Jonathan-Pearson

Last night at Axcess, we talked about the church.  We talked about the misconceptions that come with going to church and what we could do to change those.  We also talked about what the church is and what it is not.  After talking about this stuff with them, I have to say…I really don’t blame them for not enjoying church.  Church has been way to boring and irrelevant for too long.  The people have been too mean for too long.  I really don’t think the problem is that people haven’t heard the right sermons or gone to church enough, it’s that they haven’t applied any of it.  If it stops at attending church and listening, we are wasting a bunch of time.

I think we’ve all seen the people that go to church and look like they’re waiting in line to go to hell.  They look so disappointed to be learning about God and so scared that they may encounter God that they might would settle for an hour in hell.  We’ve also seen the people that yell when kids start trying to have fun in church.  This is the old lady that stands in the hall before service and is the hall monitor (more like party pooper).  We’ve also heard the lady that loves to sing in the choir and really likes to sing solo’s, but sounds like a constipated cat.  You know, the lady that thinks she’s serving the Lord but is killing you in the process.  And still, we know about the people that really don’t have a method of screwing things up, the just make everyone miserable.  You know the kind.  It doesn’t matter what goes on during service, they are complaining about something at their local meat and three afterward.

While these are all funny examples of bad times in churches, they are all things that my students brought out last night.  These are some of the memories these teens had of church.  How sad!  How can we turn this around?  How can we make them respect church?  That’s a battle I’m facing every time I present Christ’s message to these students. 

I have to say, I love the church!  I am passionate about the church!  I believe it is still God’s plan to save the world.  It’s still His only plan for getting His word out about Himself.  There is no plan ‘B’!  We just have to take the job seriously!