Flawed.


This morning I had some good conversation with Douglas while lifting. I came home feeling compelled to record my afterthoughts.

The structure of the Church in America has some flaws, as expected. It is not my job to harvest those flaws as failures, but to expose them as opportunities to improve effectiveness. This week in our Sunday morning community group we were taught about Worship. Worship in the context of a Sunday morning service. We briefly discussed how complacent we have become about worshiping. I wonder if we are complacent about worship because we really have nothing to worship God for. We sit and listen to a pastor who "has it all together" and is "radical" if he admits that he "struggles every so often". And as we sit, we are watching the Lebron James, the Tiger Woods, the Shaun White or the Lady Gaga of religion. The pedestal or stage creates a noteworthy performance that "we" should all strive to become. Stories abound about front row Av's tickets, beautiful and successful children, lunch with the President, seemingly sinless lifestyle, great movie clips in which he "only watched the movie for illustration purposes" and so on. My life is good and so yours shall be too. But the truth is - all of our lives suck. Shitty things happen to all of us and we make shitty choices. The only thing that makes our life less shitty is God. If we stopped trying to be "perfect" and realized we sin - daily - all of us - we may have something to worship God for. Because once your life is perfect in the eyes of others you have no need for a savior. A perfect house. Pefect job. Perfect children. Perfect choices. Perfect marriage. We strive for this but we fall short and the equalizer is faith in something bigger and better than a sports figure, a musical artist or a pastor. If I am worshiping God daily, the need for "consistent and regular" attendance in "America's Sunday Morning Worship System" is not vital but supplemental and necessary. My worship doesn't happen only on Sunday mornings and my "Corporate Worship" doesn't only happen at church. The problem with jumping into my theory is that it is a recipe for disorganization and disunity, but could that same problem create an attentiveness to building an Acts 2:42 community? I, just like pastors, teachers, church go-ers, and non-church go-ers, are trying to figure it out. Because...

...pretending makes me uncomfortable and in turn makes others uncomfortable.

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