Disillusioned with Church

The first part of this week was crammed with some of the very best and worst of what the local church can be like. If you have been involved with church family life anywhere you will probably know how wonderful it can be and how much it reeks sometimes. Sometimes God feels powerfully present, and sometimes completely absent.

I read a short article from LeadershipJournal.net which was an interview with Sarah Cunningham, author of Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation. I really liked this quote from the interview: "I think disillusionment is a timeless issue just like suffering. Disillusionment is a response to suffering: "This is not matching up to what I expected, so what do I do?" The word disillusionment comes from "dis" which means "away from" and "illusionment" which means a "false impression of reality." We need to move away from our false impressions of religion, and move toward the ideals of the faith and true followership, which involves day-to-day community and life-on-life witness."

Sometimes the stuff we get caught up in as local churches are a false impression of what church should actually be all about. We have false impressions about one another and even about God. The church is not what it ought to be.

A local church is a community of people who are drawing closer to God and to each other in ways that produce transformed lives and vibrant witness. This sounds simple, but the truth is that relationships are messy! It's easier to run a church than to pastor people (for people like me anyway - see Haphazardly Intent by Eugene Peterson). It's easier to judge someone than to go talk to them with an open heart and mind. It's easier to withdraw than communicate. It's easier to do something than to pray. It seems that people like me find functional things easier than relational things, and from my experience it seems that the Church is full of people like me!

The heart of the gospel though is that it is all about relationships. It's about where we stand in relationship to God and what He has done to restore us to loving, eternal community with Himself and His people.

All this is a major reason why we are focussing a lot of our energies on our small groups this year. More on that some other time!

Series in 1 Thessalonians kicks off

Last Sunday we began a series in the book of 1 Thessalonians. To really appreciate and benefit from any book of the bible you need to get to know its story, so on Sunday we explored the story of the Thessalonian Church. I didn't write a full manuscript for this one, and there was a glitch recording the audio, so this summary will have to do!

Basically, the story can be found by reading Acts 17-18 and the first 3 chapters of 1 Thessalonians, but let me sum it up like this:

• Paul & his companions rock in to Thessalonica & start to teach about Jesus in the synagogue.
• Quite a few Jews and God-fearing Greeks (with special mention to some prominent women of the city) put their faith in Jesus
• Other Jews were very hostile, and organised a riot! Paul and his friends were smuggled out of the city during the night. Some of the new Christians were put on good behaviour bonds.
• Paul and his friends move on, but Paul's heart is anguished over the fate of the young church in Thessalonica. He longs to visit and find out how they are going. While he is in Athens, he sends Timothy to check on the church and support them.
  
• Timothy and Silas catch up with Paul in Corinth, and Timothy is able to relate to Paul how well the church in Thessalonica has been doing, which is a huge encouragement and relief to Paul. Paul writes a letter to express his thankfulness and to address a few issues that had arisen in the church.

I really enjoy the way that Paul reveals his heart for the Christians who have believed in Jesus through his message. Paul has such a tenderness and concern for his spiritual children. Sometimes that is expressed positively, like in 1 Thessalonians. At other times it is seen in how strongly he expresses himself, such as in several of his comments to the Galatians and Corinthians for example. He wrote so strongly because he cared so deeply for them, and was alarmed and anguished by reports he received about them. But on this occasion, there does not seem to be any cause for anguish or alarm, but for thanksgiving and joy.

How was it that these baby Christians were able to flourish in a place of such hostility, when Paul was not there to support, strengthen and guide them? Why was their conduct so exemplary? Why had they not become confused and misled about the gospel, as Christians in other places had from time to time?

The letter itself makes it clear: Their hearts were receptive to the truth of the Gospel. They did not receive it as the words of men, but of God. They took it deeply into their hearts, and it transformed their lives (see Rom 12:1-2). This was evidence of the fact that God had chosen them for salvation.

At the beginning of a series into a book of the Bible, it is a good reminder to us of the power of the gospel (See Rom. 1:16, Matt 7:24-27). What is our attitude toward hearing and receiving the words of God? How do you listen to sermons? How do you read your bible? What other ideas does the bible sit alongside in your mind (ideas from friends, common sense, talk shows, counsellors, magazines...)? Does it have unique authority in your life? Does it have permission to address every area of your life?

Paul wrote in chapter 1:5 "our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction."

The second aspect of that challenge is this: "How are we giving people around us to experience this conviction through the Holy Spirit in their own lives? How are we communicating the message of the gospel? The fact that God had chosen these Thessalonians to be a part of His family was demonstrated in how they responded to the message Paul brought to them. As Romans 10 states, how can people believe if they have not heard, and how can they hear unless someone preaches to them?

Here's a quote I got from the SermonCentral Newsletter today:
One day a lady criticized D. L. Moody for his methods of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord. Moody’s reply was "I agree with you. I don’t like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?" The lady replied, "I don’t do it." Moody retorted, "Then I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it."

SOURCE: James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 178.

Hmmmm.

The stuff that this post addresses is not rocket science, just very basic reminders about core principles of the Christian faith. What matters is the individual leading of the Holy Spirit - that deep conviction - that causes us to do something about it.

I wonder what that will look like for you today? Will it be something to do with how you receive God's Word, or will it be something to do with how you share it?