ADDICTED TO THE THING Some people are clinically classified as religious addicts. I am a recovering church-addict. Soon after my conversion in 1978, I saw how this church Thing was an idolatrous system of mens traditions. I despised it (not the people in it); yet, I felt a seductive pull back into it. I needed it. I had previously found my identity in it. I had presence, power, and position in it. As the pastor of it, I thought I owned at least a part of it. My heart would secretly boast, This is mine! It was my source of financial support. It was the only thing I was trained to do. I was joined to it and it was joined to me. We bond with that Thing we call church and thereby get in bondage to it. We join it and it somehow takes possession of us. We do, in fact, get addicted to it. As Dennis Loewen wrote, It is addictive. How do we know? One way is that we all go through withdrawal when we leave it. Some discerning believers who attend spiritually stagnant churches realize they no longer need to be there. The Holy Spirit is absent. The services are dead. The preacher is boring. People argue over petty, irrelevant issues. They feel their tithes are wasted on worthless salaries, programs, and mortgages. Their huge buildings stand empty more often than not. They feel obligated to serve on committees that serve the institution more than they serve the people. They see the leadership trying one gimmick after another to make the Thing relevant in order to get more people to join it and be active in it. These precious believers want to leave but find that they cannot. Mother wouldnt understand. Why, that stained glass window was dedicated in grandpas name. How can you even think about leaving? They rationalize that they have life-long friends there. How can I leave them? They are made to feel like traitors, deserters, troublemakers, or mavericks. Some people disown their own family members who leave their faith. Some traditions believe that a person will go to hell if they leave their particular brand of church. So, they feel stuck in the system. They put on their Sunday morning smiles and hide their secret resentments for feeling stuck. They shake and howdy down the aisle, pretending, Isnt it good to be in the house of the Lord? They settle into their familiar pews and begin again to fellowship with the backs of peoples heads. Many who dare to leave one church go down the street hoping for a better spiritual climate only to find the same old whore in a brand new dress. Only the rules are slightly different. They go from church to church looking for that which is genuine only to find more phony religious facades; they go looking for Spirit and truth only to find more flesh and hypocrisy. Yet, they continue their search, because they are addicted to it. They bob up and down on their wooden horses unable to dismount because of the velocity of that carousel--the church system that perpetually spins round and round, going nowhere. A few discerning persons are able to break away from the bondage of church, but often leave damaged and resentful. Some of these attend anonymous groups, seeking recovery from the religious abuses inflicted upon them by these religious systems of mens traditions. Church, as we have come to experience it, permeates every aspect of our society. It is the only thing we have seen and known that supposedly represents Christ. In going after it, just as did Israel of old, we have played the harlot and provoked the Lord to jealousy. I hope you are praying for the Holy Spirit to lift the veil from over your eyes to see how church is a counterfeit system, to see how we have made a Thing out of who we are in Christ and gone after it instead of Jesus.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 01:12:17 +0000
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