What is the church to me?
1. Used to be a magical place that empowered my every movement.
2. Used to be a place I spent time massive volumes of time.
3. Used to be the hub of my very existence
4. Used to be where I loved to go
5. Used to be where I bowed my knees in prayer and raised my hands in worship.
What is the church to me now? With tears I admit the church is nothing to me now.
The church now is a place were less than 10 people I currently know who are the real deal try and transform culture on the backs of unrepentant unholy church “members”
I now recognize the church as a place where I put my faith. I trusted the church more than I trusted Jesus.
Not the church’s fault per say. I think they are just doing what they “feel.” Pastors are standing teaching/preaching the Word, but we the people are not accepting and implementing the training.
What is the church to me? It is a place that produced deep scars and continues to re open wounds that most likely will never heal.
What is the church to me? A meeting place for people that have shared vulgar secrets that are entrusted with me till death yet enjoy the anonymity during worship because their secrets are hidden from their peers. The same folks abuse, shun and betray those with exposed secrets abandoning them and exiling them to shame and defeat.
What is the church to me? It is now a place I drive by and remember the good times and good friends I used to have before I became an outcast.
What is the church to me? It is where my friends sometimes have funerals. When or if I attend to show my respects, I’m met with whispers and shunned by those I was once loved by.
With sadness and regret and shame and anger I admit that the “church” the building and the meeting mean nothing to me. The Church that Jesus died for and sacrificed everything for helps me keep perspective. My anger and sadness toward the church is really not even worth mentioning when I think that Jesus really died and suffered shame and took my sin on his body. And the little feelings that I expressed before are really not even worth mentioning. We did it to Jesus first. So who am I.
I do think we could do better at loving one another and being real and putting down our cloak of fake holiness one day a week and admit that we have struggles and we fail.
