What Changed?

What Changed?

So what changed for me?  Well, after my life changing experience with Christ (church people call it salvation, or being saved), God granted me a passion to see lives changed for him.  I wanted people to see that God loves them no matter what they look like, how much money they have, what they wear, or what color their skin is.  I wanted people to know that God loves them even when they've played Church their entire life.

God had blessed our church with an abundance of youth and children on Wednesday nights.  In fact, we ran three and four buses multiple trips just to keep the kids coming.  Many of the kids came from abusive homes, most came from broken homes, and some were convicted juvenile offenders.   I mean, if you wanted a target rich environment for sharing the love of God, this was it!!  But you see, the Devil isn’t really open to God’s people sharing the gospel with people that need to hear it; especially our youth and children.  In fact, he will do whatever he has to do to stop such a good thing, even if he has to use other Church members to do it.  You see, most Christians fail to realize just how significant Jesus’ life on Earth was.  They fail to see that Christ changed an entire culture.  Just look in the bible (if you don’t have one, visit www.biblegateway.com) at the book of John, Chapter 4, beginning in verse 4 through verse 9.   You see, Jesus and the disciples were Jews, and according to the Bible, the Jews despised the Samaritans.  In fact, if a Jew were to be discovered talking to a Samaritan, criminal charges could be brought against the Jew.  But Jesus knew that the Love of God had no limitations and that same love was much greater than man made traditions.   In this passage, Jesus met the Woman at the Well and asked her for water and ultimately proceeded to witness to her.  In that time, no self respecting Jewish man would be caught dead with a Samaritan prostitute.  But again, Jesus knew her need to hear about the love of God.  Compare this passage with what goes on in most churches today.  Seems like we’ve become modern day Jews looking down on the Samaritans.

In my case, most of the leadership of the Church I was in at the time, decided that the youth and children needed a written dress code in order to attend our church.  Simply put, the leadership of the church wasn’t willing to accept the youth and children as they were.  They failed to see, like the Jews failed to see, that the love of God didn’t put limitations on the clothes the kids wore.  In fact, Jesus is quoted as saying in Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  The leadership of our Church felt they weren’t seeing a “Change” in the youth thus the need for a dress code.  Many of us stood our ground and protested the policy with numerous scriptural references with little biblical reference to substantiate the actions of the leadership.  I felt at this time as though God was leading my family and I to move on.  I realized shortly thereafter that I was extremely Spiritually Wounded.  In fact, my whole family was wounded and in desperate need of healing.  My sister had invited us to visit with her and her husband at their church, Golden Corner Church, which met on Sunday mornings in the Walhalla High School.  She insisted that we come as we are and that we not dress up.  As I write this blog, we have been attending Golden Corner ever since and below are some of the things God has revealed to me.

1.       God created the family before he created the church- This is obvious if we begin in Genesis when God created Adam and Eve.  In fact, the Church didn’t come about until many years later, and when it did, the Church was not indicative of a building or structure. I wonder if Moses built a church building every time they camped while in the wilderness?  Many Christians believe that church attendance is essential to Godliness and while important, it does not rank as high as our family.  After all, what church was Jesus a member of while on Earth?  What if, we spent more time with our kids than we did arguing about the paint on the walls?  What would society be like when their generation is in charge?

2.       God could really care less about what we wear to Church on Sunday morning- This became evident to me one Sunday after church.  We went to Ryan’s in Seneca after the service for lunch.  Golden Corner’s service began at 10:00am and was usually over by 11:30 so we beat the typical Baptist crowd by about 30 minutes.  As the usual church crowd began filtering in, I noticed many of the people wearing suits and dresses kept giving me mean looks because I was wearing a tee shirt, shorts, and flip flops.  I wonder if those people have ever read, 1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

3.       God wants us to enjoy worshipping him- Why would God want somebody to worship him out of obligation?  Would you want somebody to go out with you or marry you out of obligation?  Of course not and neither does God.  Contrary to popular belief, it is not biblical that we sing three hymns, take the offering, have a message, and an invitation in that order.  God desperately longs for a relationship with us and wants to have meaningful communication with us.  One of the many ways we communicate with God is through worship.

Now, I don’t mean to lump all Baptist’ in the same wagon.  There are many Baptist churches that come to mind how are actively engaged in community outreach.  I think it is more appropriate that I should equate my opinions to, “traditional church goers”.  I’ll admit, it’s tough to minister to people of different cultures, races, upbringings, and backgrounds, but what exactly do we think Jesus did?  Jesus didn’t care about the Jewish law forbidding contact with Samaritans!  I’ve learned that God’s love is greater far than an old “traditional church goer” like me…