Hello Musicmaster;
I'm going to share from my heart what noone has yet to say to you. I'm truly sorry for your experiences in the church. Your view of the "institutional models" that expose it's inflexibilities, man-centeredness, anomalies and paradigms that simply will not ever pass away is sad, brother.
Is this why for the last (23 years?) you were led to worship in a home church gathering? Praise God for the church you worship. If its been this long then I'm also sorry you still feel this way about the churches you paint as broken models of worship.
Greetings, brother.
I knew that what I said would strike a nerve in those who do not subscribe to the weaknesses and problems with the institutional model. In many cases, the anomalies are not necessarily intentional. I don't think that most ministers apply for the job in order to perpetuate the natural outflows from that model.
The institutional model is very much like a weak dam. Many a well-intentioned man rents the equipment to move enough earth to build a dam out of the local soils, and he uses a design specification and dimension model of build in the dam design that is known to inevitably fail once the waters begin to build up behind it.
How does this relate to the institutional model? Well, dams inherently serve the purpose of holding back water, and when the model and build is of a design that has inherent flaws, the result is most generally the same with all that have that design. In churchianity, the designs vary here and there, thus providing a differing flavor, tone and focus, and even variations in material (doctrines), but they all have a number of things on common that they cannot (or will not in most cases) change.
So, no. I have no been burned by one or more of the ones where I have served as someone from a mere layman to a pastor. No. What I began to see is the lack of functionality among the believers. When I asked of the Lord why this is...why we are not, within the institutional model as a whole, doing as Paul instructed as the prime purpose for the gathering of believers, (and the heading of this section of scripture in my KJV version states "INSTRUCTIONS TO THE CHURCH:"
1 Corinthians 14:26 What is it then, brothers?
When you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has another language, has an interpretation. Let all things be done to build each other up.
See that? Mutual edification. THAT is the prime, biblical purpose for the gathering of believers.
It's inevitable that this has been, and will continue to be, even among many here, waved aside as something that can and does happen in 'cell groups,' or whatever other name each (c)hurch organization may choose to call their home groupings. That setting aside of the most important statement that reveals the purpose for the gathering, it is routinely minimalized, and even trivialized in the minds and hearts of those within churchianity. Why? Because of the god of 'tradition'.
Remember Jesus' statements about tradition?
Matthew 15:3, 6
3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also
transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? ...
6 And honour not his father or his mother, [he shall be free]. Thus have ye made
the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Mark 7:8-9, 13
8 For
laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, [as] the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well
ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. ...
13
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
It's never a comfortable thing to think of myself as guilty, in any measure, of these things, so what do I do? I deny my own guilt. After all, that's the natural, self defense thing to do. Deny, deny, deny...and yet I am guilty of these things. Paul's instructions to the Church are very straightforward, and the sheer magnitude of intellectual dishonesty many vomit in an attempt to deflect guilt...well, I too was a chief among sinners.
So, as has been stated in other posts, churchianity is comprised of about 25% born again believers, with the other 75% being...what? Unbelievers? Unregenerate? Lost? Bound for Hell? (shrug) I donno. Suffice it to say that holding believers captive (which is what many of them want) to ineffective silence, not allowed their birthright of mutual edification apart from allowing that only in the context of home meetings, mandated by the god of 'order,' that's just one of many outflows from an inferior design, which, as many have admitted in these forums, has utterly failed to remain the influence it is thought to have once had in the past.
So, when I see and hear gloom and doomers laying the blame at the feet of the institutional (c)hurch, all I can do is raise my eyebrows in recognition and acquiescence to their statement, especially when it's uttered from behind a pulpit (dam) that was and is constructed to the same, traditional specification that has a track record for failure due to the inherent weaknesses.
Some here just don't see it, and that's ok. I do not demand that everyone search these things to the depths that I have been led to see by the very Hand of the Lord, for it is He who led me on the journey of discovery. I wasn't prepared for what He showed to me, and therefore not careful about what I asked for. The resistance among the staunch traditionalists out there has been powerful and packed with emotion. I don't seek anyone's pity for what never happened to me. I was never burned in any of them. I was fully accepted so long as I was on the bandwagon of groupthink. Once I hopped off, that is when I was labeled as a 'lone star Christian."
I may be a lone star in some respects, but that has helped to ensure I'm not a part of the 75% population some have declared unsaved within the four walls of churchianity.
I also have witnessed pieces of what you described and have heard worse by pastors and leaders I've spoken to. Still, when I attend the church I pastored and other churches I preached and visited in and out of the state, I see a different picture;
It wasn't until the Lord led me on that journey out through the wilderness that I then went back to some of them and saw what I had never seen before. It was in that wilderness where I threw aside my religious crutches, and falling flat on my face in the dust is what it took for me to see what I had never discerned before. I don't blame any others for not seeing what I have been shown. It took the Hand of the Divine to open my eyes to the things hidden away from my blindness. That's who stiff-necked I was, the only difference being that I asked of the Lord, and was amazed at His answer.
Each church has it's share of problems but above it all I have seen the joy in it's members despite the challenges and difficulties that will still come. The world has it's troubles but I'm talking specifically about the church and the people in it. I truly believe when God gives us joy it's not an option, but His command reference Matthew 5:12, Luke 6:23 and John 16:33.
I assume you mean the institutions when you speak of "the church" since you did not capitalize the "c". Yes. I too was aware of their imperfections, but, my, my, what the Lord showed to me the things of His word about all this, and the reality of what's out there, that is when my understanding was blasted with how little I knew about the harsh realities.
Again, MM, I'm sorry for your view of the church.
I don't try to present myself as a victim, because I am not. My view is what I consider to be His View...or as close to His View as I am able to grasp.
Please understand that I do not tear down, and then build nothing back up in its place here in the arena of spirit and intellect. I point only to the word of God, and the Spirit of the Lord, to reveal to those who dare to ask. I don't expect others to merely take my word for it, but to seek out the same Lord, and let Him speak to each one as He sees fit. This isn't a journey akin to one size fits all. Not everyone can handle truths that contradict their chosen beliefs.
Blessings to you and yours.
MM
