“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others . . . not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”- Dietrich Bonheoffer.
“Those outside the church expect followers of Christ to live differently, yet today many in church are chasing after the world – not to win them, but to be like them.” – Billy Graham
The Church is a melting point. The Jews and Gentiles shake hands, the Romans and the Greeks sit together; the rich and the poor partake in a common meal and the righteous and the sinners praise one God. The believers and believing unbelievers embrace each other while the circumcised and the uncircumcised share the same faith in Christ. There’s none righteous, no one wise enough to worship God in truth. At one time or the other we all do some wrongs and speak vain things. Our words are full of deceit and lies. We speak threats like snake’s poison and bitter curses, filled with hatred, quick to condemn, hurt and sometimes kill leaving ruins behind and destruction’s everywhere we go. Indeed we have not known the way of peace or how to accept forgiveness. All have done cruel things and yet live in denials. We have no peace of God in our lives. Yet as dissembled people we assemble in one accord looking up and asking for mercy and pardon. We gather as a Church in praise and thanksgiving to our God.
We gather not in our righteousness but in the sufficiency of His grace; attempt to do some rights but end up in doing wrongs. We sin because we are sinners. We give excuses trying to explain away our shortcomings but that does not make us right. We then point accusing fingers on other people while the other four fingers point back at us. We seek help from wrong quarters and build mountains of laws and rules but these only show our weaknesses and failures. But God understood long ago what our problem is and had fixed it. Our real problem is sin. And the solution is found in putting faith in Christ Jesus whom God sent to set us free from it. This was fulfilled through his sufferings, death and resurrection from death. The bible explains that while we were still in sin Christ died for us [Rom 5:8]. This is the grace of God.
In the Church we appear to make friends with everyone. We drop the pride and ego of feeling superior and smarter than other people. We make friends with ordinary people, the low and high [Rom 12:16]. We see other people as God sees them, appreciate their talents and give them opportunities to practice their faith, by using their gifts to worship and serve the Lord. The friendship in the Church flows from the friendship with God, the one who first loved us. When you become God’s friend, you will meet with His son Jesus Christ and have a personal experience of His hospitality and unflinching love. He teaches that God had already befriended us even before we know it; when we were unlovable and deep in iniquities. As a matter of fact He’s the totality and completion of God’s agape love in us. His disciples were in one accord sharing what they had with one another and the radiance of their love attracted outsiders. That was then; how I wish that could happen again in our time.
The love of God’s community transcends to the outside world through us; those who do not know God get attracted and desire to experience Him as well as belong to the fold. Friendships among believers are commendable but we are required and urged to extend our friendship to unbelievers. Our fellowship should not be only for believers. We must follow the footsteps of our Master and Lord Jesus Christ who came to our world to seek the lost and deliberately became friends with those who needed friendship with God. We should not be afraid of being criticized of doing our Master’s desire and vocation. The Pharisees took offence and criticized Jesus for keeping fellowship, eating and dinning with the unclean. Some Pharisees asked the disciples, why does your teacher eat with outcasts and tax collectors? Jesus overheard them and asked who need a physician: the healthy or the sick? Jesus came as a shepherd of God’s sheep and not after religion. It does not matter what the disposition of the sheep is, the shepherd cares and continually nurtures the sheep. As matter of deep concern the scripture says the shepherd will go after one of the sheep that is astray just to bring back to the fold [Matt 9:10-13; Luke 15:!-7]. Pastor Jon Walker says Jesus came to invite outsider not coddle insiders.
Jesus knows himself; God’s designed plan and purpose for being here on earth. He pursued that plan which glorified the Father and gave Him good pleasure. Was He accused and criticized by the religionist? Indeed, He faced stiffer accusations, criticisms and persecutions than we face today. Jesus said to His disciples that because of Him they shall be criticized and persecuted. But Jesus ignored the folly of these unbelieving believers and distractors. He didn’t allow the accusations of these people He came to save to worry or weaken Him. He was focused executing the plans and the will of the Father [2 Corinthians. 5:20]. Jesus knows that Satan comes with deceits, distractions, discouragements and disappointments. We shouldn’t be ignorance of satanic devices and strategies.
Today our Churches are busy doing religion; saving the saved and building financial empire while neglecting mercy and justice as well as the lost. Like the social clubs, they have fenced out the outsiders and provide only for insiders. Unfortunately and disappointingly, the Church is the only organ that cares and sustains the interest of outsiders. Today Churches are busy listening to the opinions of crooks that surrounds the temple. The critics of Church leaders than what the word of God says threaten Pastors. These folks were selected to Church leadership because they are pastors [men’s] pleasers and say what he wants to hear. They’re Church supporters and pastors praise singers. They are in leadership to play the politics of church religion. It could be a cultural thing. They write the Church constitution to benefit the insiders similar to what obtains in secular associations. They visit those who visit them and check on those who belong to their groups and class. The Church is so isolated and detached from our source that we have lost balance inside and disconnected outside. We have created chasms between us and secular world that the vision of the Church is blunt and doubted.
