The church today

The church today

05.19.06 (10:07 am)   [edit]
I haven't updated in awhile. Sorry everyone! I have needed to step away from school and everything to destress. It has been a difficult year and I believe God wants me to focus on Him. I think that part of my recovery is to rediscover Christian leaders who I can respect. This whole deal with the Northern Light has left me disillusioned with "Christian" leaders. I feel that many leaders who I dealt with in the last six months turned out to be much less of a Christian than I had hoped. It has been disheartening to say the least. So this has brought me to think a lot about Christianity and the modern church. I feel like the church today is not what God necessarily intended. Don't get me wrong- I love church, I was raised in the church and I think going to church and being with believers has many benefits. HOWEVER, if you think about it Jesus never commanded his followers to meet in an established building meant only for Christians. More or less He instructed His followers to gather together to pray, for fellowship, etc. I think a good example of that is that he and his disciples (and others with whom he visited and stayed with) often shared meals together in someone's home. Only sometimes did Jesus have a very large crowd he taught, and that was simply because people gathered when he was teaching. I guess my point is this. I don't like huge mega-churches, etc. I think Jesus intended for us to meet in smaller (much smaller!) groups as Christians for fellowship, prayer, meals and teaching. The sort of brotherhood that can be achieved in those types of small group settings cannot usually be achieved in a large church. There is much more one-on-one ability to pray for a person's specific needs, time to really get to know each other, the opportunity to have real accountability and many other benefits. I guess what it comes down to is that I think we as Christians should meet in our homes in a Bible study sort of way with pastors that also meet with us. Of course that presents some problems, but I think I think it is a more desirable situation which could lead to real spiritual growth in the church. One problem is that obviously the person teaching or leading the Bible study (since there won't be enough pastors to lead every Bible study of 10-15 people) might not be qualified enough to teach unless he has studied the Bible at a school or taken classes, etc. But then again we can't possibly come up with enough Bible college graduates to lead these Bible studies. So there is the risk that the leaders of these smaller sessions might not be properly qualified in some people's eyes. And certainly most pastors would not go to a Bible school or take courses, spend a bunch of money on that, take their tests to be a pastor and then want to spend all their time with a super small congregation. Practically speaking it would not be a very lucrative position at all. However, I think if the church had the faith ... I mean REALLY had faith in action ... it could branch into these small groups and thrive. For one thing our pastors aren't supposed to be worried about their salary. God says he will take care of all our needs if we trust in Him! Also, we should have the faith and patience with the potentially "underqualified" leaders of small Bible studies. If we truly believe that God still gives us revelations through his Word, through the Holy Spirit, through nature, etc. then every leader (with the help of his group) should be able to decipher the Bible with God's guidance. So these are my thoughts. Take them as you will. This has been rolling around in my mind for awhile :) I think I'm going to look for a small Bible study to join ...