churches

Christians search for that perfect church one where they can belong to as part of God's body. But churches are never perfect. And why should they be? If there is one thing i know about my LORD is he loves imperfect. He loves us. And churches are made up of very imperfect christians. Humans are imperfect. Even in the world there are no perfect organisations.

And churches are very different from each other. To be expected because we are different and have different needs and passions. I have belonged to awesome churches and not so good ones, even ones that were great and became very bad.

I wonder what makes a good church? For me, the most important criteria is illustrated by that church that went wrong. It's going to seem obvious when i say it and people take it for granted that all churches are led this way...but...anyway...they must be God led - God's vision for that church no matter how big or small, helps that church fit into the Lord's body, everyone fulfilling their God given purpose...a primary vision or purpose.

If it's not led by the LORD and he walks out the door waiting to be invited back...nothing will come of that church. Even if it does good works - it's not the good works the LORD planned in advance for that church. They can wander around in the desert for as long as it takes.

Two other keys for me are RELEVANCE and UNITY. These two words illustrate that we are IN the world but not OF the world.

A united church shows the world a different example - the example of Father, Son and Holy Spirit...united as ONE but each fulfiling a different role. A family. For me this starts with the leadership team. They are the examples we aspire to and try to follow...if they say one thing and do another, if they don't know how to be a team...if they are not God led and blow with the wind...then how is that different from the world's example? In fact some in the world do unity better, do family better :(

A relevant church reaches out and touches worldly lives. It's not stuck in a century long gone, but adapts to the community around them. Jesus is timeless. One of the things I love about him is his ability to meet the need of whoever he was talking to - he knew them, their greatest trouble, their worse fears and deepest need and he gave them a different option.

He was the Son of God so of course he's the author of discernment. But if we want to be like him, then we need to get to know our local community, not just the bigger picture...save the world...but who ever is in front of our eyes...our neighbours.

And then we need to offer them a different option - that works....yip it has to work...and it can't just be window dressing...otherwise people will leave disillusioned. Our Lord was always sincere and never offered something he couldn't deliver - false hope belongs to Satan, not to believers of the One true God.

Like us churches are works in progress. Like us, they develop a relationship with the LORD over the years. And this relationship like any other has ups and downs. Do I belong to a church that fits these 3 things that are important to me?

We are only a couple of years old so it's very early days for us...i think we are trying to be God led, relevant and united. We are trying to build a family that functions well together. It's a beginning. We have made mistakes but like I said, churches, like people, are not perfect.