Church of the Revolution

I cannot tell you how many conversations I’ve had that have begun, and went exactly like this:

Me: “Tell me about yourself man, like your family, religion, values, whatever.  I just want to know you a little better”

Someone not me:  “Well, my family is great and we believe in God and stuff, I was raised Christian.”

Me:  “Dude, that’s awesome, I’m a Christian too, do you go to church anywhere?”

Someone not me:  “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian!”

-Well, that escalated quickly.  When did I question the salvation of their soul with my question about which church they attend?  It seems to me that a question is answered that isn’t really asked, and answered quite defensively.  While, what they said may be technically true what they are communicating behind the words is actually far more alarming.  They’ve made following Christ about belief alone.  And missed the entire message of hope.  Allow me to explain.

Let’s focus on another ideal.  Let’s say you call yourself a father or mother.  As a father/mother you don’t have any children.  You don’t spend time with any children.  You have no desire to be around other children.  You have no intention of trying to have children.  They actually make you angry to be around.  They hurt your feelings.  They try to take the things you love away because they demand your time, money, energy, and life.  These children are selfish.  The ones you don’t have.  But because you believe you’re a mother/father, well you are one.

Sound crazy?  Well, that’s exactly what we’ve done with Christianity.  We don’t want to be in church because we have fears of what the church will demand of us.  They might demand we love each other better, be less self-centered, spend our money on helping the poor, or they might do something even worse: make us feel “Judged” because they ask us to change behaviors that we think are fun but they believe Christ calls deadly. 

I get it.  Faith in Christ saves your soul. Faith was the first step in the walk.  It’s not the last, and it wasn’t intended to be.  Church can be painful.  Churches fail.  Churches crush people’s hearts.  But not all of them do.  The Church was meant to be a place that reveals hope and encourages you to press on in your journey with Jesus.  If you find yourself hurt by a church move to another.  Don’t dismiss all churches based on one failure.  At the end of the day a Christian can be a Christian without church, but that’s not the real question is it?

The real question is why would a Christian not want to be around other Christians in worship of the Jesus they claim to follow?  Do you not want to be “told what to do?”  Do you want to keep on coping with the deadly things you know Jesus doesn’t approve of?  Are you still holding onto hurts from the past? 

Sounds an awful lot like a parent with no children….sounds an awful lot like crazy.