Bored with Church?

Whoa!  God is knocking me over this morning with information about my blog subject matter!!!

Had an email waiting for me this morning from http://www.outreachmagazine.com/ which led me to a post which led me to another post which led me to the subject matter totally consuming my husband these days.  An excerpt from the article, "5 Ways to Overcome Church Boredom" reads:

Pull away. Break the cycle of redundancy. Disturb the routine of your life and ministry and refresh yourself (Mark 6:31-32).
Look within. Evaluate yourself for predictability, staleness, loss of passion, excitement and joy. Examine whether your faith, experiences and stories are more focused on God’s work in the past or present (2 Cor. 13:5).
Look around. Open your eyes and seek to be more observant of God’s creation. The wonder of His work is all around you (Ps. 8:1, 3-4).
Fill up. Pour yourself into God’s Word or, better stated, pour God’s Word into yourself. As you know, the Bible isn’t just about who God was and what He once did; it’s about who He is and what He’s doing in the present. We need to experience Him and hear His voice today. When we do, we start to sing new songs (Col. 3:16).
Change it up. Simply, do something new. Change up your devotions (where you have them and how you do them). Listen to and learn new forms of worship music. Get to know and expose yourself to some new authors, teachers and believers or nonbelievers. Serve in a different way (Ps. 33:3).

Whoa!  Good stuff.  The best part of this solution is that it focuses on the parishioner, not the church.  If you're bored with church, does it really mean that you're bored with worshipping God?  Has the Holy Spirit vacated you or the building? 

There is not a pastor on earth that is without some bit of information that God wants you to hear.  However, you must listen in order to hear.  If you are consumed by the presentation, the person, or the surrounding would be listeners, you will not catch that bit of information.  It's funny how even bad preachers can stimulate seeking knowledge.  If you hear something that doesn't sit right in your brain, seek out Truth.

Last week was Camp Meeting which is something that I could write volumes about, but that is for another day.  Our evangelist for the week is a Seminary professor so you can imagine how much information he gave us that God thought we should hear.  One of the beautiful aspects of this Camp Meeting (it was the 129th year) was that we were fed meat instead of milk this year.  Most of that congregation should be on meat by now.

If you are going to your church still looking for a warm bottle of milk, you should probably consider that if you've been a Christian for very long, it's time to be weaned! 

Hebrews 5  ¹¹ We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. ¹² In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! ¹³ Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

What is our future?

Until we see this as the future of our church and fight to prevent that, this is our future.
Until we see our relationship with Jesus as more important than our selfish desires, this is our future.
Until we see others' relationship with God as our business, this is our future.
Until we stop believing that we are the center of the universe, this is our future.
Until God is the center of our universe, this is our future.
Until we see our commitment to the church as a direct reflection of our relationship with Christ, this is our future.

Ephesians 5 when discussing marital relations, gives us a glimpse of Jesus' relationship with us, the church:

• ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Are we radiant? without blemish? blameless?

Independence Day Revelations

It could be one in the same revelation rather than plural revelations, but we'll have to see as my thoughts progress.

The 4th of July fell on a Wednesday this year which conflicts with the night we have our youth group meetings.  Being a believer that church, especially youth meetings (the only part of church I have influence upon) should never be cancelled, we decided to meet anyway.  Some churches cancel youth meetings for the entire summer which blows my mind!  The kids are finally free from school responsibilities and have little or nothing to do, and some think that we should remove church influence from their lives for three months of idleness?  Sorry for chasing that rabbit as my grandmother would say.  Point being:  we had our youth meeting at our house with roasted weenies instead of cancelling. 

Our group had just returned from their trip to Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters in Andrews, North Carolina.  It was an amazing trip for the thirteen teenagers and three adult chaperones who participated.  Strangely enough, only three of the teenagers from the trip showed up last night........rant for another day.  While researching a lesson appropriate for the occasion, I found a video from the Skit Guys where they quoted Alexis de Tocqueville who visited the United States 55 years after 1776 to research the source of America's greatness.  Doing some very brief research on the source of the Skit Guys' quote, I found something shocking in Mr. de Tocqueville's observation.  An excerpt is found below:

• I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.
  
  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.
  America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
  
  The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.

Wow!  Do our pulpits "flame with righteousness"?  Do they flame at all?  Snowbird's pulpit flames and they speak of righteousness constantly and teach acutal methods to living a righteous life.  So many of our pastors live in fear of stepping on toes or being drug into court for speaking the truth, but God is not in the business of pacifying the masses; He is in the business of leading them down the paths of righteousness.......for His name's sake! (Psalm 23 for those of you who didn't catch it.)  How can our churches lead if they are afraid to speak?

Another striking aspect of the day was a full page ad in the newspaper placed there by Hobby Lobby that reminds us of the foundation of our nation and the beliefs of those founding fathers.  I've long argued for the separation of church and state, but am beginning to question the direction of our country.  It's funny how de Tocqueville spoke of this too:

• In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.

Freedom?  Another staggering revelation, and yes, it on the surface seems to be another subject.  I hesitate to mention it and bury it at the end of this blog in hopes that some readers bored of my opinion long before now.  To the point:  it has been very disheartening to see the volume of married Christian women who are bragging about going to watch a movie about male strippers!  Oh, my.  My brain cannot wrap itself around pride in lust as compatible with the church much less marriage!  If my husband was anxiously awaiting the release of a pornographic film and commenting publicly about it???, we would be one of two places today:  visiting a marriage counselor or an attorney.

We are drowning in free speech thanks to Facebook.  Talk about TMI............I did not want to know how many women openly disrespect their husbands, and I am saddened by this revelation.  One of my favorite Biblical descriptions is that of The Wife of Noble Character found in Proverbs 31:

¹⁰ A wife of noble character who can find?
    She is worth far more than rubies.
¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her
    and lacks nothing of value.
¹² She brings him good, not harm,
    all the days of her life.
¹³ She selects wool and flax
    and works with eager hands.
¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
    bringing her food from afar.
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night;
    she provides food for her family
    and portions for her female servants.
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
    out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
    her arms are strong for her tasks.
¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
    and her lamp does not go out at night.
¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
    and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
    and extends her hands to the needy.
²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
    for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
²² She makes coverings for her bed;
    she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
    where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
    and supplies the merchants with sashes.
²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
    she can laugh at the days to come.
²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
    and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women do noble things,
    but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done,
    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

So, maybe my revelations are disjointed.  At the end of the day, it seemed that something has been lost in our definition of freedom over the last 236 years.  We love to brag about our free nation, but what is that freedom providing for us today?  Are our churches still thought by ANYONE to be the source of our strength?  Are we as Christians showing that we are any different than non-believers?