John 8: 31 - 36 NKJV
Something strange happens whenever I tell people that I have no church home which I attend on a regular basis. I usually can count on a long blank stare as if the person I'm talking to is in utter disbelief of what they have just heard. How can a christian not belong to a local congregation? How can one survive in this world without being "Led and fed" each and every Sunday? For surely we are in need of Gods chosen annointed leaders to guide His flock less we go astray? The funny thing is, most people I've talked to about church attendance are already of the opinion that I've gone astray! Not only that, but they offer prayers over me that God would bring me back into the fold. It seems that I am destined for a life without the ordained guidance of Gods annointed pulpit pounders. So is that a bad thing? I glanced over a article Dennis forwarded to me recently about how millenials have been ditching the modern church in ever increasing numbers. My response to this was, what took them so long? Have they come to that very same realization I have? It makes me wonder just how many wayward christians are out there among us. One of the main reasons which I have read that so many people are leaving the modern institutional church is that the church has simply become too religious, too confining. Indeed, the traditions and trappings of the modern church have led many to walk out its doors never to return. Now, even though I have not participated in a Sunday church service in some time, I'm all too familiar with the weekly agenda. First you have the rousing opening music which supposedly is designed to get we christian soldiers motivated and excited for God. Following this you'll have a few opening announcements, a offering and then finaly the sermon from Gods ordained pulpit pounder. At the risk of being excommunicated yet again, I submit that this is not the assembly which God intended. It's my belief that God desires a communion with His children in an arena without the walls, restrictions and traditions of the modern church.
13And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. 16So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Colossions 2: 13 - 17 NKJV
I have reflected a few times in these writings of a gathering which Dennis and I had recently at the home of a friend on a Sunday morning. There was no worship music, no traditional church fanfare and no offering. How could something such as this be considered church? Let me see, a gathering of Gods children in His name to celebrate their freedom in Jesus? That sounds more like church to me than anything I've seen in any multi million dollar church facility. That morning the focus was not on the pagentry of church tradition but on coming together in the freedom we shared in Christ Jesus. Just another group of wayward christians needing to be brought back into the flock. Indeed, one of the reasons which I no longer participate in a Sunday morning service is that we have our own group of brothers which meets each Sunday morning at a local fast food joint in the freedom of Christ. This is our church, or our McChurch if you will. Can this be considered church? The apostle Paul seemed to think so.
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 blood 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."
Acts 17: 24 - 27 NKJV
What is it that we can give God? Does He desire ornate building? Church annointed leadership? More and more tithes? No, I believe that one thing which we can offer up to our heavenly Father is our relationship with Him through Christ Jesus. The buildings, the traditions and pagentry only serve to place man made tradition over God. Perhaps this is why we chose a fast food restaurant as our gathering place on Sunday morning. We've done away with all the traditions and instead replaced it with community and fellowship in Him. Typical of wayward christians.
~Scott~
~McChurch~
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