Just a Thought: There are no perfect churches. You cannot have perfection among sinners and the church is full of forgiven sinners. And before you’re quick to mutter “I know that’s right.” Remember you’re one of them. So does this give you an excuse to stay home? No. That would be direct disobedience to God’s word and command (Heb.10:25). What if I don’t agree with everything or everyone in my church? That’s not new; it’s been going on since the birth of the church on Pentecost. One Bible teacher records a little history: There have been disagreements over unfair treatment (Acts 6) Over who can minister (Acts 9) legalism (Acts 10) even doctrine (Acts 15). Did it destroy the church? No, in most cases it made the church stronger. Listen, you’re not going to agree with everyone and everything and if you leave the church every time you get your nose out of joint you hurt Christ’s reputation in the world that is watching (because we are Christians (i.e.) representatives of Christ first) others really are affected by what you do and how you do it! . You hurt the church because as a member you are necessary, essential and gifted to serve the body – losing you is like losing a limb. And you hurt you because unresolved anger or hurt not only isolates you making you ripe for the picking of the enemy, but more times than not it leads to hidden or suppressed sin causing our fellowship with God to be out of balance (regardless of what you tell yourself). So what do you do when there is a problem in the fellowship? Let’s go way back and take a page out Israel’s play book. The people have begun to take the promise land, God is providing sweet victory when what should have been a nothing situation turns sideways quick! (Joshua 7) “Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few. So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water.” (vv3-5) thirty six men lost their lives, husbands, sons, dads – gone after what should have been nothing turned out to be something big – something was wrong! Four immediate steps were taken to sort this out: First, (vv. 1-5) Joshua realized something was wrong! Second, (vv. 6-15) Joshua went straight to God for answers. Third, (vv. 16-21) the found out who was involved and went straight to the source to deal with it. Finally, (vv 22-26) They dealt with the problem according to the word and the way of God. Now let’s come back to today - There are no perfect churches. And you may have to be in a place where there are something you’re going to have to agree to disagree about and still be humble enough to do your part to create a spirit of unity. But there is no reason to allow the fellowship to be disrupted, people to get hurt and you and the church to lose victories God desires to give – When sin disrupts the fellowship, deal with it properly! So that all of us forgiven sinners can be the best church Christ has called us to be (and that’s the best we can do) because everybody knows: There are no perfect churches.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 12:26:31 +0000
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