Institution (Part Deux) /Sunday Morning
Dear Friends and Family,
I wanted to make some things crystal clear to avoid any confusion that might occur. To start, I must apologize, I was fully intending to keep these thoughts to myself, and to use the blog as a vent, but at the last minute I changed my mind, and thought maybe it was better to share. So I apologize for the lack of structure and bad grammar. I really must apologize for my lack of clarity in the use of some words (and the horrendous spelling in the past). Some of you may be thinking that I delete comments I don't like...Nothing could be further from the truth...I deleted some that were from some advertiser guy...But I would never ever delete a comment by one of you ( just for the record ).
My hope is now we can encounter these issues together with a fresh start. You should know my attempt is not to reach a conclusion on who's right or who's wrong, but simply to discuss and learn from each other, and to have true encounters relationally with my family and friends.
I confess my common theme is surpisingly negative for how hopeful I truly am. I want you all to know that more than anything on this earth; I want to see people become disciples of Christ. I think the most important thing about all of you is that you wake up in the morning and know that the God of the universe loves you, all your talents, all your faults, all your secrets, and that he'll never love you more no matter what you might do or accomplish for Him. If you don't do that, than you wake up with something to prove, to Him and yourself and to those around you. You'll live the rest of your life trying to climb a ladder that leads nowhere great.
I want you to all know that I wasn't referring the Catholic church to be the "institution" I wrote about. I have no problems whatsoever with the Catholic church ( that's not entirely true, every denomination has faults, we all know this) but I wasn't intending nor did I mean for them specifically to be the source of the problem. There is so much that I really like about the catholic congregation. I applaud the Catholic church when it comes to honoring the mother of Christ, and especially when it comes to feeding the poor, clothing the naked, etc. (Deut 10:12-ff). (It is what God requires of us. )
For the record, I don't really see in terms of denominations anymore, because truly there is just One body. ( I agree with Zinzendorf, we should address each other as brother and sister, these other words cause false thinking, pride, and division, which we need least of all today).
I mentioned a lot of things I'm disappointed about in my other blurbs (if you would have seen what I left out you would have kissed me...jk): worship, prayer, sermons,etc. I want to reinforce that these are all good things, all needed. I wanted to take a second to say by no means am I describing All churches. For one, this simply is not true. Secondly, its not possible. Christ wouldn't forsake his bride, read Habukkuk 3 and see what he does when someone messes with his bride.
My problems run deeper than those outward things we see on Sunday morning today. This is because the problems run deeper than the surface. My main problem in churches is in: Discipleship, abandonment, devotion, passion, and leadership to start. My problems with the singing and worship and power points are not the heart of the matter, but simply the outward behaviors that have come to erk me.
I would compare it to this. Think of a liar. The lies he or she tells aren't really the problem. Its the heart, the attitude of the person lying that's the real problem. Its the heart we have to deal with to stop the lying, not the lying itself. In the same way, I have a problem being in a room with a group of people who really don't want to be warriors, disciples, followers of Christ. The say they do, but they don't. That may sound judgmental. Didn't Christ teach us to judge a tree by its fruit? Did he not say, don't cast your pearls to swine? I don't see fruit, I hear about fruit others do, in other fields, never the field I live.
We, the body of Christ, are all called to be his disciples...First. That's like a non-negotiable. That is a non-negotiable. Sadly this membership, to his church, cost something. JOSH WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT...GRACE ALONE. You got me there, but there is just this one thing....Christ said how much it costs! (Luke 14:25-33) Lucky for us its just $40,987.65, 3 hours a week, and 10 minutes of prayer!
Yeah right, I think you'll find Christ puts a whole lot of value in being a disciple of His. I think you might read it costs you.....you guessed it...everything. And we can sing and praise and listen to great practical sermons and take notes all we want...But it means nothing if we are not intimate with him and find our identity solely in Him. Because we no longer live (those of us who have been bought) but Christ lives in us!
If we are not spending ourselves on behalf of the cause of Christ...Which is the poor...Which is the widow...Because the Lamb deserves the glory ...Here and all over the world! For some reason I feel like Sunday morning isn't' doing that...And I'm right ...Its not. Its few selected individuals rather...Missionaries/pastors/ we leave it to them...And we believe our role is to pray and encourage them.....And maybe have a bible study at our house if were really spiritual. That's baloney. We are all called to live and be Christ, to be missional...to be advancing the Kingdom, which means doing and being.
