As I look around the world and see so many people, I get this sense that so often Sunday morning has become a routine. Routine to me is doing something so often that you start to do it without ever thinking about doing it, or worse yet the reasons why you are doing the thing you do. Sound familiar? Often times as I look at what we are calling Church, we have made it into something people are doing and not the life we are living. Just the mere fact that we are so stuck on Sunday morning being the day “church” is supposed to meet (especially depending on the geographical location we are in) is a sign of this in and of itself. Sunday morning is not necessarily the sacred day of meeting pronounced by God. Sunday happens to be the day we have chosen to meet and we in the western world have taken this thought and many others to other parts of the world in our evangelization of people. The day is not sacred, the honoring of God with a Sabbath is sacred; Jesus said “man was not created for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man” the intent was that we would have a day of rest not to catch up on work we needed to complete but a true day of rest in order to stay in cadence with God.
Going to church is not even mentioned in the Bible, however being the Church and as the Church assembling together regularly for times of worship and praise for God runs throughout scripture. I am not joining the ranks of people who say there is no need for a pastor, building, or any type of order however I do believe we need to evaluate what we have communicated and are communicating to people church is. I see all throughout the Bible God choosing a person to be His leader for the people, not just kings but people who could give spiritual guidance and help people to walk in the life He was offering to us. As far as I can tell this hasn’t changed; however people are tired (not just unbelievers) of all the things church is not, being communicated as church and then not seeing the things God so clearly points out that church is not being lived out.
When things become routine and scheduled often we forget why we do them and this becomes a lifeless pattern that people don’t want anything to do with. We then put church on this level and wonder why people by the thousands have stopped “going to church” and oddly enough we talk about them as if they have the problem.
Routine is good for some things in our lives so we don’t forget or put them off, Church and being the Church should never fall into this category, ever! Going to church should not be something we do in order to get us through the week. We are to live as the church by being the Church in our everyday lives; if we don’t love God and want His best lets not tell people we do and just be honest. We will still sin even if we do love Him yet we are living differently. Paul said “you know how I lived while I was with you,” not remember all the things I told you or said this would come later. What people need to have are examples of how to live the life of Christ and not just words on how they should be living. Many times these two do not coincide just as was true when Jesus said of some of the Pharisees. "Do what they are saying but don't follow their example" (Matthew 23:2-7)
Let’s concentrate on being the church and not going to church because when we are being, the going is all apart of the life we are living.
Continuous living in Jesus is not the same as meaningless routine. Any of us can change the way we live for one day of the week or when we need to impress others being something we are not. To live life daily in the way God has called us to live , cannot be faked and if it’s tried we will be found out.
I want to live in such a way where people can see my life and want the Jesus and Christianity I have. I don’t want people to say of me “Jesus I like, you as a Christian I can’t stand.”
Routines and ruts can be very much the same and my desire is to live my life with the God who is unsafe and calls me to live in abandon to him and his ways. Traditional routines, for the sake of doing things the way they have always been done have no place in the life I see Jesus representing.
Let’s choose live life to the fullest! This seems the only real way to show our gratitude to Jesus who died so we could.
(John 10:10)
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Comments
Too right! You say what I've been experiencing in my gut for the last year of my "wilderness walk". This road, this train of thought, can be very lonely, especially when the majority has been trained to think otherwise. Sunday's the day, period. Church is the way, period. And any straying, moving away, dreaming...tags me a radical. This "new way", ummmm, or should I say "ancient way", or perhaps even, "Christ way" of thinking will take a life to be lived out to portray what it is the words are saying. Thanks for the voice!
Posted by Ryan Nakielny | Posted at 09/29/2007 7:48 PM
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As I look around the world and see so many people, I get this sense that so often Sunday morning has become a routine. Routine to me is doing something so often that you start to do it without ever thinking about doing it, or worse yet the reasons why you are doing the thing you do. Sound familiar? Often times as I look at what we are calling Church, we have made it into something people are doing and not the life we are living. Just the mere fact that we are so stuck on Sunday morning being the day “church” is supposed to meet (especially depending on the geographical location we are in) is a sign of this in and of itself. Sunday morning is not necessarily the sacred day of meeting pronounced by God. Sunday happens to be the day we have chosen to meet and we in the western world have taken this thought and many others to other parts of the world in our evangelization of people. The day is not sacred, the honoring of God with a Sabbath is sacred; Jesus said “man was not created for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man” the intent was that we would have a day of rest not to catch up on work we needed to complete but a true day of rest in order to stay in cadence with God.
