Today I took pictures of the kids upside down. I mean, I was upside down. It's neat taking pictures from all different perspectives. It puts things or in this case, my sweet Sarah, in another light altogether. Speaking of seeing things in a different light, my family and I have been on the outside of the church doors for a year and a half now. Talk about seeing things in a different perspective, the view from where we are sitting has been rather awe inspiring. I would like to share what we have learned from being on the outside looking in.
When my husband made the decision to take our family out of the church we attended faithfully for 8 years (at that time the whole of our married life), it was a decision two years in the making at least. He never took leaving that church lightly and really had every desire to "join" another church when he left that he would consider more like minded.
Well, a year and a half has flown past us and we have visited many churches and have finally come to these conclusions:
1. We (Christians every where) are the church. A building, programs, pastors and methods should not confine the believer to its way of thinking or doing, but a believer should freely move in the Spirit that Christ granted him through salvation. Christ tells us in the New Testament that He came to do the will of the Father that sent Him. We are priviledged to have that same freedom even if it goes against the confines of the religious institutions of our day.
2. Christians should actively seek fellowship with the body of Christ, but it should not matter what the setting is. Jesus Christ never "went" to church regularly anywhere in the New Testament. He freely moved and ministered to others in all settings and was never restricted by God or others...only the religious Pharisees of the day attempted to curtail and restrict Christ's personal ministry.
3. Denominations really divide the body of Christ in a terrible way. Many are on the inside looking out proclaiming how right they are in their particular denomination. I was among those who have done that. Where do we find Christ ever dividing the disciples and the believing multitudes that were healed into denominations? He asked them to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him.
4. Church attending (not necessarily church-being) believers have associated faithful attendance to a builidng, their membership to that building and their un-swerving submission to it's leaders with how godly they are. We answer to God and although proper godly authority is good and necessary(if that person is even qualified by biblical standards), it should never draw the believer away from their personal relationship with Christ and His specific will for the believer's life. We have been counted as unfaithful flim flam for not attending "the building" church or becoming a member of something we already are. We can be faithfully gathering with Christians who are accountable for each other in the edification process, but still be considered unfaithful. We could reach the lost with the gospel message in our home, but we are counted as unfaithful. We could study the word, pray and teach our children the word of God, but be counted as unfaithful. We reach the poor and our fatherless and motherless neighbors, but we are counted as unfaithful. The list can go on and on. We have close friends (the church) who keep us sharpened and accountable and we do not take lightly who we are in the body of Christ and the spiritual gifts God uses in us where and when He chooses.
5. We as a family have been able to spend time together without pressure from "the church" to attend so many services, programs and functions that keep us busy and away from each other all day. Think about it...in the Old Testament the family breathed as a strong unit learning and doing everything together. Isn't it strange that on one of the only days that fathers and some mothers have off from work to spend time with their children they rush off to church and then split up in all different directions? Instead of fathers and mothers teaching their children the word of God and how to pray they rely heavily on the Pastor, Youth Pastor and the Sunday School teachers.
6. The pressure to perform spiritually for others instead of God is off. We won't be compared to the spiritually elite among us by not recieving awards for doing what only God has seen us do in our minstry for Him in private.
7. We have seen the body of Christ from all walks of life come together in unity in our homes that we share with each other. We may disagree in some areas as a whole, but the love we have for each other, God and His word is much and it movtivates us greatly to be a light in this dark world.
8. The condemnation we have felt in the past seems to have left us almost completely. We obey God when He tells us to do something. It would have been impossible to do this in the past without upsetting the leadership or others in "the church" because the will of God for our family would not have lined up with the agenda of the church. The Pharisees pointed out that Christ was healing on the sabbath day and many other things they thought that Jesus was doing that they(the highly religiously community) thought was unacceptable.
9. We have realized that we can get so fat on our fellowship (dinners, social events with each other, etc.) with believers that we don't do much else for the Lord because our time can be consumed with just being with each other in the church setting and its functions. The body of Christ should edify itself in order to branch out in their ministries to their own families, their neighbors and their community. Just doing that would keep us so busy for the Lord that we would never need to show up for the purpose of ministry in the church building again.
And so, the learning continues. We read the word for ourselves afresh and anew and our faith in Christ and freedom in Christ as the church is nothing but strengthened more and more each and every day on our journey.
6 comments:
I'm not sure if I am reading this blog correctly...Is your home become your church?
We are told in the New Testment to never forsake the church. Christ established the church. No church is perfect, but we all need to grow together by God's grace within the church.
If I am reading it wrong, plese feel free to correct me. Love Aunt Juliet
No, Juliet, our home is not our church. "We" are(your are) the church. A building where believers gather is not the church, but the people in it are. I don't think you would disagree with that statement, would you? We do not forsake the assembly with other Christians. No, the NT tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together(and, yes, Juliet, that gathering did not take place in the typical setting of how we go to church today. It took place mainly in homes all throughtout the NT)...Christ was not talking about a building, but His people. Yes, no church is perfect. I am part of the body of Christ and am far from perfect. We grow in God's grace in many ways including our gathering with believers. I agree with you. Lately, we gather with believers in homes...just like they did in the New Testament, but we do not fault a brother or sister for attending the building of their choice to gather together with other Christians. I hope this clarifies what I am trying to say.
Deb, I enjoyed reading this blog post, and I really do understand what you are saying and commend you and your husband for following God in the way He has led you.
Blessings, Becky
Very interesting insight. It is always good to see a Christian who is growing in his/her faith. It sounds like that is what you are doing. I have been learning this same truth lately---we need to not worry about the "traditions" and focus on Christ and serving Him. It is, however, a blessing when you can find a group of believers (even in a collective building) with whom you can do this.
Are you meeting with other believers, or just your family? I would think that would be difficult when it came to having fellowship in the body of Christ.
Do you observe the Lord's Supper? How do you handle baptism, and the Bible's instructions on elders and teachers?
I'm just curious - I think it's great you are searching things out for yourselves.
Thank you all for your comments. Michelle, we do meet with other believers(a handful are met with regularly), but how that looks like from day to day varies. We often find ourselves being flung by God into service and obedience to Him that wouldn't fit the typical church confines. We think it's great if you find a church that is truly following the biblical model that allows you to be obedient to the Lord in your personal walk with Him. We haven't been able to find one yet here where we live in Florida. We fellowship with believers from our old church and love deeply all our sisters and brothers in Christ wherever they are and whatever their background.
As for the ordinances of the Lord's supper and baptism. We see nothing in scripture prohibiting the father of the home administering baptism and the Lord's supper to their own families, but we have done it other ways as well, where we have had families in our home and someone administered the Lord's supper. We have not baptized anyone yet, but we do have friends who are of the house church mindset that baptize their converts in the Gulf of Mexico. Our kids will probably be baptized my husband in our bathtub as they come to know the Lord. Jesus himself was baptized by a very unkempt, locust eater in the Jordan River. Jesus administered the Lord's supper to all His disciples in an upper room of a house. Both ways of observing the ordinances would seem very unconventional in the typical church setting. We believe in elders for sure and would love to see all christians when they gather, equally use their spiritual gifts that Christ gave them, instead of only one (i.e. the pastor)using their's the majority of the time spent together. I hope that answers your curiousities, Ann-Marie.
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