More Than A Building

For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:  TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.  Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: "God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.  Nor is He worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.  And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, "For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
Acts 17:  23-28 NKJV

Our discussion in our Sunday morning group this morning will center around a subject I've addressed a few times before.  I received a message from my friend Dennis late Saturday with this mornings topic, why are 31 million believers leaving our churches?  Now, that 31 million number I am not entirely certain of, but I do know that there has been a exodus from our churches over the past few years, why is that?  Well, why do people up and leave anything?  People leave movies if they are not interested.  Others leave sporting events if the end is not in question.  So, can we equate the mass exodus from our houses of worship to that of a movie or a USC football game?  Perhaps, but I feel that there is something deeper here that needs mentioning.  I can start with my own experience.  I left my own local church more than a few years ago after my mother was hospitalized.  Up until that point, my attendance in Sunday morning worship had become something seen as mandatory.  It's just what we did.  Now, the pulpit pounder would not come out and say as much, but if I had missed one too many Sundays, I would get a call from the church wondering where their lost sheep was.  It had become an obligation, not simply an act of honor and worship to God.  In my heart, I knew I desired more than what my church, or any church for that matter,  was giving me.  I would hear sermons on the love and forgiveness of Jesus, but He was rarely taught.  It wasn't until a few years later that my friend Dennis, himself a retired pastor from the same church, opened my heart to the truth of Christ Jesus.  But is the search for the truth about Jesus the very reason christians are leaving the church?  Perhaps, but I believe there's more to it than that.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangles again with a yoke of bondage.
Galations 5:8 NKJV

It is my humble opinion that a large part of the exodus from our churches has to do with just what our churches have become.  For instead of prayer and worship, we now have weekly rock and roll dog and pony shows, which are designed to appeal to a younger crowd.  Not only that, but the sermons from the pulpit pounders seem to dwell on the past and not the very hope and future of our heavenly Fathers deliverance.  Time and again, we see sermons and series of sermons on being more like Christ, living free of sin and what would Jesus do?  Really?  I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised at all, for if the pastor spoke and taught of the truth of Christ Jesus found in Galations 2:20, there would indeed be far less people in the pews on Sunday, and less income for the church itself.

"I have been crucified with Christ; It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galations 2:20 NKJV

What a joy it would be if each and every pastor would sing the praises of the truth of Jesus we find in Galations 2:20, the truth of everyone who accepts Jesus now living AS Christ.  What freedom it would bring!  It is this freedom which the apostle Paul spoke of in Galtions 5 and "The liberty by which Christ has made us free."  Free from what you ask?  Free from bondage.  Now, recall what I said of my own experience of leaving the church I had attended for many years, of how I felt as if my very attendance had become a weekly obligation.  I truly believe that I am not the only believer who feels this way.  I am not the only one who feels that the weekly church  dog and pony show is akin to a form of bondage.  Now, when I say bondage, I don't mean slavery, but rather an expected obligation.  We are expected to attend church each and every Sunday like good little worshipers.  And what of our worship?  Do we really require a church in order to lift our praises to our heavenly Father and Christ His Son?  The truth of Christ Jesus found in Galations screams NO!  For if indeed we now walk each and every day as Christ, we have zero need to be in a church or a temple in order to find Him, He is within us.  For not only did God create all things that the church is made of, both physical and human, my God does not dwell in churches built by men, but in me.

~Scott~