Lately, I have read or heard about some various church issues that I have deemed "The Great Church Debates." Many of these issues are open to personal interpretation, which, causes some tension amoung those with differing opinions. And I am going to state that while on certain issues, the Bible is perfectly clear, there are other issues where it is not. I have been in a few discussions lately with various people about the following issues and this is where I'm landing.
Issue # 1: Do I have to attend every church service/event/function? If I don't does that mean I am not committed to God?
Let me give you a little background here: I am daughter of a pastor (a very good pastor, I might add). A PK (preachers kid). I grew up in the church. I have, at some point in my life, attended EVERY church function/event/service known to man. While growing up, I went to everything. My dad was the pastor, and the pastor's family was expected to attend.
So, with that in mind, here is where I fall on this issue. I believe that it is important to your relationship with God that you attend a weekly service of some kind. There is just something unique that happens when you are gathered together with other God-followers. You need to go and learn more about the Bible and what it has to say. God has also specifically asked that you do this in the Bible. It's very clear that God places a high importance on the gathering together of believers. God also has stated very clearly that we are to love others, to reach out to those around us, and show them the love of God.
So, how do we honor what we feel God has clearly stated that we should do? After work, school, family, and home commitments are met, we are left with a limited amount of time each week. We are dealing with what everyone else is, how do we possibly get everything done in the amount of time we have? To help us "fit it all in" and do what we believe is right, we had to set priorities. They are as follows in order of importance.
1. Our first priority is God. Part of this means that Sunday morning is set aside to gather with other believers in order to publicly worship God and to learn more about God. We pray together. We discuss the Bible and Biblical issues with each other. We each work to maintain our own personal relationship with God.
2. Our Second commitment is to our small family unit (my husband, myself, my son). We are committed to spending time together, while we can (especially since our son will be going to college in two years).
3. Our third priority is to our jobs. Jeff has a demanding job, that requires him to travel often, attend various events and dinners, work at night from home, etc. We view this job as a gift from God, and so Jeff strives to bring excellence to his job in order to honor the gift that God has provided for us. My sons job right now it to attend school. The opportunity to receive an education is a gift that is denied to many in this world. Keagan brings honor to God for this gift by working hard at school. Part of my job right now is to maintain the home, feed our family, clothe our family, budget, maintain the calendar for our family, attend Keagan's functions, and everything in between. It is a gift from God that we are able to function on one income, and I try to honor God by doing my best.
4. Our Fourth priority is to love others. To be a positive influence in the lives of those we come into contact with. To introduce those around us to the love of God. This may sound simple, but it takes an investment of time. We cannot show love to others if we never spend time with them. So, we try to balance our time wisely, and follow what we believe God wants us to do.
With that said, I must confess that while we attend Sunday service, we do not regularly attend the Wednesday evening service. Nor do we make it to every church function/event. I harbored some guilt around this for a few years. Sometimes that guilt was helped along by others statements to us about our "lack of commitment" to the church and to God because of our failure to attend all the services/events/functions. By prioritizing our time, and trying to honestly fulfill what we feel God has called us to do, I have let that guilt go. So, I do not believe you have to attend every church service/event/function. I do believe that you must make time with God a priority, both in corporate worship and privately at home.
Issue #2 Is there a right way to worship? Do I have to raise my hands, clap, etc… in order to worship? Can worship be too loud, long, ________( fill in the blank) ?
Again, let me provide you with a little of my background: Of course, I am a pastor's daughter. I have been part of various worship teams, from a traveling worship team, to youth choir, to being a vocalist on the worship team. I have also served as the worship leader at a church.
Let me tell you, worship, especially through music is very near and dear to my heart. And I tell you, I like just about every genre of music there is. My taste is very eclectic. That being said, I am also very human, and I admit that I have a certain "setting" (for lack of a better word) in which I feel most comfortable when I worship. I think we all do. And I think, that these differences in worship preferences spark endless debate in the church world. The current debate is over the "show" versus the "genuine" worship experience. Some people like all the lights, end special effects, and screens, and stuff. Some like a more "stripped down" type of worship, without lights and such.
In the spirit of honesty, I am going to admit that there have been things in some of the worship services I have attended that I haven't been comfortable with. I will go so far as to say that I have found some things distracting. Maybe, I have even grumbled about the service afterwards. I freely admit that I like to have at least one song during service that I know all the words to, so that I can just close my eyes and focus. Sometimes I am more expressive during worship, other times I am more quiet and reserved. My worship style can probably be described as reserved charismatic contemporary with a few hymns thrown in. Or what's known in my house as Recharitemporary (and yes, that is a joke. It's ok, God created humor, you can laugh).
