McChurch

2Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
2 Timothy 4: 2 - 4 NKJV

In my constant search for blog material I am so very often drawn into the antics of a few local congregations which I once frequented.  This past week was no exception.  For some time now I have been receiving social media updates from a pastor friend on "his" congregation.  Now, this man is a wonderful man of God and a good friend whom I would most assuredly seek advice from if needed.  However, I have often wondered over a few of his social media posts about the church he leads.  This week I noticed a few references to how this congregation was praying that God would raise up people to leadership positions for the congregation.  Now, unless you have had your head in the sand, those who have perused this blog already know my feelings on those who seem to place institutional religion and tradition over the truth of Christ Jesus.  Of course, this truth found in Galations 2:20 tells us that Jesus indeed shares our lives with us today.  This is indeed the restoration of that holy relationship we shared with God up until the fall.  As Dennis likes to put it, these are our original factory settings.  That relationship man had with God up until that first bite of the forbidden fruit has now been restored for those who have trusted in and accepted Christ Jesus.  For them, they share each and every day living as Jesus who is in them.  Sadly, this is a message that has been lost on almost all church congregations.  For instead of preaching the truth and freedom of truly knowing Jesus, they esteem the man made traditions of the institutional church.  Such it was with my friends congregation.  Does this mean that he does not know Jesus?  I don't believe that for a minute.  Rather, I believe that he is just stuck in that narative which has permeated churches for thousands of years.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or eprincipalities or fpowers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Colossions 1: 15 - 17 NKJV

One of the first questions Dennis asked when I shared this latest news was a good one, what church does God belong to?  Of course, any christian worth their salt of the earth would claim that God IS THE church.  For if Jesus is the head of the church and He is also the image of the invisible God, then Jesus is indeed the head of the church.  Then, what is the church?  Is the church that ornate building which we dutifully flock to Sunday after Sunday?  That church which is only exists due to the faithfull giving until it hurts?  Or is it something more?  Is the church exactly what scripture tells us that Christ is the very head of, the church BODY?  That is, each and every believer.  What church would God attend?  I suggest that our heavenly Father is at home not only in a large congregation but also in the smallest of home groups.  How can we attempt to say that the most high is limited to what buildings of people that He might visit?  In fact, does effective worship even need a fancy building?  The apostle Paul didn't think so at all.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24“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. 25“Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26“And He has made from one jblood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27“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; 28“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

Indeed, God is not limited to one particular congregation or group of believers.  God does not dwell in temples which we make for ourselves, but in us.

~Scott~

~McChurch...Realizing that God dwells within us, not the building~