Church

I've been thinking about church. Right now we attend this little country church. Yes, it smells musty and moldy. There's a bad leak in the plumbing fixtures. The water isn't turned on all morning at church or else there's a huge puddle outside, which means you don't always use the restroom when you have to. On Sunday, one brother used a stick to plug the hole in the pipe for the time being.

There's a feud between the family members that own the building. No, they don't attend this church. Maintenance falls on the attendees' plate. Is it worth fixing? Will this church go on? And in the winter it can be very cold because there's little heat. Many times it feels good to keep your coat on.

Why are we attending here? Good question, because we don't know ourselves. Sometimes we feel like church vagabonds. Do we have some haphazard plan? Is this where we want our children to grow up? Some of the fundamental Biblical truths we've been taught are not practiced here. And that immediately raises a red flag. We can't compromise God's Word. Even when Godliness is present.

So we are at a crossroads. And we are earnestly seeking God for direction. We need patience. We need to keep our eyes focused on Christ. We have no desire to seek after worldly things. That's one thing we love about the brothers and sisters here. They have a sincere desire to live out God's Word to the best that they have learned from reading. No, not all of them have been taught about Christ from little up. This is a small body of believers, only a handful. We love them! Where do we go from here? God has some lessons to teach us. We can learn so much from people.

Are we persuing our own desires or God desires?  There's nothing like going to church and fullly loving the assembly of the saints! Really embracing the church you attend. Someday God will give us our desires. But for now, we will be patient and continue to seek Christ in our decisions. It's not easy, but did God say it would be?

We are thankful to be able to gather together without fear of the government. How long will this freedom last? 

I want to add that church is not a building, it is the people that make up the bride of Christ.
Ephesians 2:19-21.

My friend sent me this info on different kinds of churches. Thank you, E.

Types of Churches

1. "Mission or outreach" - evangelism focus
     (a) Teaching, planning and activities are mainly focused on evangelism in various ways.
     (b) The planning and origin of ideas is from within the group.




2. "Hospital" - need focused
     (a) Develop program to meet the needs of the people.




3. "Country Club" - exclusive
     (a) Program is designed for a certain segment and type of people and those outside its parameters will not feel welcome and will tend to move away.

4. "Seeker sensitive" - what are the needs of those seeking and how to reach them.
     (a) Similar to mission and ourteach but with a specific emphasis to those outside and their world. Ideas for program are driven by life and interests of those outside the group that they desire to reach.




5. "Community focused" - community focused

     (a) In some ways it's like seeker sensitive or mission focused but it's very open and accepting of a variety of ideas and practice.




6. " Religious or Christian focus" - discipleship oriented or status quo

     (a) Focus here is on discipleship and development of those in the group. The goal of that development can go in many different directions and some can be very opposite of each other.

These are some things to think about. What are our goals?

Another list I've thought about is what was shared at church by a visiting minister:

A church that is alive is reaching new converts.
A church that is dying is bringing only its own offspring to Christ.
A dead church is not keeping its own.

So many questions. Few answers. God will reveal them to us in His time!
Faithfulness in seeking God is the key.