Diggin Deep
Active Member
In my curvy road of a walk with God (being Agnostic, to being called to ministy at the age of 19, to stepping away from church all together, to trying to get back to the basics of Christianity and renew a personal relationship with God), I've found it very hard to find a church that I consistently want to attend. I get so wrapped up in the politics and the many doctrines of "Church" and wind up getting so frustrated, that I forget why I actually decided to go to church in the first place.
People tend to be very familiar with things pertaining to the church that they attend regularly. We are told to go to church every Sunday, pay our tithes, and support your ministry/pastor. We are very familiar with the codes of conduct handed down to us by our church leaders. Many live their whole life practicing Churchianity instead of Christianity. We think that the adherence to rules and regulations will somehow win us favor with God and reserve us a place in heaven for all times. The Christian life has been degraded to legalism and most of us have been bound by legalistic chains. These chains are put on us by church, ministers, elders, sometimes family and sometimes ourselves.
The main reason that Churchianity is replacing Christianity in the minds of many people is because people do not understand what Christianity is. In order to understand Christianity, we must understand the works and purpose of Jesus Christ. The salvation that Jesus Christ brought us transcends our church, our laws, and our ways. Yet, this is so easy to forget and so easy for non-believers to never understand.
Does anyone else ever struggle with this...getting so wrapped up in church that you forget about Christ?
Do the "politics" of church keep you from even going to church or giving Christ a chance?
*Please don't take this out of context - I'm not saying church is a horrible place to go or that churches are evil
A very hard thing to remember is that religious bondage does not come from God, but from the world around us.
People tend to be very familiar with things pertaining to the church that they attend regularly. We are told to go to church every Sunday, pay our tithes, and support your ministry/pastor. We are very familiar with the codes of conduct handed down to us by our church leaders. Many live their whole life practicing Churchianity instead of Christianity. We think that the adherence to rules and regulations will somehow win us favor with God and reserve us a place in heaven for all times. The Christian life has been degraded to legalism and most of us have been bound by legalistic chains. These chains are put on us by church, ministers, elders, sometimes family and sometimes ourselves.
The main reason that Churchianity is replacing Christianity in the minds of many people is because people do not understand what Christianity is. In order to understand Christianity, we must understand the works and purpose of Jesus Christ. The salvation that Jesus Christ brought us transcends our church, our laws, and our ways. Yet, this is so easy to forget and so easy for non-believers to never understand.
Does anyone else ever struggle with this...getting so wrapped up in church that you forget about Christ?
Do the "politics" of church keep you from even going to church or giving Christ a chance?
*Please don't take this out of context - I'm not saying church is a horrible place to go or that churches are evil
A very hard thing to remember is that religious bondage does not come from God, but from the world around us.
