Is it alright for Christians to be afraid, or panicked, or even stressed out? Many want to argue the spiritual side and claim it as a lack of faith, but the reality is that no matter what is right, we have these moments of breakdown in our lives.
Often, we don’t want to be judged by our brothers and sisters in Christ so when we have these very human moments, we keep them to ourselves, and we deal with them or don’t deal with them all on our own. We are too afraid that we might look weak in front of our church friends or our pastor. I have had several couples through the years come to me for marriage counseling from other churches. When I asked them why me, they all responded the same way. “We don’t want our pastor to know we are having trouble.” Wow! What a poor reflection this is on the church today.
We have been told by experts that for years people were moving away from organized religion.That has shifted in recent times. People are not tired of church as much as they are tired of inauthentic Christianity.
People are desperate for help and hope in this world. They are begging like starving children for something real to eat and drink. They NEED the Church to be a REAL place where REAL people come and do life together and do their best to follow Jesus.
The Church should be a place we come to when we need to cry.
The Church should be a place we come to just to get a hug.
The Church should be a place where we can be honest with one another.
The Church should be a place where brokenness is acceptable.
The Church should be a place where we feel secure in the midst of insecurity.
The Church should be a place where we love each other in our brokenness.
The Church should act like Jesus.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on Me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,…to comfort all who mourn…” Isa. 61
Are the poor welcome? Are the brokenhearted invited? Do we acknowledge the captivity that exist in the world? Do the prisoners know they can come in? Can those who mourn find a place of comfort in our church?
Let’s make sure that we have the right answers to these questions as we move forward.
We want to offer a Real God to Real People!