Don't stop meeting together...

If I’m honest I’ve never really been much of a fan of going to church. Don’t get me wrong, I’m passionate about God and Jesus and worship and other Christians etc. but it’s just church I struggle with. The church is filled with human beings and will therefore never be perfect, I accept that and also know that I am as bad as the worst of them. I’ve recently read an excellent book by David Murrow called Why Men Hate Going to Church. I would recommend it to anyone, both male and female. Having read it I now understand a little better why I don’t love attending church and have been given some good ideas on how churches could change in order to better accommodate men. However, it doesn’t give me all the answers and doesn’t help me cope until those changes are made (and let‘s face it some of the changes will never be made). Yet, I’m commanded to attend church and therefore that is what I do. I’d be interested to hear if others feel the same.

I’ve never been entirely convinced of the analogy of the church being a fire and when a coal is removed it survives for a while but then goes out. I was thinking about the whole church issue and coals dying when removed whilst I was gardening the other day. In one of those moments of clarity I believe God gave me a new analogy that for me made far more sense and also brought with it a challenge.
I was studying a group of sunflowers that are in desperate need of attention. They like us are growing towards the sun (son), reaching heavenwards, growing and flourishing. They’ve been planted and watered and with the heat from the sun have grown to their present height. However, as I previously stated, they now need attention. If they are not staked and tethered the wind will snap their stalks. If they are not watered the will shrivel and die. It the soil around them is not weeded the weeds will over-take them and crowd out their light. If they are not fed they will grow weak and feeble and may not reach maturity. If their seeds are not gathered in there will be no future sunflowers from this line.

And so it is with us Christians. We can survive on our own, at least for a little while. As we look heavenwards and lean towards the Son we need to be tended and cared for. We need to be encouraged to grow and enabled to flourish. We need to be pruned and shaped, fed and watered. We may be able to feed and water ourselves through on-line sermons and private devotionals. However, the weeds creep up un-noticed and we’re not brave enough to prune ourselves. It is in meeting with each other that we provide support against the storms of life. We feed off each other and lead each other to water. It is together that our fruit is recognised and harvested and that our gifts are recognised and honed and used.

I love Proverbs 27: 17 which states that As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. As we meet together we sharpen one another, we help to bring each other into focus. We help give each other that edge that we need to grow as Christians.
So the challenge!! I see the challenge as two-fold. Firstly, are we being supported by our church, are we being fed and watered? Are our gifts being identified, practised, honed and used? Are we supported and are we being anchored to the stake which is Jesus? Are people helping us in clearing the weeds out of our lives and are we being pruned and disciplined? If not why not? Are we allowing people that freedom in our lives to help us? So what happens if we find ourselves in churches where this isn’t happening? Well I believe that we need to be proactive. I reckon most Pastors or Vicars would be thrilled if you sat down with them and said that you would like more personal discipling or discipline or want to discover your gifts and start to put them into practise. Pastors are surely longing for their congregations to be taking radical steps to move forward with God. If you take this step and your pastor doesn’t respond it is then that you need to seriously question why you are going to that particular church. The pastor won’t always have the time themselves to explore with you in the depth that you would like, but he should have the time to find someone to get alongside you.

Secondly, are we being all theses things for those around us? Are we encouraging others to grow and giving them all we can to enable that growth? Are we being a weed in anybody’s life that is stunting their growth?

This analogy has certainly helped me in thinking through lots of different issues, I hope you’ll find it useful also.