Starting at the bottom of page 74, Dan Gilliam writes:
Having grown up in the home of a preacher and later becoming a minister myself, I can safely say that I have spent half my life in a church building. It was there that I was taught, or caught, that the principal place where God worship took place was in the sanctuary services where singing, praying, preaching, the sacramental observances of baptism and communion, and the collection of tithes and offerings formally ushered us into the presence of the Almighty. I was told that we dressed up on Sundays to present our best to God, which led me to believe that God was very concerned with outward appearances. It was often said that we should be quiet and reverent in the house of the Lord, which taught me that God was not much fun and lived in a stuffy building that was empty most of the time. The God I was taught about must have been very lonely. Only a few people were ever allowed to speak publicly in church - mostly men in suits with tight collars and red faces, leaving me with the impression that God wasn't all that interested in what kids or women had to say. From these experiences with worship, I concluded that Heaven, the place where saints and angels would worship around the throne of God for eternity, was going to be a very dull place.
That, my friends, is profound. I couldn't agree more with what Gilliam says in this passage. We have become so fixated on outward appearances, and stifling creativity in many churches in North America that is no wonder why people are fleeing the church. It is time to move past the "Country Club" mode of operation and time to get back to the basics for which the church was intended: Evangelism, Fellowship, Worship, Discipleship, and Service.
I long for the day when you share your thoughts on these matters.
Be God's,
Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment