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I kinda hate the church

 I’m going to start this off by saying “yes, this is a rewrite”; if you go to my facebook account and go back a few years you will see nearly this exact article. I randomly saw this again the other day (thanks facebook memories) and saw that it was still full of a lot of truth today, as well as in need of a few edits and add-ins. 

So I hope you enjoy this, and are maybe offended a little, and encouraged to think about your heart.

I kinda hate the church.

Not THE CHURCH, as in the body of believers who have asked God to forgive them of their sins and are living to serve Him, to follow His will by loving and serving others.

I LOVE that CHURCH!

But I kinda hate the church. The group of people who meet together every week and include people who really do love God and who lead other people closer to Him but it also includes people who think that they have “done enough for God” and that they’ve gotten everything out of the Bible that there could possibly be to get. They believe that they understand God and anyone who disagrees with them on anything is wrong.

I absolutely believe that the CHURCH is nothing but the presence of God and sinners saved by grace (including me), but we shouldn’t stay just that. I am a sinner saved by grace but I am also a believer who tries to spend time in God’s presence everyday to ask hard questions and to listen to Him for answers. Then I go and tell others what I have learned (Youth Ministry at its core). I am encouraged by other believers and in turn encourage other believers myself.

God never wanted us to just be satisfied in what we know about Him and just stop searching after Him. Isaiah 55:9 says “… so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts”. God is saying that we will never fully understand Him. The rest of that chapter God says to seek after Him. He will reveal parts of Himself to us but there will always be more to Him and His ways for us to understand. 

How dare we think that we could ever, possibly “understand enough”.

God loves us enough to take us just as we are, but also loves us too much to just leave us there. We should be growing, learning and loving; if we aren’t doing that then what’s wrong with us?

And the first step to change is to admit that there is something that needs to be changed!

I will not get into specific topics here but, the church of American has rallied so hard behind behind something, so determined to be proven right, and have comply ignored the people who don’t understand. The people who Jesus died for just like us, but they have hurts and questions that we are completely ignoring. I have known too many people God loves and longs to use for His glory, but they fall away from Him because there have been too many people in the church who refuse to change. We are loosing people God died for, He loves, He longs to help and to use to help others, but the church refuses to change, we are too comfortable just the way we are.

I hate the church, but if things are ever going to change, may God start the change in me.

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