Faith Revolution

This post is somewhat in response to some discussion on a couple of other blogs that I read (hello ladies!).  It started with this quote from Joyce Meyer:

” I can go sit in a garage all day and it won’t make me a car,
So going and sitting in Church every Sunday isn’t going to
make me a Christian”

Then, it morphed into a discussion on why people don’t go to church; even “good” Christians.  I guess I am adding to that discussion based on a message that I heard at Edinboro Camp this morning.  Since I was sitting in the sound room working Powerpoint for the speaker, I had to listen.  The speaker, talking about Adam and Eve hiding from God after they had sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, mentioned the masks that we all wear which we use to hide our shame of nakedness.  I then got to thinking again about the excuses “good” Christians use for not attending a church service regularly. 

I use quotes on the word “good” because if there are good Christians then logically, one has to assume that there are also bad Christians.  I am not the arbitor of such things.  Jesus stated that only the Father is good.  Paul start his Christian journey by stateing that he las the least of the apostles.  When he got old, he then described himself as the chief of sinners.

Let me start here.  Please excuse me for being so blunt.  (Disclaimer:  The following comments are not directed at anyone in particular.  So don’t send me any nasty emails)

Christian people need to remember that church (or life for that matter) whatever that looks like to you IS NOT ABOUT YOU.  (Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it…the first shall be last and the last first, etc.)  That, my friend is the major problem in churches that have major problems and the minor problem in the churches that have minor ones!  Church is about Jesus, period.  PERIOD!  Church is about loving God and loving each other.  Since when did it become about me?  I dare anyone to try give me a reasonable answer to that question. 

The worship sucks, the preacher is boring and preaches too long and visits too short and is not very compassionate and doesn’t answer his phone.  There are too many bad people who are mean to me.  The pastor’s wife wears jeans and his son has an earring and his daughter a tattoo of on her shoulder.  Oh…and they don’t keep the parsonage very nice either.  I am not getting fed.  Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. 

In the words of Archie Bunker:  SHUT UP, YOU!

NEWSFLASH!  It’s not about you!

Do I get fired up about this?  YES!  Am I a better Christian than anyone else?  No.  Here’s why I get a little ticked…God is the one who saved our sorry butts.  Jesus is the one who was tortured, belittled and killed.  Doesn’t he deserve the reward?  Instead of throwing Him a bone now and then shouldn’t we give Him everything we are and cut out the garbage? 

Nope.  It’s all about me.

Ok, now that I have gotten that little tirade out of the way, let me get to the issue of the masks.  I think that it is possible that the one of the reasons people avoid church is because they don’t want to let down their masks revealing who they really are.  Dealing with the deepest issues of life in an atmosphere, in a setting where one is asked to be in an intimate relationship with other actual, real people creates a situation where a person becomes vulnerable and accountable.  Rather than grow through the pain of that type of experience, people would rather either hide from it or wear a mask and live in fear that their real self will be found out.

There is also the fact that the church is generally not a place that is friendly to the removal of the mask because of condemnation of other people, which sends the mask right back up.  Some of that condemnation is real.  Some is imagined by the insecure person.

God said that there is now NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, so I refuse to accept it from mere people.

Whatever the case, it is just easier to stay home and watch Charles Stanley.  It’s easier to be naked and unashamed when no one is around.  And no one will ever know what I am hiding.