Ugh, I am so frustrated…

Ugh, I am so frustrated and frozen sometimes.  We still have friends from our former church, we’re still intertwined.  One couple has been in our lives since we began helping with their ministry.  It’s a fun kind of thing, non profit (in fact, they loose money on it), a place providing a family friendly environment in the summer.  It’s not exactly Silver Dollar City, but it is a smaller venue offering camping and outdoor experiences for families, youth groups, church groups, and scouting groups.  These groups have their own Sunday services.  We tend to miss out on church completely when we are there.  A few times we have participated in services from some of the groups we serve.  We also have had “devotional” like Sunday morning time together before we clean up camp and go home.  Many times there is nothing like this.   This lack of church on weekends (and we spent about 6-8 weekends there last summer helping out and enjoying the benefit of the outdoors for our family and children), is something that makes it a hard thing to do.  When this was brought in a meeting, our friend said that we do try to include church.  One person at the meeting commented that church doesn’t always look the same,  Then the friend who started the ministry stated that they often can count an activity such as going round in the groups and sharing the best moment of the weekend and the worst moment of the weekend as church.  I disagreed.  Felt really horrible about it, but had to disagree.  I believe that is NOT church, it’s an icebreaker…and I said so directly.  He disagreed with me, and quoted in Acts that talks about getting together and breaking bread…I need to look up the context and the verse.  Anyway, he said, “we consider church to be like the one in Acts (and he referenced the verse).”   I still disagreed, and his comment was that some people think they are not in church if there aren’t stained glass windows.

My heart broke with that statement.  I was not comparing an issue of the building or the type of music or what not to church.  I did try to explain that church is supposed to be both fellowship and worship, not about me and my ups and downs.  This man is a sweet guy, and doesn’t like to have anyone be hurt.  He also doesn’t like conflict, but will go where he feels he needs to go.  Wonderful man in so many ways, so VERY giving.  But it breaks my heart because I don’t think he is right.  And in that room, I believe I was likely the only one who sees this.  I hate that.  Where do I belong anymore?  He argued that we have this modern view of church in the west (if I remember right) and it’s full of it’s traditions.

It wasn’t until I was coming home when I could articulate what I wanted to say.  The church in Acts is one thing, one very important thing.  But the church is NOT just about what is written in Acts.  The church was written about in letters too.  And there were ways of conducting church more than mentioned.  Women’s roles in the church were outlined, proper conduct during teaching (yes, there was scripture being taught), and how to fellowship properly…not in gluttony, not in a drunken state.  The Lord’s supper became one of small pieces of bread and a sip of wine (or grape juice).  Sure, churches do not have to be exactly alike at all.  They may sound different inside, they may look different…not even having walls.  But churches that are part of the Church itself all will have some things in common that are essential and important.  Doing church at a “ministry” weekend that doesn’t contain these essentials is not real church.  It’s no better than an Oprah group session.

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