Church

Looking for a church here in Louisville has been a different experience for me. Since my early childhood, my family has been on the front end of churches. In other words, my dad started them! So I have never had to look for church in this way before.

In a certain sense, I feel like I’m shopping for a new car. I go to a church, watch it in action (from an objective perspective), and then I ask, “So what kind of deal can you give me?” They then give their sales pitch. That doesn’t feel right. It is a phenomenon foreign to the early church. At that time, there was one church per city. If lived in Corinth, you were a part of the Corinthian Church. It would have been much like Christ Fellowship (remember that cities were not as big back then) with home congregations, etc. But now we have a new problem–many different churches in one area (some just down the street from one another!).

I have come to realize even more how far we have come from the early church model. The pulpit, the pew, the staff, the worship team, the communion table that says, “This do in remembrance of Me,” and even the modern definition of preaching are quite a way off. Really, the model is half Catholic. The reformers were great. They saw a lot of the extraneous formality and deadening institutionalization of the Catholics. But they didn’t quite go far enough in their reformation. The got only half-way. I am increasingly convinced that this country needs a revolution in church life. This is not to say that many great things don’t happen within this kind of church, it just that the model itself is not very conducive to vitality and fellowship.

One example of of the feeling I get can be viewed in the terminology I hear. People say, “I go to this church.” The church is understood subconsciously to be an entity by itself. You go to it. It is an institution. But, biblically, the wording should be something like this: “I am this church. I am a part of this body.” I really had a feeling of being part of the body at CF. I hope I can find that here. 

Having said all of that, I do think I will find a good church. And when I do, I will join it and participate with enthusiasm! It is really not all bad. In fact, I visited a church last Sunday that I enjoyed very much.

I am tired of pulpits, though!

Keep praying.