Gospel of Grace? The Gospel Is Grace! (and church smells too good)

 "hmmmm"
If the Gospel of Grace is for the lost, Why does
the church house smell so good?

When I was a kid, it wasn't uncommon for us to stay in church all day long. Sometimes we'd even have multiple offerings in which we would have to give more than once, as though the first few times we were holding back something that was intended for the church, and God could tell.

My grandfather was a preacher. Done some preaching myself, so I've seen the transition from inside of the church. What I've witnessed is a shifting of the congregation. Folks who were tired of the big churches have moved to little churches, and vice versa. Except for the folks who gave up on church altogether. I am not one of those people, but I am utterly exhausted with the corporate mentality of the modern day church.

I am NOT here to claim that running the church is not a business when clearly it is. My belief is that for the vast majority of American Christian churches, the business of church has drowned out the message of Grace.

Grace is the cornerstone of the gospel, yet it has been used as a primary tool for recruitment. It's not a popular message to deliver or receive, so the truth about grace is often offered with denominational caveats so as to convince the parish that they are more qualified for salvation than new converts or confused denominations. After all, John 3:16 couldn't be all there is to this thing...could it?

Churches have been struggling for membership for all of my lifetime (I'm closer to 50 than 40).  Back in the day, they used to tell you to bring somebody in to church with you each week to "show yourself approved".  Knowledgeable visitors would share the "hands off" signal by sending greetings from whatever church they used to attend, even though their pastor had no clue that they were visiting on that day, or where they'd been recently.  Sinner's in need would come openly to church,  but had better prepare to "give in" to the alter call or risk an extended prayer warning them not to miss their opportunity at salvation.  The entire song and dance is an orchestrated fiasco that ONLY occurs on those days when strangers and unsubscribed patrons take a seat in the pew. Those raised within this tradition grew to understand that salvation was free....but it required a cleaned up visit to the alter and a holy calling out by the pastor.  And then it was free.

STINKY CHURCH

Every so often, some really drunk person would come to church and create a real scene.  I always found myself looking back and forth at the preacher and the new visitor to see if the "come to the Lord" sermon would ensue.  It never did.  Instead, deacons and ushers were trained to save the good smelling people from the bad smelling people who always used to come along every so often.  Sometimes the simplicity of youth gets lost inside of the complexity of life, but I never quite understood why the whole church didn't stink a little bit more.

Everything that the pastor preached about was openly represented in the lives of those stinky people, but no church seemed to have a taste for their presence.  I've seen the scene enough to know that most holiness churches are guilty of this (not sure what Catholics or Lutherans do with drunkards).  Anything that doesn't fit the norm stands out like a sore thumb.  Visitors and stinky people top the list.

Sometimes those stinky people would clean themselves up and return the next week, but that didn't happen a lot.  Mostly, those people were quickly removed and never heard from again.  The reason can be debated but the message was clear to my young impressionable mind.  Only come to church when you are cleaned up, washed up and smelling good.

I no longer suffer from the guilt of attending church because I realize that church has been redefined.  I am the church...and so are you.  However, the commandment that we must follow, to forsake not the fellowship, is one that can be fulfilled in a myriad of ways so long as you make no mistake about the purpose of your gathering.  In other words, prisoner's in jail can certainly fellowship through sports just as long as they do it in the name of Jesus.  Christ did not lay down his life so that Grace could increase church attendance.  He himself spent very little time inside of the synagogue.  Christ, Emmanuel, God With Us, came so that his church (which lives inside of all believer's) could be taken to the stinking masses, so that they might see Him inside of  themselves too.

The church you attend might help you make better decisions, but if your decisions are not in line with Christ, neither shall your life be regardless of your church of choice or choice not to church.    Discipline and commitment are never wasted behaviors and attending any church will help to develop both.  Hearing the voice of God as spoken through his ministerial messengers is beyond useful, it is vital.  Yet, as you dive inside of the Bible for yourself (another commandment), you quickly discover that the pastor is often confirming the very message that God already laid in your spirit.  Why is that?

Where There Is No Division, There Is No Conflict.

YOU are the church, and the message of the ONE is for the one true church, or the listening Body of believers. Every message that you can preach about God can virtually be encapsulated into the completeness of ONE.  Where there is no division, there is no conflict.  Christ attempted to model behavior and eliminate guilt for those times when our behavior deviates from the model, but he did it all by pointing the path back to ONE, or the Origin. Love is perfected in ONEness, and perfect love knows no division.  For a religion that has become virtually stagnant, especially in America, the continued growth of Christian denominations   (aka., divisions) makes a haunting statement about the future of the organized religion called Christianity.

DIVIDENDS?!

Denominations have revealed the subconscious truth that most believers are looking for a dividend.  If I join a church (or religion) because the practices are more stringent than another church, I am indirectly qualifying myself as more justified for my willingness to endure more rules.  In other words, if you left one church (or religion) believing that God is just as likely to save your old church as he is your new church, would you have ever left?  Dividends.

Or how about if you pay tithes? Would you be mad at God if a non-tither was caught in the rapture before you?  Have you ever paid tithes, but it felt like God was taking forever to "honor your giving" as the pastor promised?  Sometimes the dividend is more earthly bound like large church anonymity or being able to smoke a cigarette after a long Baptist sermon, but in the end, denominations are offering dividends by planting the seeds of religious division among lost sinners, looking for a way to confirm their choice of religiosity.

WHAT'S IN A NAME??!!

If religion is of the devil, and I believe that it is, he makes his presence felt right on the entrance to the modern church building.  What's in a name?  Everything and nothing at all.  We have to call ourselves by some recognizable description, but is it vital that we separate Christ, and thus God, into so many separate belief systems and practices?  I love God too much not to believe that His church is out there.  Denominational affiliations can hamper the spirit of truth, but truth overcomes all obstacles and always finds itself into the hearts of those who seek it earnestly.

For the sake of the fellowship command, I will always support the fellowship practice commonly called "the church". I may even find one that I can call my own someday again.  Until that day, I will visit fellowships hopeful to find ONE unafraid of the equalizing message of Grace (God Bless You Joseph Prince).  When I do, I have a feeling that it will be kinda stinky.