different" - like bungee jumping.

The REAL adventure is not jumping from one church to another. The real adventure is losing all our securities, which includes people-provided, church-provided, community-provided, clergy-provided and doctrine-provided securities and abandon ourselves into the hands of a perfectly loving God and hang in there, see what HE does in our life. That to me is adventurous.

The more we talk about "church", it shows how less we care about the "Head". The moment people come to know that I am a Christian, the next question is where do I go to church. Give me a break! My wife lies to people that we attend a non-denominational church just to avoid further questions. And I am teaching her to tell the truth! And she says she doesn't know how to give a proper answer why as Christians we do not park our bodies in a building on Sundays. I see her point because it isn't that easy to explain.

I want to stop jumping from one building to another building, because when I do it, all I am thinking is about the building. What can it offer to me? I am thinking about ME. I love ME! I love the fact that when I have flood in my basement there is a church member dispatched by the pastor to help me drain water. But now I am obliged to do the same thing when he has a flood. That's not selfless love. That's people working for each other. They are just not paying any monetary wages, instead they pay with their work. For doing the dispatching pastor gets his pay check. So, where is love in the whole deal?

Paul said: Love is not self-seeking.

I think love is not love if it's not selfless. That is the problem of building-bound spirituality, it is almost impossible to extend and receive selfless love while we are bombarded with building issues - how to maintain it, how to grow it, how to beatify it, how to make it more marketable etc.

I have criticized the 'building' I left but I think the issue was that I didn't really know the love of Christ the way I know it today (I am not claiming I know it fully, I will never know until I see him face to face). It was more of a intellectual understanding of that particular church's doctrines. I wasn't really free! It was my own struggle while I was still bound.

I thought moving the "worship" from that building to my home would change everything. It changes nothing! You move your bondage from a special building to a "house church" thinking that you are very trendy and adventurous, I am telling you it changes nothing. What changes us is the truth. The truth that Jesus loves us regardless of whether we are sleeping in the comfort of our bed on Sunday morning or we are sitting in a pew. It is the love what transforms us, not our changing of parking places.

As we get hold of this love, the "building" becomes a nonissue. The temptation to criticize all the "churches" subsides. Our focus changes. The source of our joy is no more depended on the beauty of the songs sung by the choir. And since it comes from the right source, it stays, it's consistent and we know it's priceless. No buildings can ever give us this, only Jesus can.

I hate organized church, now what?

So how do we solve all the problems in the institutionalized church? It is so irresistible to our humanity not to provide a solution. Even to the problem of organized religion. We think we have solutions. But the truth is we don’t. I don’t think home churches are a solution. Any solution other than the total abolishment of institutionalization is just another system. Who wants yet another system? Where there are two or three gathered in the name of Jesus, there are also rules, principles, schedules, plans and all those things we hate inside a church building.

One of the stunning things I notice in New Testament is that, though Jesus resisted the monstrous hands of religion, He did not try to fix it. He simply went on with His purpose. We cannot fix any system, no matter how badly we are tempted to do so. I think the legalism in Christianity will be on the rise as we approach rapture, because that’s a very attractive tool Satan can effectively use against God’s children to bind them by taking away their freedom in Christ. He is using it today and he will continue to use it.

When I left organized church few years ago, I thought about a replacement (substitute) system all day long. I was so badly addicted to religion and though I left it, I didn’t feel free of it. So I wanted another system so badly. But thankfully, God did not give me an instant answer. I am glad he did not, because I learned so much more about walking by faith. In my desperation, I cried out to God for a community. I wanted that human security or support system. It is so easy to find security in a group, church or community than trusting Jesus. Trusting Jesus requires courage, and I didn’t have it.

I am not against the fellowship of like-minded believers but all I am saying is that, it is not a substitute for walking by faith. I have fought legalism in general, but now I fight only the ones coming on my way. Not that I agree to the legalistic teachings in church, but I am totally done with it. God has put me in a position where I am not controlled by Christian laws (at least for the major part), so I have a less need to fight against it. That is not to say that I am totally free from the performance mentality. It still creeps in once in a while.

Though I am discouraged by the amount of legalism in Christian circles, my hopes are on the high to see the tremendous number of people who are coming into the understanding of unconditional love and grace of God through Christ Jesus. It is an awesome thing.

Going back to the original question: I hate organized church, now what? The answer to that question in its most simplistic form would be: do proclaim truth. I have no solutions to fix religion, and I don't think it is my job to fix it either. My job is to expose truth, and when truth does its job, there is freedom indeed.