Those are the questions I recently asked some good friends of mine as they described an event that took place, "behinds the scenes", at a church. Words like hurt, confusion, anger, disgust filled my mind and my heart.
I was and am still sickened by this and I get knots in my stomach when I think about it. This has brought more, or let's say re-surfaced questions to bare for me personally about the church. Where did we go wrong? Why is the church and it's leadership so off base?
I just finished a book on the 4Th called, "Grand Weaver.. How God shapes us through the events of our lives" by Ravi Zacharias. In one of the last chapters titled 'Your worship Matters', He talks about how the church is Supposed to be a HEALING community. He tells of a surgery he had on his back and during recovery a nurse attempted to move him by herself. He tried to tell her that she needed to get help from some orderlies. She refused because of all her experience and mistakenly thought he had hip surgery. She jabbed her hands under his back causing extensive pain, almost causing him to pass out. When tears appeared on his face she realized what she had done.
She was to be an aid in the healing process. Instead, she caused prolonged and more extensive pain.
This is the story he used to say we are missing the mark in many churches. He reminded me and his readers that, "Jesus brought hope and healing, not condemnation and reprimand."
SO WHY?
I have concluded there are two main reasons. They are interwoven
We have made church about us. MOST teaching, preaching, praying and singing revolves around us. As a result, we some how think we can fix ourselves by just trying harder. The church has become very man centered, meaning not God centered.
Second, we don't believe the Gospel.
The Gospel/ good news is that because of our sin and depravity.. Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe in Him. We still think that we can do it. If we just TRY harder, this just doesn't work. Loui Giglio said it best. "The Christian life isn't hard. It is impossible." Yet the message most people will hear this Sunday will address how to fix your mess, on your own, in a few simple steps.
The truth in the Gospel should be what we base our lives upon and what is preached on Sunday.
John Piper reminds us to never stop preaching the Gospel to ourselves. If we believed and allowed the Gospel to define us our lives and our churches would be Graciously different.
When we embrace our depravity and the fact, that we can't do it on our own, an ultimate thing happens. We make much of Christ and that makes much of God.
The only way the church will return/ become the healing community it should be will be for the leadership to embrace the Gospel and live it out.
