Please Stop Badmouthing Your Church.

“…we don’t evangelize, too many people smoke, too many people drink, people in our church are lukewarm and complacent, we are religiously arrogant, our songs are too old fashioned and somber, our worship services are too structured and lifeless, we are sectarian…maybe we should find another church…”

Colossians 1:17-20 
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,  and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

I find it disheartening when someone in my own church badmouths my church. Do you badmouth your own church? Do you realize that you are badmouthing the body of Christ, of which you are a part, when you do that? Or do you live a life of thankful service to God and the church for the many blessings you have received from His hand? The statement “quoted” at the beginning is not actually a quote, but is a collection of some of the things I used to say about my own church. Yes, it’s true…I saw some issues that were valid but I did nothing about them. And the other issues were not really issues at all, they were just my own preconceived notions which were fueled by my own discontent. And my discontent was not with the church but was really my own sinfulness bearing fruit. I was not living the Christian life so I blamed the church for my feelings of discontent.  Rather than helping the situation, I was simply part of the problem.  Ironic isn’t it?

Romans 12:3-5 
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.  Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

By saying those things, it is like I was a part of the body…let’s say I was a Femur (it’s a bone in the leg).  Those complaints I had was akin to a femur being upset about the state of the liver, the hip joint, the thyroid and the stubble left on the chin after shaving.  Then the Femur got all high and mighty and started badmouthing those other body parts…especially the stubble… and wanted to leave the Body.  But if the femur left, it would ruin the entire leg and hurt the whole body.

I don’t want to be that angry femur…do you?

1 Peter 2:9-10 
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Anyway, now that I got that awkward analogy out of the way…Now I am even more awkwardly trying to serve out of thankfulness for what God has freely given us, to His glory and to the up building of the body. Yes it is often clumsy.  Yes it is often imperfect. Do I want people to share their faith with others? Yes! But if I don’t share my faith at every opportunity then why would I complain that you don’t? The same can be said about almost everything you or I complain about within the church. Do you complain about how things are run, or the songs we sing or the lifestyles we live? Then read the Bible and pray and see if the discontent is rooted in you first. If it is you, then stop and repent and serve God and the church with your talents and abilities.

When we  change our priorities those little issues will not bother us as we are permeated with the great truths of God and the love of Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. But if it is the church, if it is a real issue, if it is teaching heresy, or being sectarian, or if it is scripturally lacking in a particular area, then we should do the same thing: stop and repent and serve God and the Church with your talents and abilities. But also pray fervently for a return to the truth. We can’t expect everyone to stand up to fight for these things to the bitter end, but at this stage of my life the only way I would ever leave my church is if it was embracing heresy or liberalism. But even then I would have to be dragged out kicking and screaming, all the while begging them to repent and return to the truth. I often Joke that I have a touch of “Martin Luther Syndrome.”

Is my church perfect?  No.  It is full of imperfect sinners like me.

Do I want to see changes in my church?  Of course I do.

Is it a true church of Christ?  Of course it is.

If your church is biblical, if it is a true church of Jesus Christ then before you start gossiping and complaining, and badmouthing, like I used to, and before you just up and leave, please take to the Bible, dive into it, read it, meditate on it and pray fervently, seek Christ, meet with an elder or a trusted friend in Christ and talk these things through. We must stop asking what the church can do for us, what God can do for us, God has already given his son for us. Instead we should ask what we can do for God and the Church out of thankfulness for this precious gift of salvation.

Please stop badmouthing your church.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.  For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.  If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?  But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.  If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”  On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,  and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,  while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it,  so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.