When The Church Is God

Someone could write an entire book about John 9. It contains the detailed story of Jesus’ healing of the man born blind, his subsequent run-in with a very proud group of Pharisees, and his ultimate spiritual healing.

Right in the middle of the narrative, there is this very interesting interaction between the Pharisees & the blind man’s parents. The parents basically disavow their son, because they are afraid that if they call Jesus the Messiah, they’ll be kicked out of the synagogue. The synagogue was significant in those days not only as a center of worship but also as a place of community. It’s still jarring to read that their son’s miraculous healing caused them to fear rather than celebrate.

Perhaps we are not that different. It’s far too easy for the places that we worship to become more important to us than the Person that we worship. Without Jesus at center, the church is just a building where there’s a weekly concert, where a club of common interests gathers for motivational speeches. Putting the community over the Person can only lead to dysfunction. In this astounding example of disordered priorities, the blind man’s parents couldn’t even celebrate their own child’s healing. They were too afraid of excommunication.

In America, we see this play out differently: in church hurt. The place of spiritual worship, the body of believers, is merged with Christ Himself, so any slippage or failure of the former leads to a loss of faith in the latter. But are we putting our faith in believers in Jesus or are we believing in Jesus?

Yes, there is brokenness in the church. We should never minimize this. There’s the power hungry spiritual platform climbers who’ve lost sight of Who holds ultimate power. There are the predators who make the church a dirty sanctuary to hide their indiscretions. There’s petty parishioners who make quick judgments & divisive complaints.

But we also should remember that Jesus is none of that. He hates what often goes down in the church under the guise of piety. Yet, He came & died to heal it; He came & opened our eyes to see….Him. The church is ideally meant to be a sanctuary, a united body, a beautiful bride. But it’s Jesus we’ve come to worship! We can’t let the brokenness of the body keep us from pursuing the Healer. We don’t want to miss out on Him like the blind man’s parents did. He’s distinctive. He’s the perfect Messiah. He makes the blind see. He makes the dead alive. May we never lose sight of Him!

It’s the Who

It’s that time of year. When it gets toasty in Arizona, the Engrams go to Colorado. It’s a long established tradition that has been around since before I picked up the name, and it’s one of my favorites. During the summer, Colorado doesn’t ever really touch 90 degrees. It rains there too, which makes every view another impressive display of God’s green thumb. Did I mention that it’s cooler there too? With the humidity of monsoon season in full force in Arizona, sub-90 sounds like paradise to this pregnant mama.

Take me there!!

However, Colorado isn’t just lush scenery and cool temps for me. Seven years ago, I made the exact same 12 hour drive with the Engram clan. I was dating their oldest son at the time, this quiet guy with a full head of dark hair and a heart for Jesus. I felt honored to be included on the family trip even though we’d only been dating for a couple of months.

(Off Topic Funny Story: I totally misunderstood when Jame said, “You’ll be sleeping in my parents’ room,” and thought that I was going to be sleeping at the foot of their bed. There were definitely pullout couches that I didn’t know about until about 6 hours into the drive. Major whoops on my part, but I think they were impressed that I was just going to roll with it.)

This trip wasn’t the last time we’d visit Colorado, but it was on this particular trip that I fell in love with that handsome contemplative oldest son. Maybe it was laughing together at Frasier episodes or the long talks on the balcony or the German food and the ice cream. Maybe it was the cool air and the gorgeous views. Whatever it was, I left that trip pretty sure that James Engram was “it” for me.

Tomorrow I will be making that 12 hour drive to Breckenridge with the Engram family. We’ll enjoy the fresh air and the views and the ice cream and the German food. But I’ll be thinking of him too, because I’ll always associate that beautiful place with Jame. He is in Japan this time, serving the Lord with a team from our church. Fortunately, I get to bring along tiny glimpses of him in my children: Peter’s long lashes & Leanor’s appetite. 🙂 But I’ll probably be remembering too, where it all began and the man I’m so proud to have as my husband.

It’s the “who” that makes the place special.

