WHY WE'RE STAYING

I started thinking about this post a long time ago. Throughout the past couple years there's been a temptation in me to long for another church. When I read about other people's churches online or read about conferences uniting church and family it stirs up a restlessness for more. When I listen to others preach, those who hold more Reformed convictions, I have been tempted to grumble at what I get every Sunday.

But Philippians 2 says to do everything without grumbling or complaining. And Ephesians 4 says to bear with one another with gentleness and love. And most of all, I think I'm just reflecting a worldly attitude of consumerism when it comes to church. What is the church after all? It is the body of Christ. Who is the head? Christ, not me. The church is not flawless yet. And yet I keep looking for that whitewashed tomb, that perfect place where everyone holds the same convictions and raises their children perfectly. That doesn't exist. I belong to a "real" church; a church which contains many different people with a lot of different convictions. There are Calvinists there. There are Arminians. There are people who don't know what those terms mean. We have hymns, we have praise songs. We have an organ, we have loud guitars and drums. We have a homeschool group and we have a pastor who sent all his kids to public school. There are things we do that I like and things we do that I wish were different.

My husband and I have been at this church for ten years. All our children have grown up in this church. We have seen our church grow through two building campaigns and from two to five services every Sunday. At times, I have wished we were somewhere else. But not now. The most powerful thing I've learned from being a member at our church these past ten years is humility and the need to love one another. My purpose is not to, as Oswald Chambers said, pour myself into my own doctrines. My purpose is to learn how to live and love in this soon to be perfected body of Christ, His church. I shouldn't be surprised or disappointed that the local body to which I belong is flawed. It was the same when Paul was writing to the early churches. He told the Galatians to restore those who are caught in transgressions. He told the Ephesians to bear with one another and forgive one another. He told two women in the Philippian church to mend their differences. He told the Corinthians to expel a member caught in grievous sin. You get the idea.

Every church is flawed and imperfect because it contains flawed and imperfect people. (And maybe the things I see as "flaws" are not really flaws at all.) This is where I am to put into practice my faith. This is where I am to grow in humility, gentleness and love and so fulfill the law of Christ.