by Jim Gordon
Since doing the article on abuse in the church I have come across several people who have left the church system but not because of abuse. Unfortunately, abuse does happen and it is terrible especially within a place that should be known for its love.
Yet, even more than stories of abuse the one comment that seems to keep being said is that ‘I left because something just did not seem to be right. I felt there had to be more’.
I think this is a common feeling among those of us who have attended church for some time and have seen some things that just do not make sense. Sitting in a service once a week looking at the back of someone’s head does not make a lot of sense when in the bible we are told when we come together each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. Yet that does not happen. We all sit quietly listening to one person participate.
God said he is building his Church from living stones, or in other words from us. Church is people. It is not a building nor an organization. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit and if the Spirit of Christ lives within us, why are we just sitting letting only a few participate?
Many people are coming to the realization that the organization we know as church is flawed and not what God intended. We seem to be putting our focus on the pastor and the organization rather than emphasizing the Spirit of Christ who lives within us. We are to allow him to love others through us as we go about our daily lives. People are getting tired of just sitting along the sidelines when we can walk daily with the Spirit of Christ walking with us.
The Church that God is building is a living organism, many people making up one body under the headship of Christ. The church that many attend is an organization made of brick and mortar, doctrines and denominations and led by human beings. Many good things happen in the church building but the body of Christ is an active, living body where everyone has an equal part to play. Rather than attend a pre-planned service once a week we are to be living daily under the guidance of the Spirit. It is by his power from within that we can show the love of God to everyone we meet.
Having attended an abusive church for 12 years, I can say that while you are in the midst of the mess, you don’t see it; you’re bewitched by the religion of it all- the ritual, and traditions that make the Word of none effect. You know there’s something wrong, but it’s hard to nail down. You leave every service with underlying feelings of frustration and anger, but it just pulls you back in. Hard to explain.
I’ve decided that abusive churches just take all the wrong stuff in any traditional church and magnify it- pastor worship, works, ritual, and the ever present laziness and apathy that develops when the peons do nothing and the favored few do it all.
The feeling of inadequacy is present in any church to a degree- the pastor is qualified, I’m not. But it really gets nasty in an abusive church- you’re just a dumb sheep and have to be led and told every move to make. The leadership becomes your mediator between you and God, and idolatry thus runs rampant. Oh yeah, something’s wrong for sure!
As many have written about, the clergy/laity divide should never have been. It feeds apathy and idolatry. And on the other side, it creates plenty of burnout with pastors. After going through the abusive mess, it’s so very easy to see the shortcomings of the whole “church” system. To me, abusive churches are just traditional churches gone to seed. This is where it lands. And praise God for those blessed enough to see it without ending up in an abusive one.
Thank you for speaking your piece!
Joyce
LikeLike
Hi Joyce, sorry you were in an abusive church. I get it, you can be in the middle of things and not really see it. And true, even the traditional church has it wrong based on what God intended his Church to be. It is not a building or an organization but a community of people who are equally functioning parts of his body under the headship of Christ. Thanks for your comment. I appreciate it.
LikeLike
Yeah! Say that! Thanks, Jim.
LikeLike
Thank you Jem
LikeLike