I want to start this post by saying that I am a strong believer in Christ. I have seen him work in my life in so many different ways, and work small miracles in a just the right time, he is out there, watching over his people. I love people, people are my thing as I always say. God has gifted me with skills that allow me to read people well, and often talk to them in effective ways. I just am growing more and more aware of the way the church treats people. I’m not just referring to the judgement of people who sin outside of the church, but how exclusive and unkind the church is becoming.
Yes, to an extent, people have been unfair to Christians. They have judged us, and grown to hate us. But we have to admit that part of it is earned. I’ve noticed from personal experience, that many church settings feel closed off and cold.
Just recently I had a personal experience that made me very uncomfortable in a church. I did grow up in church, I’ve always had a loving church family by my side, but since highschool began, I’ve also been to a few different churches. I’ve fallen in love with them, but was quickly turned off by their actions.
I was going through an extremely hard time, school was just so stressful that every time the school year started up again, I would begin my downward spiral into depression. Yes, it did get old, especially for me. The first time it happened in my last youth group, I had so much support. Enough support to get me back on my feet where I needed to be. However, it did become a pattern, a hole I couldn’t climb out of and every time it felt like that support system I had slipped a little bit more. I’m not saying it was their job to counsel or even listen, but there was no compassion anymore, only annoyance. When I was friends with them, I would join in on judging somebody who was hurting. People would leave group crying and we’d judge them for attention seeking. I cut myself off from these people for a while after realizing I no longer wanted to act like them.
The reason I’m sharing this, is because I’ve seen it in so many churches and church groups. I’ve heard so many people’s stories on how they’ve been turned of to the church because of the way many of us act. My feelings on it is that what the church has become, or what I’ve seen from it, is not leading people to Christ, but ultimately turning them away. We spend a lot of time making it look like we’re awesome and loving and that we worship well and pray a lot, but our actions rarely line up.
We as Christians judge those who don’t follow God’s commands but we neglect to follow one of the most important ones, unconditional love. 1 Peter 4:8 says “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” Our love is so powerful because that trait comes straight from God, it is powerful enough to cover sin, it is out weapon against Satan. Right now, the church is quite vulnerable to the enemy, because we often forget to love or we straight up just don’t do it.
I hope that going on my Thailand/Cambodia trip will teach me to love in the way we were meant to, and I truly hope to come back completely on fire for the Lord, with a different understanding on how this Christian thing should be done.
To finish this post I’d like to share a bit of this passage with you.
1 Corinthians 13:1-7
“1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
