My dad recently asked me to write about my journey of growing up in the church to leaving church all together to connecting once again to the bride of Christ. I consider it a great privilege to recount my journey back to the Father and what keeps me engaged and serving in my local church.
The Vision
As a follower of Christ, we are on a journey. This journey is not one that the world teaches. It is not a journey to seek happiness, wealth, independence, political gain, etc. It is a journey to become holy; to become like Christ. Christ calls us to be holy because He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). We are made in His image (Genesis 1:27) and have the responsibility to bear His image to the world. The local church is our training ground, our accountability to this call and our fellowship with the saints. It is the church for whom Christ left His throne of glory to come into this dark world and shed his very own blood so that all who believe would have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).
So the vision for our local church is to have members who are on this path of holiness. They are being transformed into the image of Christ. They are going from glory to glory with the help of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). They are serving in the church so not to serve man, but God himself. They are tithing and acknowledging the supernatural blessing that God has promised when we honor Him in this way (Malachi 3:10). They are bringing others to church so that they too have the opportunity for salvation and transformation. They worship God in truth and spirit (John 4:24). They acknowledge the living God in every aspect of life, not just within the walls of the church building.
So how do we get on this path to make the church an integral part in our spiritual growth and training? How do we become a people so desperate for God that going to church is not a self seeking endeavor? Not just a place to simply fulfill a social desire, to rid guilt, to satisfy a check list of “to-do’s, “or simply a place to go “because we’re supposed to?”
My Journey
I grew up loving the Lord. As a young child I simply loved Christ because I knew that He loved me. I feel blessed to have memories from this time in order to understand what Jesus means when He says that we must have childlike faith (Matthew 18:3). I was surrounded by a loving church family and had wonderful parents who trained me in the way I should go (Proverbs 22:6).
Early in my teenage years, the attack of Satan altered my life. Satan took the sin of someone else against me and started whispering in my ear a false character of God. My sins were too great and God was very angry. This led to a great fear of God and eventually to an all out rebellion of this God. I could not live up to perfection, for we all have sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
My story has a happy ending. God put the right people in my life to open my eyes to the schemes of the devil and the love of the Father. I briefly describe my testimony to set the stage for what I believe is important in winning the hearts and minds back to the Father and therefore back to the local church. Our battle is not against the flesh but against the spiritual forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12). What keeps people away from church or at best half hearted church-goers? Satan. His mission is to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10). We must know who the battle is against in order to claim our rightful victory for ourselves and those around us.
Outreach
When I returned to the church in my mid-twenties, there was a key ingredient that the world could not offer me – genuine fellowship. God placed mature Christians in my path to teach me how to fellowship with Him and with other believers. I love in Matthew 22 how Jesus sums up hundreds of laws given to the Israelites in two simple statements; love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself. This is what we were made for. We desire intimate fellowship with the Father and intimate fellowship with each other. I think this is vitally important in reaching the unchurched and making a vibrant community for those who do attend church. We have to offer an environment that encourages and matures genuine fellowship.
This is what the enemy stole from me early on in my life; a relationship with the Father and relationships with others. He will never cease in trying to do so. He keeps us independent, distracted, irreverent, desensitized, tolerant, etc. When we realize that the enemy will thwart every effort to reach the unchurched, we can turn to scripture for guidance. In Ephesians 6, Paul gives us two offensive weapons against the devil’s schemes; prayer and the word of God. When we gather in a community that prays together and studies God’s word together, the enemy has no ground. I believe this is the basis for genuine fellowship. We are on a path to holiness with others. We are doing life together. We are holding each other accountable. We pray together and for each other. We confess our sins to one another. We study God’s word together and let it change our thoughts, actions and lifestyles.
On a practical level, community must happen outside of the church walls. This can be done in many ways. Reliance on the Holy Spirit on how to accomplish this is key. Human effort will only turn this into a task or strategy that will eventually lose momentum (Galatians 3:3). Whatever the format, fellowship fulfills the heart’s desires. It’s transforming and engages people with the heart of God. It puts them on a path to holiness. Their hearts become an expression of God himself. The fruit in their life is seen through their active service in church as well as the community. Their obedience to the Lord and His call is their act of worship (Hebrews 13: 15-16). Church strategies for keeping such people in church become irrelevant. Their hearts have been capture by the only One who can fulfill our deepest desires. When we find this kind of fellowship with God and with other believers, the devil and his worldly schemes are no match for God’s kingdom at work where two or three are gathered in His name (Matthew 18:20).
