Welcome To..."CHURCH!!?"

WELCOME TO …. “CHURCH!!?”

Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;

4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.

 I slowly made my way through the huge warehouse to find a place in the movie-style seating area while the band was about to play the number one song of the week. I casually strolled through the masses, into the huge room as the band came out and everybody screamed.

Believe it or not, I was in “church”.

Churches today look more like Fortune 500 companies looking inward and less like communities who look outward.

One Sunday might highlight the newest book by the biggest flavour of the week, then the next will talk about tithing and then throw in a few verses to back up the logic.

We leave feeling all warm and fuzzy about whom we are.

The Church as-is is more like the rich man in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

The rich man wasn't just rich; he might have been influential if he was just rich. His affluence got him whatever he needed when he needed it. With wealth came reputation, with reputation came preservation and with preservation comes oppression at any cost to protect what is mine!

Jesus was using the rich man as parallel of the religious system of His day.

It would be like Him saying to us now, "You have lost the point. You now use all your resources to make yourself look good. You are more worried about yourself and not at all concerned with the person in need outside your own door."

Jesus challenged everyone to look outward with whatever and every resource they had.

What's even more tragic is that this rich guy ended up in "Hell". He became separated from God. Lazarus ends up being the nearest he could be to His Creator.

Jesus did a reversal here; He is saying all this religious mumbo-jumbo will get you nowhere fast, but He is also saying that it is the outsider who gets to have the closest relationship with his creator.

The Church should look less like the world and more like a community that lives out heaven here on earth.

The Church should divorce itself from embracing old religious, repetitive models of doing church and again embrace the original five fold movement of counter-cultural apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers who were moved only by the Spirit of God and by the rule of love and grace. They cared none for what was popular and accepted, especially in the “church”.

I believe Jesus would have held hands with AIDS victims, hung out in the not-so-safe parts of town, befriended those with special needs and mental illness. He may have even spent time with drug-dealers.

The Church has become more concerned about making a name for itself rather than embracing the outsider.

I think it’s because if we did, we might have to come to the realization that we were once not that far from where they are.

All throughout the scriptures we read "Remember when..."

Why?

Because, we forgot.

When we forget, others pay for our forgetfulness.

We need to remember that God is the one who rescued us out of our mess and that this rescue doesn't stop with our rescue alone.