I've been reading a lot of material from Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). [I mentioned this organization in my introductory stuff. You can read and register with them at: www.persecution.com.] I volunteer for them--going to churches or other organizations and raising awareness of 200million followers of Christ who are being persecuted for their belief. So lately I've been reading the testimonies of men and women in Vietnam who risk everything to spread the good news about Jesus. They thrill to have A Bible. They cannot conceive of having multiple translations in one's personal library from which to choose. They share one Bible among 300 people. Each family gets to have it for 2 days before passing it along to the next family. Knowing the police are watching them & expecting that the police will arrest them, they meet to praise God anyway. They meet at different times. The pastor will send word that this Sunday's meeting will start around 6a.m. Some of them leave home at 3a.m. in order to be there on time. The next week the pastor might schedule the service for 4a.m. As a result, some must start their journey around 1a.m. One pastor said he has 30 new believers in his home town. They have been following Christ for 2 years. But they are not yet ready to be baptized--they are not yet mature enough. But they will be soon.
This is just one country. I watch videos and read accounts from Indonesia, North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, India and many more. The accounts have many similarities.
Then I remember churches in North America: At one, they complain about the lack of things going on. At another, they don't like the music. At another, they criticize a leader. Sometime the complainers/criticizers just talk. Often they threaten to leave their church. Sometimes they follow through on that threat and go to another church. Or they might just stop worshiping altogether.
Last night as bw and I were praying, I started praying for some of the churches described in the previous paragraph. Suddenly it hit me: We are soooooooo childish in the North American church. Sometimes, I wish for a degree of persecution here in North America. It might help us grow up.
What do you think?
I'm not talking about finding a fellowship whose worship style enables me to worship more truly. I understand that some people relate better to a formal style while others relate better to relaxed and informal worship. I'm not talking about that.
But having found a community of believers, let's stick with them through thick and thin, for better or worse, in sickness and in health. And let's make that local fellowship thrive to the glory of God.
What do you think?
3 comments:
I guess I hadn't thought of the N.A. Church of today as "Childish", but I have certainly thought of it as very self-centered... Hold on there, that is a very broad general statement... So let me try again: I find that may Christians, in spite of all of our preaching "It's not about me", is exactly that: "It is all about me, what I want, what I need," etc.
We've had a friendly debate going on our District through email this last week: What's the real priority of the Church, is it outreach or is it discipleship. Actually the original question was, "Is it possible to be too focused on outreach?" My personal opinion is that that begs the question... The priority is PEOPLE!!! People's lives being touched by the love and grace of Jesus Christ; and being transformed by His Word!!! Ford had a slogan a few years back, I think it was "Quality is job #1." For the church PEOPLE is Job #1!!!
Gale :)
Hi Gale!
Good point(s). You can pass this along to your district discussion if you want: It seems to me at first glance that even the phrase "It's not about me" is still self-centered--especially if that becomes a slogan. Because then, as you suggested, we are really still making it all about me.
But back to my thought of childishness: Isn't that one of the traits of a childish person? That they are so extremely self-centered? The ultimate of that was when our children were infants: They had no concept of anyone else in the world. Child psychologists suggest that the infant's first awareness of other people in the world comes as those others (parents) meet the wants/demands of the self. As we grow chronologically, we are supposed to move beyond the self-centered phase and become others-centered. Normally that occurs to a degree at least.
But when we see an adult who thinks only of self, we think of him/her as childish.
I'm simply making a similar comparison to many Christians and even many church congregations.
Thanks again for your thoughts and finally giving some response!
"Eddie"
Yes, I did think about that as I was writing... In fact temper tantrums when a person doesn't get his/her way is also a characteristic of childish behavior...
Have a great day!!!
Gale :)
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