Church, Why Bother?
A very close friend of mine sent me this a few weeks back. I thought it might be interesting reading since the Journey did a series and video on this topic that proved quite insightful.
Why Go To Church? OR, Church, Why Bother?
If you’re spiritually alive, you’re going to love this! If you’re spiritually dead, you won’t want to read it. If you’re spiritually curious, there is still hope!
A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday (or Saturday) ‘I’ve gone for 30 years now,’ he wrote, ‘and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.’
This started a real controversy in the ‘Letters to the Editor’ column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
‘I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals, but I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!’ When you are DOWN to nothing… God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment! *
All right, now that you’re done reading, if you’re of a mind, send it on! I think everyone should read this! When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, “Jesus, could you get that for me?”
"Jesus has left the building" Paul Vieira
http://www.paulvieira.info/
It looks to me like it could be that the Holy Spirit has made a turn. The way we have done “church” for so many years may no longer be relevant. I can’t believe I spent so many years doing it like we did but we just did not know any better. Try as we might to turn out a good product we can’t compete with what the world can produce to get people’s attention. All over the Earth fellowships are springing up in huts, homes, coffee houses, and even bars (like one in Carmel that is a part of the network that I associate with). I just met two former pastors who disbanded their churches and turned them into networks of house churches… I found that the San Diego Vineyard did the same. The people are scattered across the community and are loosely connected and it is working well. In Summit county Colorado Scott Wilson (former Baptist pastor… now a local business owner and house church planter) ran into a group that he determined to be a fifth generation from a house that he started a number of years ago. The house churches really were reproducing. http://www.bigredbus.org/ The walls of a conventional church are just too confining for me personally. It might be fine for some people.
There are times, however,
There are times, however, when one needs to analyze the necessity for actually attending a service. it is not called for, as a requirement of faith. instead it is something that has become institutionalized as time has passed. the first century church didnt sit down and listen to a lecture for 2 hours once a week. simply attending a service is detrimental to ones faith, as it puts them into a passive mode, negating the actions one is suppose to put out. remember, faith without works is dead, and sitting in on a hard seat for 2 hours with nothing to show for it sure isnt works. i am not negating the significance of fellowshipping or learning wisdom from a teacher, but it has become a “if you dont attend church you are a bad christian” world. the significance of religious involvement with God is how one interacts with those around themselves.