I am a firm believer that you need to choose a church that is the right fit for you, and that the type of worship is a large part of finding a good fit. However, we all need to remember that worship isn't all about us. Especially in those times where we may find ourselves a little uncomfortable. Worship is about God. It is our time to focus on God, and not ourselves. To show how incredibly magnificent, gracious, loving, kind, and amazing He is. To honor and glorify him and all that he is. I find that if I attend a worship service with my mind and heart focused on worshipping God, most of the other stuff goes away. I can worship God, anywhere, at anytime, in any setting. It sometimes just requires me to remember to focus on God and not the other things.
As far as the raising your hands, clapping sort of thing. I personally think that is a personal issue. Some people are naturally more expressive, some are a little more reserved. I think God honors and values genuine expressions of our love for him. I look at the story of the offerings of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. You see, an offering is an act of worship. Now, both Cain and Abel brought offerings, as they were supposed to do. But what made Abel's offering favorable to God? I believe that it was the fact that Abel's offering wasn't done out of duty, but was a sincere and honest expression of his love and gratitude to an awesome God. So, in my mind, a sincere bowing of your head to God in reverence and awe during worship will find as much favor with God as will a sincere lifting of your hands in surrender. I would caution all of us not to judge whether someone's worship is sincere by their lack of what we deem "expression" during worship. Remember, you can be expressive and it not be a true expression of worship (remember Ananias and Sapphira in Acts).
Issue #3. Known as the "Rules." You cannot be a Christian and fill in the blank (drink alcohol, attend a sporting event, watch TV, dance, drive a nice car, travel, smoke, have a tattoo, play the lotto, be a Democrat, be a Republican, have a nice house, have a career, listen to non-christian music, have any sort of "past" at all, wear high heels, own a credit card, have debt, go to a non-christian school, eat at such and such a place, live in California (or D.C. or New York, or Vegas-- I hope you know I'm joking), read non Christian books, do not respond to every alter call by coming forward, watch CNN, be a female in a leadership position, be single, own a cat, eat beef, drink a coke, eat at McDonalds, take an Advil, etc…..)
Ok, ok, you get it. We like to make up rules. I call them man made rules. A lot of them are ridiculous. A lot of them aren't even biblical. I'm not talking about the rules that are clearly stated in the Bible. I'm talking about those grey areas. Some of them are not even mentioned in the Bible. Some of them are mentioned, and depending on what scripture you choose, you can prove one rule to be false or true, depending on what you believe.
My point is that I don't believe that being a Christ Follower should be that hard. That chock full of rules and regulations. I probably break at least one of these man made rules a day. And I barely have the time to monitor whether or not I'm doing the right things, let alone whether or not someone else is. That's God's job. My job is to focus on making my relationship with God the best it can be and to show God's love to others.
What I have done personally is to study these grey issues. And by study, I mean that I first look and see what the Bible has to say. And by that I mean that I study every scripture pertaining to the issue. I pray about the issue. I can honestly say that there are "rules" that I have decided had merit for me. That this "rule" helped improve my relationship with God and others, or benefited my physical or mental health. And then, there are some man stated rules that I do not follow because in my spirit I do not believe they are true for me. I also recognize and value people may believe differently. I respect that. But, I am not going to just follow a man made rule just because someone said it was a rule. I'm going to test it out, try it, weigh it, and then decide.
The purpose of this post is remind us that the focus of a Christ Follower should be on God. Not on rules and regulations. It wasn't the intention of Jesus to make it "harder" to follow God. His whole purpose in dying on the cross was to make it simpler. If you are struggling with guilt around these issues, I encourage you to seek out what God wants for you. Ask for His wisdom and guidance. Read what He has to say in the Bible. And then move forward with the right decision for you. Please be encouraged, God wants you to succeed in following Him. He doesn't want you to fail.
I'll end with this scripture found in Colossians:
"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come, the reality, however, is found in Christ." Colossians 2:16-17 NIV
"So don't put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All these things are mere shadows cast before what was to come, the substance is Christ. Don't tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They're a lot of hot air."
Colossions 2:16-18 The Message.
I'll leave you with a few photo's of the simple things in life. Have a great day!
The simple joy of being on or near the water.
The simple joy of going to a local farmers market.
The simple joy of exploring a new street in a new city.
The simple joy of walking down a neat little side street and doing some window shopping.
The simple joy of watching the amazing shadows the sun creates during the daytime.
The simple joy of listening to good music.
No comments:
Post a Comment