Church obviously means different things to different people. To some, it is where you worship God. To others, it might be where you get refreshed, where you find fellowship, where you find sanctuary, or where you get equipped to meet the world and properly follow God.
Church is all of these things. But I think that the base characteristic of church is that it is where the people of God stick together. This idea may seem a little laughable or guaranteed to bring frustration in our mobile, independently-minded society. A lot of people seem to treat church like supermarkets: they say "If I don't like the prices here, I'll just go to the supermarket down the street."
But I really see no escape from the idea that doing church means being unified, despite our culture. Jesus, in his so-called High Priestly Prayer in John chapter 17, prayed that we believers may be one. This was His heart as He faced crucifixion. In First Corinthians chapter 12 Paul explains at length that we are one body, whether we recognize it or not. In Ephesians 5 he says that we are Christ's body, whom He gave Himself up for. Notice, Paul doesn't say that He loved individuals and gave Himself up for individuals, but that Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for the church. Not to say that Christ cares nothing for individuals, but that this was His heart, to sacrifice Himself for the church.
In so many other letters in the New Testament, attention is given to how to live together, how to be at peace with one another, how to hold the body together. Now, in the previous Scriptures I mentioned the writers are talking about the Church of all believers (the Church Universal), but in the specific instructions in the epistles it is clear that it is the local fellowship that is the subject. The heart of Jesus and the Apostles is that believers should stick together.
However, even though it seems to me to be obvious that unity is what Jesus wants, it isn't easy. Unity requires love, it requires commitment, it requires forgiveness in great measure. In other words, unity is directly opposed to the consequences of sin, which scatters and isolates us. And we know that we are still dealing with our fallen natures, which sometimes lash out to hurt and other times hear hurtful things where they are not intended.
I have seen many, many people break fellowship over things big and small. Now, I know that the Spirit does move people on, and I believe that He can direct people to leave their present fellowship and join with another. But to leave in pain and anger, to sever the body, to leave relationships in tatters and to no longer acknowledge that your brothers and sisters in Christ are in fact your family - well, that just hurts the Spirit.
I have had the opportunity these past two weeks to be peripherally involved in a circumstance where some believers have struggled to maintain fellowship. At a glance it looked like it might have been merely a misunderstanding, but there was the potential for it to end in hurt, anger and discouragement. Through love, humility, and some brave choices it appears at this point that some confusion has been cleared up, some affirmation has occurred, some forgiveness has been extended, and the bond of fellowship has been restored.
Though I was not directly involved in this circumstance at all, I feel like I worked hard on healing this rift. Usually I endeavor to respect people's privacy, but I feel like this time I pushed beyond my comfort zone in order to lobby for unity. I also prayed about this circumstance a lot. I write this not to pat myself on the back, but to say that I am becoming convinced that the cause of unity is more important than a lot of things that we consider our right. The word to me was that we should not just going to roll over this time. It is worth it to get a bit into people's faces and push for unity. It is worth it to risk someone's anger at us in order to mend fellowship.
This is what "doing church" means to me - working to maintain and deepen unity amongst believers. It is a wonderful work and it brings me a lot of joy to see that our tendency to separate and scatter can be overcome.
2.5 - 31 - 4.8
Amen, PJ--I agree!
ReplyDeleteOf course, being from a family just bursting with pastors, I can sometimes take it personally when people leave our church--or spout off about what they think is wrong with it, when they never actually talk to the people who could help the problem. But, I do believe that it is a good thing to commit to a church--whether it is our church or not. And of course, God does sometimes move you to another place--but there is a right, peaceful way to do this; full of blessing and never ending in a complete "break of fellowship," I think.
That's awesome that you got to see people reconciled--and even be a part of it. How beautiful.
I say AMEN, as well, Peaj!! I completely agree with that. I have always wondered why people would leave (in an unrighteous way, not when led by Holy Spirit), I felt the loss. I still feel like that, to some degree, with some of the people that have left over the years. It is sad, too, because if you leave in such a way, you are just going to take your issues with you and they will crop up again, so you might as well deal with them once and for all. Of course, for the people who leave they are probably thinking it is over the church's issues that they left. The truth is, we all have issues to work through; no person, no church, is perfect because we're all just people. But we're people who are family.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you got to see reconciliation, my brother!
Jess, I love the image of your family just breaking open from all the pastors in it!
ReplyDeleteI used to not understand why people would leave, either, but I have had my own experience with wanting to leave and I understand it a little better. There are lots of reasons why people leave, just like there are many reasons that people divorce. But I think that in both cases the final reason why people leave can be exhaustion. They are just so worn out with dealing with the issues that they just want to escape the pain. When you get to that point, it is tough to even talk about the other issues.
That is why disunity should be dealt with quickly, whether in church or in marriage, and why just "dealing with it" can be dangerous. I think that instead of releasing offenses we tend to just submerge them, and then when something else comes up the old thing comes back up again.
In Christian circles we tend to excuse offenses instead of dealing with them, and they can come back to bite us if we haven't truly forgiven them.