What is Church - REALLY???

I decided to create this blog as a way to get some thoughts out of my head and down on 'paper' where I could visit ( or revisit) them and get an idea of where I'm going in my life. One of the big things in my life for many years has been my church affiliation. Ok - make that ALL of my life. So - I should have some major insights from all that time spent in organized Christianity - right? that has yet to be seen, but here goes...

1. What is church?
I will preface this by stating that I have just finished reading a book called "So you Don't want to go to Church any More". This book is written as a dialog between a disillusioned pastor and a guy named John ( rumored to be THE John - the Apostle that would live till Christ came back...). The pastor ( Jake) is totally disgusted with organized religion and has come to see his years in the church as a waste of time. He meets John, who through a series of well-timed visits convinces him that the 'church' as we know it is an institution that entraps us with guilt to keep us involved and attending it ( as in - how else will your pastor support himself? - and this was mentioned over and over in the book). The TRUE church, according to John, is US! Jake starts a house church and proceeds to organize and institutionalize it just as he was trained to do as a pastor. John points that out to Jake, and tells him that what is really important is relationships - that we encourage one another, love one another, and foster spiritual growth in one another by our interaction. This can't be done by meeting one hour a week in an organized, structured environment or by insisting we be in the building every time the doors are opened. Jake's house church becomes a weekly fellowship and BBQ, and Jake tells John he feels like nothing is being accomplished. John tells Jake to take a closer look - the people are happy, enthusiastic, and relating to one another. They are sharing Christ, and encouraging one another in the faith. What more could you want?

That book pretty much describes the word that God gave me last November 2009. A group of us gathered at the church on a Wed night and all sat in the sanctuary to pray about the future of our attempt at organized religion ( those are my words). As I prayed, I clearly heard " It's all about how you treat people. " I have the rest written down somewhere... I don't think anyone in my Church is evil or wants to abuse or take advantage of folks. I just think that all of our leadership has been trained to create organized religion instead of creating the body of christ. They want to see people healed and lives changed, but for them it seems to be this magic formula. Build a building, put the structure in place, get people to come, and poof! the body of Christ! We have this delusion that if people just show up, they will somehow magically be healed, delivered and changed just by being part of the structure! Somehow in that hour or 2 or 3 per week, they will get everything they need to be transformed into...Godly Christian Men/Women/Children. I think nothing is farther from the truth. Personal opinion is that we create a bunch of neurotic 'Christians' who end up with a lot of head knowledge about the bible, and are so fearful of going to hell or stepping out of the pre-determined line that they don't have a life! How does that qualify as abundant life?! In what way is that the adventure that GOD has planned for all of us? What I have seen is that the most fearful, co-dependent people are the ones that are considered by the church to be the most spiritual - I think because they don't rock the organizational boat. The healthy folk, that have a sense of adventure and some maturity about them, generally get pushed aside or squelched because they push the boundaries of the org. I see a few people in relationship with each other, but usually they gather on the basis of common frustration with leadership instead of common interests or goals.
Christianity is so strict with the 'what's acceptable' list, that to be friends with someone, you have to hide a good part of your life. Most christians are righteously appalled by someone's bad behaviour, when generally they are just as bad or worse underneath but just better at hiding it. Or - maybe they've been so well -trained over the years by their organization church attendance to hide the bad stuff they don't even know it's there anymore. When you hide parts of yourself, those parts will never get healed. They never get dealt with because it's unacceptable. It's like keeping your guests out of the dirty back bathroom because you've been too sick, lazy, or otherwise to clean it. If the people you invite over are truly your friends, they would say " Hey, that looks kinda bad in there. I know you've had some stuff going on with that. Lemme give you a hand..."

What I have learned in the past couple of years from my relationships OUTSIDE of church is that you can not change a person's life in an hour a week. It takes relationship. It takes day after day, in and out, up and down, in and out of crisis friendship to change a person's life. I have watched this happen and I am totally amazed at what God can do in a person's life if you just love and care about them.

As far as relationships within our religious affiliation, it is not the Pastor's job, but it is all of our jobs to relate to one another and interact with one another. Dinner parties and home groups won't do it, especially if you set an agenda. Case in point - when we first started going to the church we now attend, my husband read a particular book, and wanted to teach it for a homegroup. We did that, and after the teaching part we just sat around and discussed the church, the book, and anything else that people wanted to talk about. It was a GREAT homegroup. We had 10-20 people every week and lively discussion. Oh, but that was too disorganized for the leaders of our newfound denomination, so we had to stop any and all discussion, and just do the 'litergy' if we wanted to be under the covering of the church. I think the group made it through another month before everyone got soooo bored they just didn't show up any more. What happened? The end of RELATIONSHIPS. Oooppps!

People come together on the basis of common interest, and from there they form relationships with one another. You rub against each other and knock off the rough edges here and there. It's just difficult to do this if people feel they are being pigeon-holed or if they think the latest group thing is just another organizational church fad. People get jaded, but they believe, as I did, that they have to belong to a church because there is no possible way in heaven/hell that you can walk with God on your own. If you want to have a relationship with God, nothing can stop you. If you don't - no amount of church attendance is going to change that.

I know these are extremely high level thoughts on a very complex and probably very touchy subject, but I just needed to get it out of my head.


2. is it useful?
3. Do I care if I ever go back?