I want you to step into the doors of your church for a moment. I want you to imagine the people that great you at the door every Sunday, greeting you with a warm smile and a pamphlet. I want you to imagine your friends waiting for you in the lobby, the routine you step through with them before walking into service. Perhaps grabbing a donut, a coffee, dropping off your kids at the kids wing. Maybe saying hello to the person running the table for the ministry you are a part of. Think of where you sit week to week the people you always sit next to. Recall your favorite worship song as the worship leader steps on stage and the pastor giving a sermon that stirs your heart to action. Imagine your exit routine as well, picking up your kids, saying goodbye to some friends making lunch plans with others.
Now… as you are in those thoughts I want you to ask yourself one question. “what is this all for?” Don’t answer immediately…. Give it some thought. ‘why do you do it? why do you come here every Sunday, and why here and not somewhere else?’
I think if most of us answered this question honestly it would be something like, ‘I like the sermons, or the worship.’ Perhaps ‘My friends are here and I feel comfortable’.
Comfortable…
‘I feel needed here, I feel like I am making an impact’
comfortable…
‘I agree with this church’s theology’
comfortable…
But what if we missed the point? The church is made to edify and build each other up. We love saying that the church sharpens us like Proverbs 27:17 ‘as iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another’. But does our church really do that? Does our small group really do that? When iron sharpens iron sparks fly. A bunch of us talking deep theological questions that we all are in agreement on isn’t sparks flying. Hanging out with a bunch of people who live the same as myself isn’t sparks flying. Worship that I find theologically unchallenging isn’t sparks flying. A sermon that I would have written the same myself if given the topic isn’t sparks flying.
Those things are comfort.
But perhaps the church that we can best grow, the church that we can best challenge others to grow is the one that makes us squirm a little bit.
Think of it. When was the last time you left church feeling flustered from the pastors sermon, or a conversation from a fellow church member?
Church unity doesn’t mean we agree on how communion should be served it means that we are united in effort to strengthen one another and reach the lost.
So give it some thought. And maybe… maybe you’ll decide it’s time to get a little…
uncomfortable.
