I get nothing out of church

This is part three in a series of post' in which we are dealing with those who say they are "Spiritual but not religious." In the first post we set the stage regarding the mind set for those that say they are "Spiritual but not religious" and in my second post we touched on the fact that in the bible Jesus calls us to join the 'body' of believers.

So if Jesus calls us to come together and be the 'body' whats happened? Why are so many churches dying, or plateauing? Why are so many leaving our churches or simply not coming? These are not questions that are easily answered and I don't claim to give a full spectrum on the issue in this post alone.

Nonetheless there is a huge present day challenge for all churches. You see the church is not a club in which members pay their fees, enjoy what they receive, and then go home and until the next time they come. YOU are the church. The church is people not the building, the building is where the church simply meets. There is nothing holy about any church building, not it's pulpit, it's sanctuary, it's pews, it's golden bowls in which communion takes place. The only thing that makes the building holy is the presence of God when His worshippers are doing just that, worshipping Him.

Many of our churches are lacking hear-felt worship, the great commission has become the great pain because so few seem to embark on any kind of mission in their sphere of influence/community. Church members rumble and crumble over the most minute things, while not having done one meaningful thing to win a soul for the kingdom. The bottom line: leave my club just they way it is.

The young, young at heart, or those that want change get frustrated, tired, and disillusioned perhaps because the resistance seems to be strong. The one's who simply want their club continue their march and sadly to say the only person that seems to be winning is the enemy of all things Jesus.

There is much more that can be said about all this but there is one line ok actually two that come to mind. They are the first two sentences of a book called Acts of the Apostles written by Ellen White (yes she was one of the founders of the Adventist church). The two sentences read like this...

"The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world." (A.A. pg.1)

You see maybe here lies one of the biggest problems. The church isn't serving, it isn't doing everything biblically possible to win souls for the kingdom, it's too comfortable. It's got to many people from all different sides worrying about their agenda instead of worrying about God's plan for the church, the body. So when someone says, "I get nothing out of church" or something to this regard, perhaps they get nothing out of the church because they haven't truly realized they are the church and aren't giving anything into the church as they should.

It's time that we the church get back to serving, back to being the church instead of saying we're going to church.

As the church/body of Christ we are family. This is why we call ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ and our heavenly Father is ever caring for His church. I leave you with this video in which Pastor Mark Driscoll speaks on this issue and does a great job.

To those that faithfully serve Jesus and His mission (wherever that may be) as the body of Christ. Thank You! Stay faithful your reward is with Him. To those struggling, surrender all to Him and prepare to serve!

Watch the video but at the end ask yourself this question: I'm I serving as a member/family of the body of Christ?



Javi