Around this church and around churches across my experience I am confronted with an unanswered question; are people converted to church or converted to Christ. I do not believe the phrases are synonymous. Actually, I believe in this present age, they are antonymous*.
*an⋅to⋅nym [an-tuh-nim] –noun
a word opposite in meaning to another. Fast is an antonym of slow.
antonymous - adjective
of words: having opposite meanings [ant: synonymous]
Not that I believe Jesus intended it that way, but in the sense of conversion I believe they are very different.
I look around and watch as we protect our churches, our boundaries, our differences, our addresses, and our membership numbers while giving less attention to protecting Jesus' teachings, ways, examples, and lifestyle I am smitten with irrefutable evidence.
And its no surprise, then, when those within the walls of our buildings have become (are becoming) blind to the transformation from Jesus followers to church followers. We demand our songs (my songs), my style of preaching, my length of a service, and my ... (you get the picture).
This is a real question, worthy of our very real contemplation. Would we let Jesus, the King himself, preach in our pulpits? Would he be too radical? Would he run off our most influential members? Would he care? What if attacked some of our most sacred holdings; our building, our ministries, our ministers, our missions, our YOUR most precious spiritual connection. Would you be ready to escort him to the door so that we could continue to protect what we have and continue in OUR (not his) direction? What if he told us to give up what we have for the poor, what then? Oh, wait, ... he already did.
What will it take for the church to be His, again? His instead of belonging to ourselves, a hideous misrepresentation of what He died to start and lives until He returns to see bringing him glory.
I used to listen to and sing a song by Keith Green every week before I would preach or teach. It would not take long before I was reduced to tears. It seemed to transform me from whatever I had thought I might have created, into a being charged and moved my the Spirit of God. I hope I will begin to listen to the song again as I speak, teach, and worship.