Perhaps I had Colorado on the brain when I was reading in Psalms earlier this week:

My soul yearn, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:2

This verse brought me to church. At Desert Springs (my home church), so many of the people are inspiring. The Word of God is clearly taught. The worship is beautiful. But I think sometimes I come into the sanctuary with a heart for lesser things. They’re good things, even God-ordained things: the sounds of beautiful melodies, the warm greetings from friends.

But am I entering those walls first of all because I want more of Him, the Living God? Or is it because I want more fellowship with friends or more songs that move me? The Psalmist yearns for the courts of the Lord, not because the building had something to offer him. It was because of WHO He was going to be with when he entered that building.

The reality is if it’s not first and foremost about Him, then the building is inconsequential, the worship just notes strung together, the people just friends. He elevates it all to something more. The building becomes a means to an end, with the end being that we get to meet with Him and be encouraged with His Word. The worship becomes more than excellent music but an opportunity to praise His name in a unique and creative way. The people become more than just friends; they’re family members united eternally by His blood. We should not just love the local church because of the stuff it’s made of or the services it provides, but because God is there in a place He designed where we could get to know Him better.

It’s the “WHO” that makes the place special.

Welcome to Whiny Church

“We hear a lot of complaints today about the church. The world mocks it. Even Christians may disparage it. Wounded people shout it from the rooftops why they left church and will never go back. But it seems we don’t hear of many people who are praying for it — not nearly enough, anyway.”

-Erica Wiggenhorn, An Unexplainable Life, Week 2/Day 5: A Powerful Response

Welcome to the Whiny Church on the corner of Entitled Road and Ego Drive! You’re welcome to sit and judge wherever you’d like.

As our service starts, be sure to grab the Complaint Card in the seat back in front of you. Fill it out and drop it in the offering plate as it passes. This way, we can let our leadership know just how much they aren’t meeting our needs.

If you’re new here, we’d love to get you plugged in with one of our Comparison Groups. We want to give you an outlet to air your grievances about various ministries at the church and compare notes with a group of your closest friends.

Will you please stand as we sing? No? Ok. Feel free to sit and fold your arms during worship. Our instruments are probably too loud (or maybe too quiet) so grab a seat near the sound booth so you can turn and eye the tech team until they adjust the volume to your specifications. Or you might be bothered by the ratio of hymns to modern worship songs. Be sure to jot down the email address of the worship pastor so that you can inform him later that his math is off.

Now, let’s open our Bibles to Second Distractions. Make a special note of what the pastor is wearing. Jeans? A tie? It’s probably too formal (or not formal enough). Jot that down for your Comparison Group later. And what about the person sitting behind you saying “Amen!” all the time. That’s just annoying, isn’t it?

Whatever you do, don’t pray.

Don’t pray for your pastor as He studies during the week, that he’ll have clarity on how to speak the truth of God’s Word effectively. Don’t pray for him as he also casts vision & direction, engages with the community, counsels parishioners, balances budgets, and manages staff during the week. Don’t pray for him that he’ll be energized going home from the office each day to love and lead his own family.

Don’t pray for the congregation. Don’t pray that distractions be obliterated when it comes time to worship. Don’t pray that God will get the glory no matter what happens on stage. Don’t pray that your congregation will grow in unity and love for one another.

Don’t pray for yourself either. Don’t pray that you will have eyes to see the broken in your congregation and the courage to serve those people even when it’s uncomfortable. Don’t pray that the Lord will pierce your heart through the proclamation of the Word. Don’t pray that you’ll have opportunities to use your gifts for the building up of the Body.

Prayer changes everything. Sure, the church has problems; it’s filled to the brim with sinful people. But the church is also a gift from God, an establishment He set up so we could grow together to become more like Him, our perfect Head. We shouldn’t be surprised when our churches are imperfect, but that shouldn’t cause us to complain. It should cause us to pray. When we pray, it changes our perspective. We become focused on how we can serve the Lord in spite of our own brokenness rather than nitpick His Bride. It’s easy to whine or gossip or compare; it’s so much harder to quietly surrender our complaints to the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to change our perspective or mobilize us to meet a need. May we never be a regular at Whiny Church! Instead, let’s regularly be on our knees for His church!