Part 3
We’re at the end of this three part series on why you won’t find the “right” church (and you shouldn’t try). Today I want to talk about the third major reason why a consumerist vision of church is wrong and how it reveals where we place our faith.
I hope you’re ready, because this is sort of the most important reason.
God doesn’t want you to find a church. God wants you to be the church.
Read that again.
Now read it a third time. Out loud.
The church isn’t about you as an individual. It’s not about your needs or your wants or your desires or your fears or your anything. It’s about God. Full stop.
Now “about God” looks like a lot of different things to different people, and this is where we run into trouble. To some of us it looks like hanging out with other Christians. To some of us it looks like doing good in the community. To some of us it looks like getting deep into His Word. And to some of us it looks like praise and worship.
None of these are wrong. Every single one of those things are centered on God! We all have our favorite things about church… and our not so favorite things. But what I think it all boils down to is being involved in the church and loving others.
If you’re shopping for a church there’s simply no way you’re jumping in and getting involved in that church, because you’re too busy judging it by your criteria. And if you’re shopping for a church there’s no way you’re loving others, because you’re too busy sizing up their performance of Christianity by your criteria (and it often falls short of your own, doesn’t it? Hard truth, people!).
We’re in a precarious position as followers of Jesus Christ. There’s no way we will ever be anything close to as perfect and amazing as Jesus is, because we’re not God in human form. But we’re called to follow Him: His teachings and His example. We are called to be both in the church and to be the church.
We aren’t called to find the perfect church. Or to pick apart the churches we don’t like. And when we do these things what we’re revealing about ourselves is that we’re so focused on judging others we’ve forgotten why we’re looking for a church in the first place.
Rachel blogs at Choose Happy, and spends the majority of her free time chasing a 2 year old. She was not raised in a religious home, and was an atheist before God found her and made her His.
Thanks for sharing. I love your comment about how God doesn't want you to find a church He wants you to be the church. That is so true and I think it is something people forget easily. It's so much easier to think of the church as a place or a building rather than the people. Thanks.
God Bless
Kimberley
peculiartreasuresblog.com