Would you pretend with me please? Let's suppose a scenario. I haven't quit going to church, but suppose that I have. Suppose that I have made a difficult decision to stop attending Sunday worship at our local church. I am not a cranky irritant. I am an earnest, studious Christian. I love the Lord Jesus and I love his church. Suppose that I have been an active member and participant for many years. I have enjoyed your respect and we have served on committees and boards together. We have always seemed to have similar vision and aspirations for church ministry, expansion and progress. Then over the months of this past year you have heard me question rather than complain about church priorities, practices and methodology. I have expressed concerns about how we spend money, about the weak theology of much of the music we sing, about the topical sermons and lack of scriptural content. Perhaps I have mentioned my need for reverence. Perhaps you have told me, "you sound like an old person." Yet maybe I have pointed out that I like many of my age group do make every effort to accommodate to the changes within church culture and I along with them do not carp and complain. We don't whine or grumble. We sing and we pray and we stay interested and involved. We cherish our church friends and our pastors. We support the evangelistic fervour and outreach into the neighbouring community. What more can any of expect? And then, at some point, for my own reasons, some of which I myself cannot fully understand or explain, I conclude, I can't do this any longer.
This has all been supposition. I am not really thinking about leaving my local congregation, but suppose that I had left. How would you as a church member look at me? How would you treat me? Could you agreeably see me as analytical rather than critical? Could you accept that I was no longer satisfied with the status quo of organized Christianity? Would you trust me when I said that I am still growing spiritually as God's child and that I do desire significant relationships with other believers because I know God has not called me to isolation? Would you believe me when I told you that I made my decision after studying scripture, and because I live in relation to Christ and to other followers of Christ I am convinced that in that relational network I am integrally engaged in church? With how much do you agree?
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