We are in Church playing ‘churchanity’ while souls are perishing outside. We are engaged in status and position war that evidence our lost of focus and vision of our callings or vocation. We are so busy with activities that we hardly have time for quality worship with our Master. We’re so engaged ill-feeding members that we careless and perhaps think little about non-members. We neither have meaningful discussions with them nor extend our friendship to them. The Church has become a religious social club set up to cater for interest of members. They build a tall fence around them that people outside do not see or feel their warmth. The tendency is to become a member of a church that will meet your social and cultural needs than one that satisfies your spiritual calling. How can the Church rescue the perishing that Jesus calls them to do while they have closed their doors to them? They neither reach out to the world nor care for them but they still bear the signpost of a church.
The gospel becomes meaningful and effective when you relate to friends. Witnessing to non-believers starts with passion of friendship. It does not matter how unkempt they are, their physical disabilities and class disposition. The old saying become even more relevant here that, “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” If we must relate or witness to non-believers, we must show them first true friendship [1 Corinthians 9:21-23]. We must find a common ground as an act of friendship. It guides us to see the non-believers as the purpose of the gospel and thereafter meet their needs. These folks have needs just like believers. By their disposition, the outsiders look for deeper true supportive friendship than those inside. It then becomes more compelling and expedient on the Church to learn to be positive and affectionate with people outside the faith than they do with members.
It’s important to caution clearly that friendship with non-believers without first knowing who you’re or being matured in faith may drift into sinful behavior. They could become bad influences, thereby resulting into backsliding and dwelling in wrong doings. Apostle John warns believers not to love the world and its ways. The love of God cannot dwell together with the love of the world; one will squeeze out the other [1 John 2:15]. Jesus loves sinners but hates sin. We could love people but hate their values that conflicts with the word of God. Some African Christians in attempts to become more Christian than Christ abhor not only our cultures and values but also our people. In the name of Christianity they build walls and become isolated from non-believers. They’re so comfortable inside that the passion for lost soul is dimmed. These people don’t know when and where to stop. Little wonder the effect of the cross is not felt among believers and the Church has no positive influences on the society. What obtains in the Church is similar to happenings in secular world but in different perspectives and with a different name-tag
Some of us claim we love but such love is only fake; our love must be genuine and honest. Genuine love is transparent and transcends. It requires a zeal and passion for seeking lost souls and winning them back to Christ. We must deliberately relate to them as friends; talking courteously with them and finding ways to spend quality time with them. They may be blind and deaf but they can feel real love and respond sincerely to respect. They must first belief in you before they believe in what you say. Yet we have Churches that neither have programs nor make deliberate efforts to reach the outsiders. These Churches may be increasing in membership through transfer of membership from other Churches. They may be follower of pastors who had severed relationship with their mentors and finding new greener home place. In our community they are many floating pastors who only invite out of town men of God for revival. Apart from using the occasions to woe members they also do the seed sowing business and share the proceeds. Some others design programs that gather ministers together with undisclosed agenda. Thank God, the God we serve is not only the God of love but also the God of justice.
Churches no longer seek non-believers, the unsaved or making disciples of all nations but play membership and religion. Little surprised many people love God but hold issues with the Church. In the Church wrong doings are multiplying daily. There are in churches more petty jealousies and grudges, competition and unhealthy rivalries; covetousness, man’s worship and pleasing, status symbols and position warfare, noise and mimicking and lack of quiet time and sacrificial worship. People just go to Church as a routine, for gain and ego. Unlike the early Churches that help to sanitize the society, the New Age Churches only seek to build financial empire using the name of Christ to exploit people. As they enjoy the gains of their greed and exploitation’s strategies, people are starving; divorce rate is spinning high even among Church going people, crime rate is souring to high heavens, corruptions and pen robbery competing for position.
Our society has lost sense of decency, so also is the Church. Our testimonies are filthy and wealth driven as well as open ended because there are not straight. We give thanks when our dubious ventures and greed driven deals go through. Some pastors’ give thanks when they purchase personal cars and mansions from tithe payer’s money while the tithe payers content with leg wagon [trek] and live in trailer houses or rented apartments. These people don’t know when to stop. Little wonder our community can boast of numerous pastors yet they cannot influence the society. The Church has ignored Christian virtues and values; joined the greed dance of the ill-faded society. The Church is called to wake up and see that the field is ripe but the true laborers are few. Like Apostle Paul opines, our blessings is to see them come to know Christ very personally and to tend the sheep, standing in the gap until He comes.