What is the church to you?
What should it be?
Here's some thoughts...
The church should be a place that is full of LIFE, ENERGY and EXCITEMENT!
The church should be a place of EXCELLENCE. Not perfection - that's impossible. Excellence...by doing the best you can with what you have at any given moment.
The church should be a meeting place for the HURTING and the HEALED! A place to laugh, cry, struggle, win and thrive. NOT a place for hatred, anger, bitterness, gossip, backbiting, etc. If church is just a place for plastic faces - or worse - that's not the church I want to be a part of.
The church should be filled with Christians and Non-Christians every week! We should have lost people checking out our claims...those who are furthest from Him are the most exciting when they allow Christ into their lives!
The church should be about love, grace, mercy, hope and more! When the church is a place of criticism, negativity or judgment by the people themselves then it ceases to be the church Jesus birthed. The ONLY people He judged were the religious. On the other hand, He had dinner with sinners...and He redeemed their lives!
I believe lost people matter to God and should matter to the church! That's why it's essential that they be INVITED and made to feel welcome when they get there! In fact, we should plan our Sunday experiences with THEM in mind! Maybe it's just my opinion, but perhaps most of our Sunday experiences are planned for those who are already CONVINCED.
The church should be a place where the WORD of God is taught with such CLARITY that it's easily applied to our lives when we leave.
The church should be viewed as so valuable that we don't want to miss it...at all! Not in some twisted "cultic" way - but rather in what we get from it and what we give to it...knowing both matter deeply.
The church should be a place where people WORK TOGETHER.
I believe that some people take the church for granted. It's not a place just to attend...it's a place to BECOME. Perhaps there's too much anonymity allowed when we really don't have to answer to anyone for no longer showing up.
I think people should say goodbye if they're leaving or going to attend somewhere else. it's just right and it's a matter of personal integrity and courtesy. In my opinion, to just walk away is wrong.
I think EVERY Christ follower should be in a church - period. Not just attending - INVOLVED. Anything less is short changing; the person, the church and God.
I love the church. Not the stuff...but the people and the God that shows up. I love the stories of the lives there. I love watching people struggle through to a NEW LIFE. I love knowing that no matter how messed up some people are - they are there...TRYING!
It's refreshing to be in covenant relationship with people who are HONEST about where they are in life. Those that show up each week - trying to go free...trying to find life...trying to make it another day/week...I love those that know they are MESSED UP and yet are GETTING UP every Sunday to fight another day for an inch of "more of God" in their LIFE, HOME, MARRIAGE, and WORLD!
Give me a church full of REAL PEOPLE that know they need God and I'll feel like I'm in my element...SHARING GRACE with those that need it and those that I know will SHARE IT when they FIND IT!
...that's the kind of church I long for!
