I have been thinking a lot lately about church and its purpose or lack-there-of in my life. Don't get me wrong. Deep down I love my church. I love the people within my church. I love my Renewal small group and I love the fact that we have been adopted by the "other Thompsons".
I love that when we have trouble or something that needs praying about, we can call them at a moment's notice and they will be there or they will drop everything they are doing to raise up our names to God. I love that.
What I don't love however, is the fact that nothing seems to be changing in the church. No one wants to grow. No one wants to learn or talk about God. No one. No one wants to talk about and wrestle with their faith. They don't want to think about the fact that we spend less money helping people than we do on the electric bill. They don't want to see that the world is messy and we should all look at fixing it. They don't like to think about how they are being fed spiritually. They like being starved.
And the music. OY VAY. The music in the church is going to be the death of me. How long can we sing funeral hymns and call them spiritual? B and I look around on Sundays to see who out of all of them in the sanctuary, who is being lifted up by the music from the 1800s. NO one.
My friend HH tells me that is normal in the church. It is a Type 1 church, he says, and I should get used to it, as most churches around are Type 1 churches.
Well crap. That is helpful.
So I am posing the question here... What good is the church as a whole? What is the purpose of church? Greg tells me that the purpose of the church is to be the body of Christ. Why then would I want to be a part of a body that is dying?
Why is it that our churches very quickly are dying? I have an idea...
Just a few ideas at least. One has to do with Christians and the other has to do with televangelists, but I could be wrong...
