Well, you would have to be sufficiently spiritually paralyzed not to notice the move a foot by some to change the way "Church" is done. Now admittedly as a Pastor I am going to be bias in my approach to this subject, and as a Pastor I do hold a significant portion of blame for the perception of what "Church" has become. However in a few short lines I will attempt to change the world or at the least inspire you to seek the Lord for revelation from Him.
I watched a news show about how the United Church of Canada has been trying to change the perception of people towards organized religion. Some of the words used to described peoples perceptions of Church were, Irrelevant, unaccepting, Hiarchial, to mention just a few. I have to admit these kind of comments do have some relevance, but keeping these comments in context, they were asked of nonbelievers.
Other comments I have heard have been published by people who make a living at selling books. Obviously the more talk around a subject the more books are sold. Some of these books written do verge on "church smacking", others make no bones about it. The Church for them has been taken over by Satan and his cohorts and the only real Christians are the ones that rebel against the established church. Obviously I am talking like an extremist here, but I do not think I am out of line. This is why....
Back to basics, the church was Jesus reward for taking upon Himself all the sin of world (Acts 20:28). Christ Himself paid for the Church. It is His not anyone else's. The Church is to be a universal organism and not a internally focused organization (Math 28). The Church is to behave like a bride in preparation for her wedding day (Rev.19:7-8).
I've been married for nearly 25 years. My wife still does it for me, I love her the way she is for the way she is. Is she perfect? Well I can't answer that in anyway that will not draw attention to her from anyone who wants to see any faults that she may or may not have. Furthermore it is no ones place to point out her faults let alone write them down in books for everyone to be entertained with. I can say without a doubt that if someone did write and talk about my wife I would respond in the most appropriate fashion mixed with the right amount of passion as leave no doubt to anyone around what a huge mistake it would be to talk down my wife. It could be said that anyone who does abide by this kind of behavior is really just compensating for a glaring flaw in their own make up like perhaps a problem with authority themselves. Remember Jesus is not a tame Lion.
Next we have aloud ourselves to give the place of self determination and allow someone else to do the thinking for us. For example is it not easier to have someone else do the dirty work for us to learn how to worship than to do it ourselves. As a Pastor I have no illusions that people wait for me to lead them sometimes because it is easier for me to do it than to take responsibility themselves. Then when things go wrong they blame me. The Catholic Church may have hidden the written word from people years ago, but who are people going to blame today because they don't know what God actually feels about different things going on around us. We are living breathing organisms that together form a living body called the church. It is what everyone supplies that makes us whole. The enemy can get us blaming each other and cause fractions to break out he achieves his goal of breaking the bride of Jesus. The only place for blame will rest with us.
Lastly, you are the Church! If you are not happy with the way things are going ask your self why. I believe the word says to examine yourself, humble yourself and be obedient. Jesus is every where, but He is also building His church, not us, a new flavor will not change the outcome of His design, He does make a habit of spitting out anything that He doesn't like, that alone should be a warning to us. A nice cup of coffee in a dimmed setting with people talking about there latest revelation is fine, but how does it answer the call that we have been given to ones who love and care and make disciples all through the earth. Like wise how is it that our own hearts are more important than having our own way when it comes to His church.
All things are old, all things always come back around, nothing is never new. Satan just repackages things so that they deceive a fresh. We are the Church, we are the bride, we are the ones who have been given a job to do, but the word says He is short of laborers, I wonder why. Could it be that we are still so busy trading one little kingdom for another that we miss the really kingdom.
