"'They joined the church.' The reduction of Christianity to club membership
can't be said any better than that."
-Reggie McNeal
It seems that maybe we have made to much out of the church. In the South it seems that people judge your walk with Christ by whether or not you go to church. You can be the worst person in your community but as long as you are in church on Sunday morning, everything is okay. Why is this? Membership. Why even use this term?
We have taken something that should be a living, breathing organism and we have turned it into an organzation. In our effort to bring people in, we have made it so much more easy to leave people out. Church should be an amazing place of love, fellowship, friendship, but when all we do is make it an organization we might as well just give out badges and pay dues. In our effort to bring people in, we have made people feel so alienated if they don't come and because of that we have a church that lacks any sort of importance in the culture around it.
I believe that the church should make a difference in the society aroung it. It should be a vibrant place of hope. But when the emphasis of church is simply adding numbers to it, we have missed the point. Too many times you ask someone how church was with the response being: "It was great someone joined the church."
What the heck does that mean? 'They joined the church'
Was their life changed? Did they experience the love of Christ in such a way that they wept? Did they met a group of people who made an impact on them? Will they leave and come back? Did they experience Christ? These are some of the things that need to happen when someone goes to church...they need to experience life-change.
Church should be more than a place of club membership. It should be a place that truly leads others to experience Christ. When it does, it will be such an amazing place. A place where hearts are changed, and lives are touched, it will be a place where the love of Christ flows freely, and people joining wont be the most important thing. It will be an afterthought.
Dreaming.
Adam
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