What Are We Looking for?

It's a strange question to ask about the church but I think one that is worth considering.  What are people looking for?  It seems that many are looking for a satisfaction that they can't quite find with church, so they move on to the next one hoping for a better experience.

Churches seem to be like stores in shopping malls.  Christians go into this store and that store with a consumer mindset looking for something unique and extraordinary to satisfy their spiritual cravings.  If they can't find it here, or once the experience of a particular style wears off, its time to move on to the next place.  We've become churchaholics in nature. We keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting better results, and we all know that this is the definition of insanity.

It seems that gone are the days when churches stayed together for a lifetime (if there ever was such an era).  It would be an interesting survey to discover how many times in this present day era pastors and pew-sitters alike change churches for the purpose of a new experience.  I wonder what it tells us when faith runs dry and stale in a particular church setting that would cause one to move on to another?

It might mean that individually we are too dependant upon the church to do for us what God would do every day of our lives if we let Him.  We don't simply find God in church.  We find Him first and foremost in our lives and our relationships with others.  It is God working through our lives that makes up the church, instead of the church making up God for us.

After almost 30 years of ministry I have come to the conclusion that the church is first and foremost a place of deployment for ministry.  It is a place where Christians gather together in honor and worship of God for the sake of mission in their community and around the world.  We exist for the sole purpose of those outside our four walls.  It has been a long journey for me to come to that conclusion because I too am guilty of moving on in search of greater meaning and purpose in the name of church; but I must remember that church is not about me, it is about God and His heart for a lost and dying world.

Finally let me say that I believe that the purpose of the church has nothing to do with a greater experience with God.  Experiences come through faith and faith is all about following and serving Christ.  Therefore, we should have special experiences from God in spite of the church and its movement (or lack of it), because faith is personal.  It is an active faith that moves mountains not the church.

A church can offer all kinds of special experiences and still never give any substancial service to Christ.  Service is practical, and out of the practical flows signs and wonders from God, not the other way around.  So let us be deployed and see the mighty hand of God working through us.

Blessings,

-Leo