I’ve read several posts on Facebook lately regarding the church as we know it. Here’s the gist of those posts: Today’s church, for the most part is ineffective and is highly suspect when it comes to motives and direction.
If you don’t agree with that assessment, perhaps you should check the “yardstick” you’re using for your measurements.
Roughly a year ago I re-read a passage from Zechariah 7 that caused me to go back and re-read it and then re-read it again. Frankly, I’ve been drawn back to read that same passage several times in the past year.
From “The Message”, Zechariah 7:1-10
“You’re Interested in Religion, I’m Interested in People”
7 On the fourth day of the ninth month, in the fourth year of the reign of King Darius, God’s Message again came to Zechariah.
2-3 The town of Bethel had sent a delegation headed by Sarezer and Regem-Melech to pray for God’s blessing and to confer with the priests of the Temple of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, and also with the prophets. They posed this question: “Should we plan for a day of mourning and abstinence next August, the seventieth anniversary of Jerusalem’s fall, as we have been doing all these years?”
4-6 God-of-the-Angel-Armies gave me this Message for them, for all the people and for the priests: “When you held days of fasting every fifth and seventh month all these seventy years, were you doing it for me? And when you held feasts, was that for me? Hardly. You’re interested in religion, I’m interested in people. (emphasis mine)
7-10 “There’s nothing new to say on the subject. Don’t you still have the message of the earlier prophets from the time when Jerusalem was still a thriving, bustling city and the outlying countryside, the Negev and Shephelah, was populated? [This is the message that God gave Zechariah.] Well, the message hasn’t changed. God-of-the-Angel-Armies said then and says now:
“‘Treat one another justly.
Love your neighbors.
Be compassionate with each other.
Don’t take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors, and the poor.
Don’t plot and scheme against one another—that’s evil.’…
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
You can read the text here.
The title was what caught my attention because it sums up today’s church.
The church has confused God’s plan for The Church with religion. They aren’t the same thing. In fact, I’m willing to say that most of the trappings of religion we’ve become so comfortable with are based on a need to cause people to conform to our ideals rather than God’s plan of Grace.
My term for that is “majoring in minors” i.e., dealing with everything that doesn’t matter and ignoring uncomfortable conversations about things of consequence.
We don’t need another grand plan. We don’t need another committee. We don’t need another discussion. We need to follow simple instructions whether we are comfortable with the concept or not. Quit trying to add rules that aren’t there and quit ignoring the ones that are there. It really isn’t difficult.
We’ve been brought to this point by a failure in leadership in most churches. Leadership has promulgated the same tired, self-absorbed ideals because it’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.
I’m not sure we should be surprised. This is the exact same failure of leadership we see in Washington, DC, the state capital and the local county seat. No one wants to challenge the status quo if it makes them a target. It seems everyone wants to take the easy way out and leave the tough issues to the next person.
Hmm, maybe taking the easy way out for politicians started at home in the pew of the local church.
Wayne
