This has become a great discussion. Thanks for starting it.
I too experienced that "the Church" was ill-equipped to deal with real problems of real people.
When my ex and I began to have some problems years before she ever wigged out and left, the congregation that we had been part of for nearly 7 years pretty much bailed on us completely. During those 7 years we had led the youth group, I had taught adult sunday school, led worship, led a weekly small group, and been elected a deacon. They were wonderful people and we had grown enormously while in that body. But boy, when REAL trouble began, the body could NOT handle it.
The Pastor of the church shared our struggles with some other members of the church (breaching our confidentiality) and soon everyone knew. Wasn't long before we realized that no one was really comfortable with us around anymore.
That little experience kept me out of church for nearly 10 years.
When the ex embarked on her World Tour (as in, the world revolves around me and my happiness tour), it was only a return to my faith that kept me from making some hugely harmful decisions.
The faith was different this time however. It was personal, and honest, and real. Though protestant since my salvation, I began attending morning mass at a catholic church in town. My motivation was not wanting to be roped into service, as many protestant churches do. Mass was a balm for my wounded soul. There I could focus on my God, cry out to him, and try to hear whatever it might be that He wanted to say to me.
I would often follow these 7:30 am masses up with going to a local park with my Bible so that I could walk and talk out loud to God. So much of the weight in my soul was soothed and released during these private moments. These were the things that moved me back to my God, and I will cherish them forever.
There is much wrong with the established church today. Most of it centered around being able to be REAL to the people that gather there. I don't believe God ever called us to gathering together just to say that we did. I think He expected a spirituality to be present that was less about ME and more about HIM. So little of that today.
And I think often of the new church in Acts and how that really should be the model for what a "church" per se is supposed to be like. It's not a weekly event. It's a community of people, who have everything in common, and who do for each other whenever there is need. Faith becomes real there. The word of God becomes real there.
In that environment, real problems from real life are EXPECTED and are handled. Not by telling the one with the problem, "Oh just pray to God and He will take care of it." They are handled by people reaching out and meeting each others needs. God is in the center of that place I believe, and that is what I desperately want for me and my boys.
Great discussion.
Blessings,
Bill
"Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon."
