TURNED OFF OF CHURCH?

Church is fantastic!  So is believing in God!  So is helping so many others who are in need!  There is nothing like it!

However, this isn't the vision that many have because of experiences which did not cause them to be fired up about God and church.  Rather, cold water was tossed their way.  I mean, really, who even in the church hasn't had a cold shower or two thrown our way?

Therefore, I address those who are what we would call turned off of church.

Oh, there are a few.  I mean a many.

The general populace has a warped view of church.  It seems to be regarded as a place where people go to behave well for about an hour on Sunday mornings.  The remainder of the week is free space.  We seem to believe that if we give God His time and a bit of our money then we are all square for the next six days.

Not.

That isn't church.  That is more like taking a humanistic stab at vague spiritual concepts where humans offer a sacrifice of their time.  Most of our friends got to go to the golf course, but us?  Naw, we sat in church and paid the price of heavy and meaningless boredom.  That was my take before I became engaged in the most meaningful system on earth...which came out of heaven.

As one grows within the church concept, a marvelous new life begins to arise.  It seems our deepest yearnings begin to find their niche.  To love God and to love others can do nothing but encounter the richest of all riches, the gloryest of all glories, and the most wonderful of all wonders.

A stigma to this marvel is the approach.  It takes faith to enter in.

Observation? Calculation?  Management?  Human planning?  All of these will not let us walk into this wonderland wonder.  Only a courageous step of faith (when you can't figure) will release the powers of the Living God into the very center of where we breathe.

Turned off of church?  Shame on you for letting narrow people and policy thwart your fire.  Don't let their cold water subdue the real person you are.  Come alive on  the inside and move out.  Move toward.  Love God...heartily.  Love people in need...robustly.

May we build a new kind of society that is turned on to church because the Holy Spirit aids us in making a real difference for real people.  We can do it...because He will do it in us!