Sunday morning doesn't seem to me to stress the importance that this life MUST be rooted in complete and utter devotion to Christ...Because our life is not our own, it is His! We we bought! If we our still living our life, and we haven't surrendered or realized the fact that we are dead, and no longer live, than what happens is we buy into the lies of the enemy. We believe him when it comes to priorities. The priorities of this world are shit. Paul says they are "feminine rags" compared to the riches of Christ. I hate this worlds priorities. God hates them. Selfish ambition, comfort, money, nice things make me want to vomit. Then again its not so much the things themselves, but the idols we make them. Putting them in front of Christ. Which we do. We do it all the time. To be completely transparent... I've spent more money on myself than I ever spent on his behalf....That makes me guilty....I've spend more time on myself than I ever have on his behalf. I spend more energy on my own ambitions and wants that on advancing his Kingdom, but this worlds priorities no longer have a hold on me. They try though, try everyday.
For the record, if I did become a "member" or "attend" a church regularly it probably would be a catholic church, because I believe they are the closest to what I believe is the Father's heart in scripture...That is the poor, the hungry, the fatherless, etc. But for now the Lord has me doing a new thing.
I wanted to make some things crystal clear to avoid any confusion that might occur. To start, I must apologize, I was fully intending to keep these thoughts to myself, and to use the blog as a vent, but at the last minute I changed my mind, and thought maybe it was better to share. So I apologize for the lack of structure and bad grammar. I really must apologize for my lack of clarity in the use of some words (and the horrendous spelling in the past). Some of you may be thinking that I delete comments I don't like...Nothing could be further from the truth...I deleted some that were from some advertiser guy...But I would never ever delete a comment by one of you ( just for the record ).
My hope is now we can encounter these issues together with a fresh start. You should know my attempt is not to reach a conclusion on who's right or who's wrong, but simply to discuss and learn from each other, and to have true encounters relationally with my family and friends.
I confess my common theme is surpisingly negative for how hopeful I truly am. I want you all to know that more than anything on this earth; I want to see people become disciples of Christ. I think the most important thing about all of you is that you wake up in the morning and know that the God of the universe loves you, all your talents, all your faults, all your secrets, and that he'll never love you more no matter what you might do or accomplish for Him. If you don't do that, than you wake up with something to prove, to Him and yourself and to those around you. You'll live the rest of your life trying to climb a ladder that leads nowhere great.
I want you to all know that I wasn't referring the Catholic church to be the "institution" I wrote about. I have no problems whatsoever with the Catholic church ( that's not entirely true, every denomination has faults, we all know this) but I wasn't intending nor did I mean for them specifically to be the source of the problem. There is so much that I really like about the catholic congregation. I applaud the Catholic church when it comes to honoring the mother of Christ, and especially when it comes to feeding the poor, clothing the naked, etc. (Deut 10:12-ff). (It is what God requires of us. )
For the record, I don't really see in terms of denominations anymore, because truly there is just One body. ( I agree with Zinzendorf, we should address each other as brother and sister, these other words cause false thinking, pride, and division, which we need least of all today).
I mentioned a lot of things I'm disappointed about in my other blurbs (if you would have seen what I left out you would have kissed me...jk): worship, prayer, sermons,etc. I want to reinforce that these are all good things, all needed. I wanted to take a second to say by no means am I describing All churches. For one, this simply is not true. Secondly, its not possible. Christ wouldn't forsake his bride, read Habukkuk 3 and see what he does when someone messes with his bride.
My problems run deeper than those outward things we see on Sunday morning today. This is because the problems run deeper than the surface. My main problem in churches is in: Discipleship, abandonment, devotion, passion, and leadership to start. My problems with the singing and worship and power points are not the heart of the matter, but simply the outward behaviors that have come to erk me.
I would compare it to this. Think of a liar. The lies he or she tells aren't really the problem. Its the heart, the attitude of the person lying that's the real problem. Its the heart we have to deal with to stop the lying, not the lying itself. In the same way, I have a problem being in a room with a group of people who really don't want to be warriors, disciples, followers of Christ. The say they do, but they don't. That may sound judgmental. Didn't Christ teach us to judge a tree by its fruit? Did he not say, don't cast your pearls to swine? I don't see fruit, I hear about fruit others do, in other fields, never the field I live.
