I've arrived at a place in the journey called disillusionment. I haven't the foggiest clue how I got here either. But here I am, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse. Disillusionment is a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be. That's where I am with church. And I'm not sure if my questions caused my disillusionment, or disillusionment caused my questions. I know someone will let me know which it is at some point. Why do I see what I see? Why do I care so much? I've asked questions about church before. I get mixed reactions, but very few answers. (by questions I mean, what is it, really?) Each of them though are shot down with some semi-logical explanation. But there is one less easily explained away. Remember the church in Ephesus. The Lord praised the church for their hard work, perseverance, and orthodoxy. They had the exterior image down. But God had one thing against them. They forsook their first love. And his promise? If they didn't return to their first love, He would go to them and remove their lampstand from its place. But here's the question as I heard it asked. If God came to us and removed our lampstand from its place, would we notice?
4 comments:
Is the disappointment stemming from unanswered questions or from the fact that you have questions to ask?
Church comes from Eklesia,the weird thing is that "Iglesia" is the Spanish word for Church. Iglesia for me is the people. Don't you think that our disappointment with the church is because we are trying to place high expectations on people in the church? what if we realize that everybody is as broken, as ragamuffin, as human, as sinner, as real, as angry, as bitter, as so normal than me...do you think our concept of church could change? The stage of disillusionment is a great place to be because it takes us to see ourselves and HOW much we need of Him.....
Anna, the disappointment seems to stem from the unanswered questions. I'm not referring to verbatim answers though as in an argument. What I'm feeling is the gnawing awareness of something missing or wrong and the lack of attention to it, not to mention a solution. Even this begs the question if I'm engaged to be a spiritual change agent in all of this. It means nothing if I'm not willing to do my part in this. So, yes, but disappointment also includes my own lack of understanding in this.
I read King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" for the first time this month.
I thought of you and your thoughts when I read of his disappointments with the church of the day, "Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?"
So I guess where I was going with this is that the things we are facing now have been observed before. Things have been missing for a very long time.
But now we have to be the agents of change.. We see that the church is too caught up in status quo or we feel something is wrong - what's missing? Is it Jesus? - It's on us now. :)
Jesus has to be at the center of the church, if He isn't, then things should feel off kilter.
Post a Comment