Church?

Well, it's been a pretty unevenful last week in all seriousness. And these last four days have honestly been pretty boring for me. The first two days I was off, and there were student-teacher conferences going on. Then these last two days I have been on in the dorm, but it's been boring because we only had two guys here. Well, we had three, but we had an incident last night with smoking where we had to send one guy home on a one day suspension. So that part wasn't cool and I had to be the one to deal with it until I could get a hold of Dan or Jaime or Brent. The others that help with the dorm stuff who I feel are much more experienced than me. Luckily I found them in like 5 minutes, so that was good.

Anyway, today was church and it was pretty good. The headmaster at the school here spoke on taking risk. He says not enough Christians take risks in their lives in reaching those who don't know Christ. And he showed biblical examples of those who took risks and the consequences of those risks but how it was a necessary risk to reach those who don't know Christ. Then after church I hung out with friends and we had bfast stuff for lunch. It was quite good even though it was my second bfast of the day. But who cares. It was still good.

Alright, so with the title of this post, I've been thinking so much about the Church and where it's gone from Bible days and where I feel it could go. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a huge fan of the modern church....I'll admit it, I like that good feeling I get when the worship is just right and when the electric guitar is cranking. I also like the lights, and the showy type stuff. But with all these books that I've been reading I feel like the church can do so much more. I feel like churches in general today aren't doing much to reach their communities around them. I mean how many times do you see homeless people in the church? How many times do you see the needy, the prostitutes, and gangsters in the church? I dunno, it just doesn't seem right....the church in Jesus' time I can imagine would've been filled with these types of people. The church today just seems so homogeneous with the people all wearing smiles and looking all alike.

Why can't we as a church (as believers) admit we have problems? It seems like we all come to church and talk about how life is going so perfect for us...when deep inside we all have issues going on in our lives. I'll be the first to admit, if you ask me how I'm doing, I'll often tell you fine, even though there might be something going on that's deeper. But this is something I really am trying to work on. To be more honest with those around me that when I'm not doing fine to be able to express it. I mean think about this: If we as a church (as believers) admitted that we have issues, maybe the poor, the prostitutes, and other notorious "sinners" wouldn't look so bad anymore and our churches wouldn't be so homogenous. I think it'd be easier to love those people when we realize we are dealing with issues as well.

Don't get me wrong though, there are things that Churches are doing that is very commendable as well. I just feel like there is a lot more that could be done.

A couple final questions to think on and I'd love to hear responses: If there were no more church buildings, would the "church" still exist? What would it look like? Would it be easier to accept the "sinners" if we didn't meet in such a formal location?

Oh, here are some sweet lyrics to a new song I love by Hillsong United:

Hillsong United - Solution

It is not a human right
To stand afar while broken nations dream
Open up our eyes, so blind
That we might find the mercy for the need

Hey now
Fill our hearts with your compassion
Hey now
As we hold to our confession

It is not too far a cry
Too much to try to help the least of these
Politicians should not decide if we should rise
And be your hands and feet

Singing...
Hey now
Fill our hearts with your compassion
Hey now
As we hold to our confession

Whoa-oo-ooh
God, be their solution
Whoa-oo-ooh
We will be your hands and be your feet
Yeah Yeah

Higher than our circumstance
You promise and your love for all to see
Higher than our protest lines and dollar signs
Your love is all we need

Hey now
Fill our hearts with your compassion
Hey now
As we hold to our confession

Whoa-oo-ooh
God, be their solution
Whoa-oo-ooh
We will be your hands and be your feet

Whoa-oo-ooh
God, be their solution
Whoa-oo-ooh
We will be your hands and be your feet
Whoa Yeah

Only you can mend the broken heart
And cause the blind to see
You erase complete the sinner's past
And set the captives free

Only you can take the widow's cry
And cause the heart to see
Be the Father to the fatherless
Our Saviour and our King

We will be your hands
We will be your feet
We run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place we will be your light,
We will you light

We will be your hands
We will be your feet
We run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place we will be your light,
We will you light

Whoa-oo-ooh
God, be their solution
Whoa-oo-ooh
We will be your hands and be your feet

Whoa-oo-ooh
God, be their solution
Whoa-oo-ooh
We will be your hands and be your feet

We will
We will
God be the solution

We will
We will
God be the solution

We will be your hands
We will be your feet
We run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place we will be your light,
We will you light...



Till Next Time,

Mike