Church or Bride? Institution or Kingdom?

There was an article called The Church - Why Bother in Christianity Today January 2005... by Tim Stafford, senior editor.

Hmmmm... Of course I went right to the conclusion... and this is what I read:

"A living, breathing congregation is the only place to live in a healthy relationship to God."

Are you serious? Of course I strongly challenge that statement with a little make-over:

"A living, breathing believing community is the desired place to live in a healthy relationship to God."

So if we took you out of the Church, your faith would die in a short period of time? To what then would you attribute your faith: interaction with Christians through church-going or live relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit? Both are needed, in fact.

Let me try to express a few ideas and thoughts this article triggered. I apologize if my English is weak at times, but hear my heart nonetheless.

Going to church is often a sort of pilgrimage to a place of fellowship with God, so if when you get there they're busy with using this place as a tool for self-importance, flattery and the people are workers joining behind "the pastor's vision" or the denomination's vision... well then you got the Church that needs repentance and change. And that is most of the churches nowadays in the town where I live. I can't know what's going on elsewhere, so at this point, in our case, we're not 'going' to church, although we have a relationship with God that's VERY alive !

The problem we have is our tendency to become like our environment and turn lazy, letting the group decide for us the details of our relationship with God. It's like being part of a group that tells you how to be with your wife during 3 hours, step by step. Of course it "could" be inspiring, but...

Anyways, that's just me talking. I've been out of the regular church-going practice for a few years now, although I've attended church at times for a few hours (worship times mostly). And I have grown like never in my relationship with God, so much that now I can't stand too much of the religious traditions of even the prophetic movement. There are many unhealthy dynamics, and we all have problems, but the worst part is like having a Christmas party where everybody is drunk so they can relate, but you don't drink, so you feel out of it. They are noisy, busy, laughing, drinking, joking, but it's a manifestation of something that has nothing to do with true relationships. It's actually a denial party, where everyone supports the other's denial scheme.

A kingdom and a Bride is the Lord's idea, today's Church is man's definition of it as articulated with all the humanity we have. Faith and a desire to grow should lead us to gather and mingle, but eventually we question the food we eat, and that's healthy.

"They think your spirit can be with Jesus Christ while your body goes its own way."

Wow... what a comment... so insightful, eh?

"They" : ouch...

"think" : oops...
"... your spirit can be with Jesus Christ while your body goes its own way." : I have never heard this before, anyone experience that? Jesus is with me all the time, and the same, yesterday, today and forever.

"He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother." Well, the Church was never intended to be our mother, but we are destined to be a Bride, a body. The Church being our mother would mean that we separate ourselves from it and it has a life of its own... uh... oh well, maybe that's really what's happening...

"I can remember saying to kids, 'There's no church to join, there's nothing to commit to, this is only about a relationship with Jesus.' Paul wouldn't preach that message. And the early church didn't."

The Church didn't exist in the beginning, there were gatherings and passionate communities born who cared for their neighbours. Then to say that a relationship with Jesus has no value IF you're not ALSO joined to a contemporary church (they all struggle with their identity anyways but we're not suppose to careabout that???) then yo're NOT really a Christian?

We are encouraged to gather together, but not to worship a denomination or brainwash each other into a comatoze state of believing drones who end up creating a self-serving church congregation going through the motions with a little emotion.

Bono: "I generally think religion gets in the way of God." Yup.

"In an editorial, "Bono's Thin Ecclesiology," CT appreciated Bono's thirst for social justice, yet criticized his lack of churchly commitment." Yes, 'appreciated' BUT if he's not one of us, then, ah well...

Cathleen Falsani: "Any person can stand outside the church and critique its obedience to the gospel. Part of God's call on a Christian's life is to walk inside and die to self by relating to other human beings, both in their fallenness and in their redeemed glory."

Usually, you walk inside and die if you stay too long, period. A vibrant faith will grab you by the soul and yank you out of the church for a while so you can see what life is with God without the glitz of Churchianity.

"Clearly, Bono has chosen to keep his distance from the church, or at least to stay in the shallow margins of the pond, where he can dash for the shore at need."

"He has plenty of company."

What a pharisaic venomous ignorant self-righteous comment.

"We do not need to condemn those alienated from the institutional church, but to help them reconsider. By keeping away from church commitments, they miss out on life essential."

We, them, keeping away from church commitments.

The great flaw in all this is that the author ignores the audience of God as having any valid reality. Moreover, being part of a church can be quite a mess even if we desire to follow righteously the commandements and admonitions of the Lord about social life and discipleship. The author obviously has not been able to show that he understand matters of the heart very well, but looks at things from a traditional external point of view. Looking at the outside reveals problems, the symptoms, looking inside might reveal the real issues that cause the problems in the first place. But that takes time and is a journey in itself, where you got to lay down most preconceived notions of conformity, and even fight with the nagging accusations. But once you make your way out of that forest the true journey continues and will eventually lead you back to a fellowship, however, as a lucid and willing participant, not a consumer that goes there just because he's been scared into church.

"What We Must Preach
"The church is the body of Christ, and it carries his wounds. To know Christ is to share in the fellowship of his sufferings-even if the suffering comes at the hands of the sinners who sit in the pews or preach from the pulpit."

And it does.

"How can we communicate this to unchurched Christians? The only way I know is to preach it. We need to tell them, even if it goes against the grain of our culture. We need to tell them, even if talking so frankly goes against our philosophy of outreach."

Tell them waht?

"If people commit themselves to the church, they will undoubtedly suffer. The church will fail them and frustrate them, because it is a human institution."

Yes, that's what I gathered, the Bride is of God but the Church has been taken over by humans who make it their platform to achieve their own dreams of destiny. Those are the ones you need to speak to. And they are IN the Church, so they're readily accessible, they're not "out there" paddling in the "shallow waters..."

Thanks for sharing this article. The author being Christianity Today's senior writer, on this topic, it sounds more like Christianity Yesterday. He is really not listening to what's being said by what he calls the "unchurched," it would appear he has a view from the inside looking out and cannot comprehend what he sees.

The early church didn't die because of persecution and dispersion. They wanted to keep the teaching of Christ and the meaning of His death and resurrection alive, and baptize as many as they could with water and the Holy Spirit, so the kingdom could advance.

Let the human institution that brags about being "the Church" go away so the kingdom can come! Lord, let you kingdom come to the Church... and please raise some true fathers and mothers in the faith, I'm tired of preachers disconnected from reality who spend too much time building the church they'd like to have, taking away from You the Bride you long for...

Regards,

Andre