Have you ever played the game two truths and a lie? The whole premise of the game is to distinguish which fact is the lie. Let’s play a round together! 

1. I have found more peace and healing outside the Church than I have inside. 
2. I love sweet tea. 
3. We need the Church.
   

Which one is the lie? It would seem like based on fact 1, fact 3 would be the lie. Or…could it be based on fact 3, fact one is the lie? 

The hard reality that I can’t seem to wrap my head around is that WHILE fact one is true, fact three is ALSO true. This post is going to be really transparent, so buckle up! You are now in the inner workings of my mind. For as much as I have found hurt and joy and confusion and clarity in the Church, I have found more peace on the outside in the past 7 months. But the hard truth I can’t escape, based on scripture, is our need for the Church. Because even in its most broken form, we still need it. Christ would never have given his life for the Church, if it wasn’t of value. The reality is, the Church is in need of redemption, very similar to you and I. And this is where my struggle comes. How do we love something so broken and hurtful?

The first step is broadening our vision of the Church. What is the Church? Evangelical culture has taught us church is a building with a structured service and a pastor who preaches for 25-40 minutes. There is usually some overly structured mission statement which should probably really just say “loving like Jesus”, because isn’t that really the mission? A church steeple probably isn’t a necessary requirement anymore, but church is a lot of times defined by the building that holds the services for worship. However, these things have very little to do with church, because the Church Jesus built didn’t have walls or buildings. The Church Jesus built was marked by transformed hearts and minds. The Church Jesus built was crafted around people and not religion, denominations or political parties. The more time I have spent in church buildings, the more I have questioned if this is really what the Church was created to be. Is this it? Surely we were created to do more than siphon people into carefully curated programming. Turns out if you read your Bible, there is a very clear definition of church and what its believers should look like. Let’s check out Matthew 16 together!

The first mention of “Church” is in Matthew 16:18, “And I say also unto you, That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Christ didn’t build His church on a flimsy foundation. He built it on a rock, something that didn’t stand level with the rest of the world. Christ’s church, ekklesia, was created with intentionality. It was designed to gather and unite people in identity and purpose! The New Testament church was created to live on mission and it existed wherever people were gathered. It was beautifully simplistic and a reminder that Christ’s Church was never created to be contained within walls.

In the past 7 months, I have heard the church described as a franchise and a real estate management company, buying and selling properties based on their successfulness. Church planting existing for the sake of numbers instead of reaching people. I was having this conversation with my dad around the breakfast table and he commented “We have made church about us. The church needs to redefine what success is. Success for the Church is about numbers, how much money is coming in, and how much you’re promoting yourself. Success should be based on faithfulness.”

Faithfulness starts from the inside out and the top down. Are you ready for some transparency? I grew up in church my entire life, got a bachelors degree in ministry, got ordained in the Evangelical Church, and worked in the church full-time for six years. I am struggling to find the relevance in church, specifically church in how it relates to Sunday mornings. Most of our church experience is heavily surrounded by the importance of Sunday morning worship. But, why? Why if the Church is supposed to be this living breathing thing, have we reduced it to one morning a week? Yet in my struggling, I have started attending Sunday morning services with my family again in hopes that my faith will become sight. I don’t have all the answers; I am still in the trenches of decluttering but here is what I have figured out so far!

• Community isn’t passive. It must be built! This is biblical and vital to growth! Romans 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” You were never created for a solo journey through life. As a member of the body of Christ, you were called to be accountable to one another. This accountability should be regular and should call each other to a higher standard of living.
• Church is less about the Sunday morning service and more about the unity and worship we are called to as believers. I am drawn to Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
• Sunday invites us to experience rest. Sabbath rest is about taking time to turn our thoughts and actions toward God. This holy rest was established in the very first book of the Bible. Genesis 2:2, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” A day of reset is something we need, yet rarely take. Sunday gives us a chance to refocus on God.

I haven’t hidden my skepticism on organized church from anybody who has asked. In fact, I think most of the above three points can be accomplished outside of a Sunday morning service, but here is where I had break through. I was looking at Church through a “what is the Church doing for me” mindset. How does Sunday morning benefit me? The church was never about the individual “I”, but the communal “we”. Which leads me to the most important thing I discovered:

• It’s not about me. It never was and never should have been. Church has always been about Jesus and the community of believers within it.

The Church, our communities, and Sunday morning worship present an opportunity for us to submit to one another. Submission is a trigger word, mainly because generations have scripturally misused it as a way to gain control. But true submission, always comes from a place of love. There is a passage of scripture in Ephesians that is used heavily in weddings and I believe it is one of the best interpretations of Christ like community.

Ephesian 5:25-27, 29-30 “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Christ died for the church ²⁶ to make it belong to God. Christ used the word to make the church clean by washing it with water. ²⁷ Christ died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it. ²⁹ No person ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church, ³⁰ because we are parts of his body.”

The Church has always been important to Christ. So important, in fact, that He died for it. We are asked to take part in this mutual submission to one another. Loving, taking care of, and lifting one another up in reverence to Christ. To be like Christ is to love the Church.

It’s not about me and it’s not about you. Church was always meant to be a call to action, a place to be sent out from! I hate that the church was created to be this central part of our worship and we have reduced it to one hour a week. Because let’s be honest friends, most of us are going in and leaving and calling it church. This is not church. “The mission of the Church lives within the heart of God’s people.” – Rev. Michael Morris, Brooksville Community Church

One of the best pieces of signage I have ever seen outside of a Church was displayed by the road as you were exiting the parking lot. It simply stated: You are entering your mission field. It serves as a reminder that the Church was never meant to stay within the confines of building structure, but be carried out within hearts of people.

It is easy to push off the responsibility to pastors and denominations, but you/me/we are responsible for being the church. Maybe we’ve given too much ownership of the church to the pastors and leaders because, let’s be honest, the Church is in need of reformation. Much like you and I. Maybe it’s time that we take ownership for being the Church. Maybe it’s time that we take ownership of our faith and what the Church was supposed to be from the beginning, an outward expression of God’s love.

If you find yourself in a place where you don’t trust the organized religion or its leaders, welcome home, friend. I am doing the hard, healing work. I hope you decide to as well! Because as much as I wanted to escape it, we can’t have Christ without the church. So let’s build together! I took an intentional step back from Sunday morning for a season. It was needed, but now I have slowly started going back. I discovered I needed the communal aspect of worship! While I sometimes get caught in the weeds of figuring out if I can trust these leaders, I remind myself that these leaders are accountable to Almighty God. The Holy Spirit convicts and inspires and I need to trust His leading in my life and the lives of others.

Hold tight to Jesus. Deuteronomy 31:8 reminds us: “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you.” No matter how far you have gone from church, the hurt you experienced at the hands of leaders, the Lord never leaves. I have experienced God’s goodness in the midst of deep hurt and hard questions. The call to be in community and to love the Church has never been stronger. My trust in leaders is minimal, but my trust in Christ is strong. I believe He is a redeeming God and just like He is refining me, He is refining His Church.

The truth is, I have found more healing outside the confines of organized church this past year. The truth is despite this, I have discovered I still need the Church. We need the Church. And the lie…I can’t stand sweet tea. It is terrible and nobody should be drinking that garbage, yourself included 😉

I hope you continue to journey with me! The story is far from over, friends!

With love,

EZ