I have been sitting here reading "Real Church" by Larry Crabb and this morning's chapters disturbed me. You know that kind of disturbance like, uh oh, I thought I had it right but maybe I am wrong, moment? I think a lot of my motivation to begin this pilgrimage stemmed form my desire to "experience" real church and the presence of God. I want to invest in "real" not in "playing church." I think my motives are right but may be misguided. Crabb suggests that the experiences of church can be deceiving to the point that any experience is equated with God even demonic experiences masquerading as light. Do I see experience as the characteristic of "real church"? Do I work really hard to find that happy, connected place? If so, isn't that more about me and less about just praising Him and thanking Him regardless of what I get back? I think I have been guilty of that. I have been measuring authenticity by experience.
"I don't want to go to a church that values our experience of God over our hope in God." Can I praise God in the storm (Casting Crowns song) even if I never feel His presence? How about church? Can I seek after Him as I dig deep into His word even if I never feel His presence? What if life here on earth is about knowing Him the most we can and experiencing Him is what heaven is all about? Yes, God allows us to experience Him at times but what we are living for is not the experience but the manifestation of Him through our lives regardless of the feelings. (1 Corin. 15:19) Hope and anticipation of eternity with Him, that drives me into His arms.
"Hungry people chase after food. Filled people rub their tummies and burp. I wonder how much hand-waiving singing that we call worship is really tummy rubbing and smelly burping." Hungry churches study the Bible. They seek the source rather than the blessing. So I guess what I know at this point is that I am hungry.
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Satisfying hunger is doing the Fathers will, that’s what Jesus said His food was. "Hungry Churches study the bible"??? I think any theology without experience has only led the Church into religion, pew sitting and wondering why there is no fruitfulness, transformation or heart for evangelism. Experience must not be confined to feeling or emotion (even though God wired us this way and there is nothing wrong with it as long as the end result is NOT based on the experience only, such as sensationalism). The Bible is full of Experiences not "Non-experience" real Church is experiencing Gods Love, Real Fellowship and seeing people Saved, healed and set free. This is a good subject to converse about and would love to in the future. I strongly disagree with some of what Mr. Crabb talks about here. Blessings, Pastor Zack
ReplyDeleteRachel,
ReplyDeleteI wrestled with this concept a bit when we were recently searching for a new church home. I love my new church (http://gracepointvegas.com), but I wouldn't necessarily say it has the greatest experience as far as Sunday morning worship is concerned. What God has been showing me is that church is more than just a Sunday morning experience.
What I've begun to realize is that I like my church a lot more for what it does throughout the week, than what it does on Sunday morning. There's things I like and things I don't like about Sunday morning worship, but what really drew me to Grace Point was the fact that they so highly favored small group involvement and, most of all for me, service to the community.
I think the bread and butter of how effective a church is at connecting people with God happens on Monday through Saturday, so to speak. At least that's where I'm at on my journey and it's been refreshing to realize that my whole "experience" with "church" is not only about what happens on Sunday morning. In fact, I might go as far as to say that what happens on Sunday morning might not even be the most important aspect of a church (insert gasp! here).
I totally get what you're saying here. How easy it is to confuse real w/ fake, to seek real for good reasons that turn into selfish ones.
ReplyDeleteI miss Rwandan worship like nothin' else. For me, it was real. And I was kinda critical of our church's worship when I got back because nobody was trying...it didn't seem like anyone was really worshipping, it was more of the same Christian Karaoke. So I was correctly longing for authentic worship (God-centered) BUT I was incorrectly longing for a lively worship experience (me-centered). Maybe the truth is that the worship was fake, but the truth is also that worship isn't for my enjoyment/entertainment and that I can enter into real worship even if no one else is.
Seems like you're looking for truth. Reality. For a good pot roast dinner instead of doughnuts or that meal replacement junk. The pot roast WILL be a better experience, but its not the experience you want, but the nutrition of real food.
Glad you're doing this Rachel -- that you're looking for truth and OK w/ stumbling around a bit before you catch your balance. I'm challenged by what you're learning!