“An Emphasis on Keeping It Real”

As a Christian I have tended to avoid becoming a member of a Church throughout my life. I have always felt guilty about this because the apostle Paul says in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 “Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

 

I fall into the “forsaking assembling together as is the habit of some” part of that scripture. It has certainly been my way. I’ve always been a bit of a rough diamond from a Christian point of view and I have felt the need to be someone that I am not when attending Church. I must say that belonging to a television church is far easier than participating in a real church. It is far easier to fellowship beside a congregation than to fellowship in one. All of the relationship data that complicates the real life integration is missing from the online version. They don’t know me and I don’t know them.

 

The other dynamic with Christians is that because of the teachings in the bible about the world a lot of Christians become very narrow in their world view. So if someone in the church turns out to be guilty of a certain type of sin behaviour then the judgement and condemnation comes out. I know that most believers would say that’s not them or that’s not our church but if someone in the church turned out to be living in a homosexual relationship then what would be your response to that situation. Would you even care about the consequences to the person involved?

 

For this reason I have tended to protect myself and my family from the church environment. People tend to do the things that people do and churches just tend to trash them if that behaviour crosses the boundaries. Not all churches I know but in my experience the vast majority don’t look to embrace people that they view as living in sin or make any attempt to lovingly support them into a functioning relationship with Jesus Christ. Usually they drive them out and destroy that relationship to which the devil says a hearty “I told you so” to the person involved. Then you have a broken person baring the scars of a someone who has had a church prang and has never forgiven the church folk involved.

 

I guess that’s why Destiny has been so successful in New Zealand. You can attack Brian Tamaki on the basis of dining on the backs of his congregation but in general he lifts people out of poverty and lifts them into a relationship with Jesus Christ and he doesn’t care who they are or where they are from. The Salvation Army had a similar ministry with the folk of London’s East End in the Nineteenth Century. The Booth family decided to make the poor of the East End their people and worked tirelessly to bring them to salvation in Jesus Christ and to vastly improve their material circumstances by getting them into housing and bringing social services to them.

 

I notice with the Adventists in the United States that they have ministries like Cheri Peters “True Step Ministries” that work with addiction and poverty in America. A ministry made up of people whose backgrounds mirror the people that they are working with. It is very much conducted in a refreshingly honest way. No holds barred, warts and all ministry in much the same way as our saviour Jesus Christ conducted his ministry.

 

Luke chapter 19 verse 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

 

To me it’s about keeping it real. I may just continue to be the introvert I am and find other ways to get the gospel out there. I may just continue to worship beside Christians rather than among them. Unless of course I find a Church with a capital C where the congregation aren’t Pharisees and the real emphasis is on getting the truth out there to sinners who need salvation. Accepting them as they are with “An Emphasis on Keeping it Real.”