I created this site for a certain type of person—those who can’t stand the way we do church. Frankly I have more in common with those people than I do with the Christians I grew up around. I don’t want to dwell too long on that here but churches are full of sinful human beings that are searching for something. I’ve found something and quickly stopped attending. It’s not that I don’t think we need fellowship; it’s just that I think church is a terrible environment to get it.
When I found God again it wasn’t in a church but at a men’s retreat at a youth camp. I know people who first met God in a park, a base ball stadium, a car, a parking lot, at work, in a tent, an opera house, and a bar, but I have never met a person who met God in church. Well, in truth Mike Miller met God in church when he was young, but it was a revelation seminar. He was in the middle of pummeling a kid, and apparently smacked him so hard the kid invited him to church. Mike was so shocked he said yes. A week later his whole family got baptized. But I think that might be a rare instance.
I feel a little bad for some Christians who can’t imagine Christianity outside the confines of Church. I know I’ve made one cry once by talking about my ideas on the topic. God has not abandoned institutional Christianity though it doesn’t look like anything he’d have designed. Churches themselves are an amazing study into God’s willingness to meet us half-way. I hear people talk about the perfect will of God verses the permissive will of God and it seems a bit optimistic. This is a fallen world and it’s a bit difficult to believe that Gods perfect will is ever accomplished here.
It seems to me more likely that God respects our choices and works for good despite how little we understand Him. Perhaps the best thing Christians could do with their time right now is get to know God. Without that we have no context for all the other trappings of religion. We end up worshipping the regulations instead of God. We become frustrated when we bounce of the glass ceiling of our own misconceptions about God.
In closing let me say this, I don’t want to be negative in this blog but most of us would be so much more effective at reaching people if we just told people who God is for us right now. Graham Cooke is famous for saying God is the kindest person he’s ever met. Not a day goes by that God doesn’t do something kind for Graham. Now that’s a relevant thing to tell someone. That’s powerful, applicable, and timeless. It beats the socks off of, “Jesus is going to come and send anyone who isn’t perfect to hell.”
Sorry for the random rants, I’ll make it more positive next time.
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