We, the body of Christ, are all called to be his disciples...First. That's like a non-negotiable. That is a non-negotiable. Sadly this membership, to his church, cost something. JOSH WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT...GRACE ALONE. You got me there, but there is just this one thing....Christ said how much it costs! (Luke 14:25-33) Lucky for us its just $40,987.65, 3 hours a week, and 10 minutes of prayer!
Yeah right, I think you'll find Christ puts a whole lot of value in being a disciple of His. I think you might read it costs you.....you guessed it...everything. And we can sing and praise and listen to great practical sermons and take notes all we want...But it means nothing if we are not intimate with him and find our identity solely in Him. Because we no longer live (those of us who have been bought) but Christ lives in us!
If we are not spending ourselves on behalf of the cause of Christ...Which is the poor...Which is the widow...Because the Lamb deserves the glory ...Here and all over the world! For some reason I feel like Sunday morning isn't' doing that...And I'm right ...Its not. Its few selected individuals rather...Missionaries/pastors/ we leave it to them...And we believe our role is to pray and encourage them.....And maybe have a bible study at our house if were really spiritual. That's baloney. We are all called to live and be Christ, to be missional...to be advancing the Kingdom, which means doing and being.
Sunday morning doesn't seem to me to stress the importance that this life MUST be rooted in complete and utter devotion to Christ...Because our life is not our own, it is His! We we bought! If we our still living our life, and we haven't surrendered or realized the fact that we are dead, and no longer live, than what happens is we buy into the lies of the enemy. We believe him when it comes to priorities. The priorities of this world are shit. Paul says they are "feminine rags" compared to the riches of Christ. I hate this worlds priorities. God hates them. Selfish ambition, comfort, money, nice things make me want to vomit. Then again its not so much the things themselves, but the idols we make them. Putting them in front of Christ. Which we do. We do it all the time. To be completely transparent... I've spent more money on myself than I ever spent on his behalf....That makes me guilty....I've spend more time on myself than I ever have on his behalf. I spend more energy on my own ambitions and wants that on advancing his Kingdom, but this worlds priorities no longer have a hold on me. They try though, try everyday.
For the record, if I did become a "member" or "attend" a church regularly it probably would be a catholic church, because I believe they are the closest to what I believe is the Father's heart in scripture...That is the poor, the hungry, the fatherless, etc. But for now the Lord has me doing a new thing.
posted by K at 10:22 PM
4 Comments:
Josh, so far you have had comments from people about cheap gas, penis pills, reselling, and making money. Sounds like its off to a great start!
Anyway, I'm glad to see you have started a blog. I posted a link to yours from mine, hopefully some of my friends will come and check your's out.
Josh, i agree with you on a lot of points. You know that i am also totally "disillusioned" by the church. We have totally failed. We have failed at letting the world know of Christs love for them, is it because we dont know it for ourselves? We started going to a new church called Sojourn, http://www.sojourncommunity.com/index.html . There vision statement is this " A missional community journeying together 'unitl christ is formed in you'" Galations 4:19. Three dimensions of this include include...1. Inward journey (we have a relationship with christ) 2. Outward journey (we allow Christ to influence every aspect of our lives..includes messy relationships) & 3. Together (we become the body of christ aka the church.
I love how honest you are being. May the Lord bless you.
Love you and miss you a ton!!
Stacey
Josh, I love your brutal honesty. How you just lay it down. It is good to hear your thoughts on these topics. I know there is probably so much more that you're thinking but this is just a little of what you got to write down. Thanks for sharing and for taking the time to write it out. It gives me clarity on some of the things that you're talking about and also challenges me to think about things in a different way. I honestly cannot go to church anymore without feeling like I'm missing something so much deeper. I realize that it is the sense of feeling connected and like minded with people that you're worshipping with. I feel like a stranger to people in church. Church only touches the surface of things. It makes me hungry for more, something so much deeper and real.
thanks for the comments guys. I am glad you checked it out. I do really want to talk more about all of this...writing things down has been helpful.
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