Part 9: Final Conclusions, Disillusionment with Church
For the Church to embody being a living organism of God’s presence in the world, we must know and embrace our power in order to emanate it. As cliche as it may seem, Peter Parker a.k.a. Spiderman got the best advice. “With great power, comes great responsibility.” The Church has great power, therefore great potential and we mustn’t squander it.
Facing a New Day and Age
Living in China was isolating when it came to world news. The government censored unfavorable news stories and especially foreign news, social media–blocked. When we returned to the United States, I’d missed out on the Obama administration, racial tensions building, healthcare arguments, conflict in the Congo, and the Syrian refugee crisis just to name a few. One could say I had lived naively in a bubble. When we returned to the United States my world exploded. There was no slow transition for me to sort through the puzzle pieces, the presidential election was a month away.
This censorship also stumped my vocabulary growth. Words like justice and injustice, my rights, my liberty, socialism, evangelical, Me Too movement, #thisorthat, swirled around my head in a frenzy of confusion; definitions changed, words created, meanings implied. It felt like waking up after a bad dream all frazzled and discombobulated. Had America gone mad? I struggled to make heads or tails of the world I’d entered. I hesitated walking out the front door because it felt like walking on glass, every moment fragile. Would I unknowingly offend someone, say or do the wrong thing? Who was a friend or foe? I desperately wanted to engage in culture and life but I felt guarded, needing to protect myself from a social faux pas.
The Church also hung in this balance. Evangelical Christian seemed like a highly charged phrase that came with identifiers in which I felt clueless. I wondered, “What is an evangelical?” To be honest, I didn’t know. I missed out on how the tension started, but I returned to a church with bumps and bruises from living within this reality. It has made my “search” for a church community more daunting.
The Hope I Have
As I shared last week, my conclusion in all of the muddled lingo and miscommunicated words/actions, is that the church is in great need of repentance (whether we believe this or not, Nehemiah understood.) What I’ve learned on this mission, is that God designed the church to be a united group of his children (all different in thought, color, political beliefs, ethical background, and cultural traditions) living out healing, love, humility, compassion, grace, and care among each other and for others because we live for someone greater than ourselves. This glorifies God. However wayward we believe the Church has gone, it can be turned around to live into our healing power in shattered, splintered spaces. The Church hasn’t become irrelevant, in fact, she (living fully into her purpose) is needed more than ever in our eggshell world.
When I look out over the world, like you, I see an overwhelming burgeoning of pain—refugees seeking asylum, rape, murder, gangs, racial hate, child slavery,
God designed the Church to be a space. A space of healing. He knows the groaning pains of his creation and he’s given the Church to be the salve. Together, this is our power. He knows individuals are not the key, but the universal church as one can unlock a way for these pains to find justice, peace, and restoration.
I envision the church reclaiming her birthright to the Kingdom. The Kingdom here on earth means we, using our united power through the Holy Spirit, can live out justice, love, mercy, and walk humbly with our God. This looks like noticing those around us, engaging in conversations, walking in solidarity with others through joy, pain, suffering, loss, birth, death, work, raising children, marriage the list goes on. We have to get our hands dirty in the lives of others. Yes, this implies sacrificing personal interests, money, time, selfish ambition for a greater cause. We can’t just say we want justice, peace, and love, we have to get down on our hands and knees and wade through the muck of life with others, no matter how time-consuming or how much of ourselves we have to give. This is exactly who Christ is and how he lived.
Not Giving Up
I need you, brother and sister, as much as you need me and our world needs us united. There is no need for more division, fighting, personal preference, Sunday jolts of shallow religion, petty quarrels, or self-righteousness, I’d say we have more than enough. Jesus is countercultural to these repercussions of sin, we must be too. The world needs us living in unity, loving one another, living into our glory of self-giving humility, putting others’ needs before our own, being peacemakers through empathy, and being the light that invites others to begin their Good News story. I’m foolish enough to expect this, and so is God.
The disillusionment some of us may have encountered within the church (hurt, ostracism, hypocrisy, fill in the blank) may very well have been at the hands of “well-meaning” brothers and sisters. We are persons born of grace, and we must never forget that Jesus offers grace to the worst offenders; we must too. Healing begins with forgiveness, repentance and not giving up. Our Good News doesn’t end in a dark hole of hurt and anger because the Good News implies there is more to come, there is hope, the story isn’t over yet.
The Good News is supernatural and awe-inspiring. It is a transforming power within that when united can unravel all manner of evil. It is the power meant to flow forth from the Church like a wellspring of living water; non-judgmental, open arms, meeting others in their here and now. (John 4)
The Bottom Line
Will you go back to church with me? Will you be brave enough to face your disillusionments and seek a place of healing in order to bring restorative healing to others? Will you have the courage to enter into a family, that likely won’t be perfect, to be influential by edifying, building up, and maturing together? Will you be selfless enough to roll up your sleeves and put in the time, money, hours and emotional investment for God’s Kingdom? It won’t be easy. There will be frustrations. I’ve learned a lot of hard truths from the Bible, but one of the deepest truths is that I love a God who never gives up on his family no matter the sin, no matter the disobedience, no matter the lukewarmness, no matter the shame, pride, political stance, brokenness, hypocrisy, life choices, or ugliness. He doesn’t walk away. Neither can I.
My Here and Now
At the end of this, I am still looking for a church family. Not necessarily people who look, think or live exactly like me, but for those who earnestly love God, recognize their feeble attempts and lean into the power of God’s Spirit to live into the hurts of the world. Wherever I dig in won’t be perfect, no church will ever be perfect, we are a work in progress. However, I encourage you like myself, to find where you can live into the Kingdom unfolding on earth, here and now, and to come back to God’s table. Plant yourself where you find encouragement and healing. It may be a local church that is stuck or perhaps doesn’t see its greater purpose in the Kingdom, you can be that voice of change. We need to return to the Church not to fill a seat, but because she’s precious to God, she is our foundation, she is our “home base,” our family, and when we join our power has a way to meet the overwhelming needs of our world. Living faith alone, separate from God’s family, is not God’s intention for his children or the way in which the Good News story unfolds. The Good News is living, active, messy, moving, engaging and invites people from all walks of life to come to the table. Jesus walked with others, talked with them, ate with them, drank with them, heard their cries, mourned with them, celebrated with them, he lived in the nitty-gritty of life together with open arms. As his embodied temple, this is our empowered calling and we aren’t meant to live it out alone.
I think God’s word sums it up the best. Let’s live into our oneness, let’s live out the message, let’s wear love, let’s embrace uniqueness, let’s forgive, let’s be peace, let’s make space for God’s word, let’s live out the Good News, let’s rejoice together. Let’s be the Church!
You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness. But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.
Ephesians 4:4-13 (The Message)
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God
Colossians 3:12-17 (The Message)the Father every step of the way.
I’d love for you to join me along the wandering way. You may subscribe at the bottom of the website for e-mailed blog posts, or find me on Facebook @forsheeb. If you’ve found this encouraging, or not, drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.
