Church ≠God

Church ≠God
Religion ≠ God

What if we as Christians, and yes I put myself in this category, are making the Church, God?
What happens if this is true?

Maybe this is why so many try to be so busy in church, and forget about God.
Maybe this is why instead of prayer; we are too busy arguing over how church should be.
Maybe this is why churches fight over people for membership and ignore growing the Kingdom of God.

Could this be why so many get so upset when things change, because we are changing their God?

Our church has been "mixing it up" a bit, and within the youth minstry we have been changing a lot. Mostly corriculum and retreats we go on, but also we painted over a certain room that had a lot of history and changed up some of the adults helping. I knew that there would be some struggle with the change, but what came to pass was much more. Essentially, youth and parent alike, were struggling with the changes a lot, but most could not figure out "why?" Just that we changed it.
I wondered why it was such a struggle with not really a reason. I came upon the thought that maybe we as Christians have made church a substitute for God. Maybe people spend time at church and that is spending time with God. Maybe people are on so many commities at church thinking it makes them better in God's eyes. Maybe they struggled so much with these changes because we were esentially changing "God."

Think about this:
What are some things that you experienced in a Christian or Religious setting that made you not want to be Christian, or not stay at a certain church or with a certain religious group?
Do you still struggle with these things when you are in a church setting?


What if the purpose of Church is not to make God like us more, to get us into Heaven, to have the greatest building, to do the most perfect rituals, or to teach the most relevant programming, but maybe the purpose of the Church is to bring fellow believers together in a faith community challenging each other to grow in faith, hope, and love. Sharing our stories of how Christ has made a difference in our lives, reading scripture to find hope and guidance and understand who God is, and love God with everything we have and love our neighbors as ourselves. INSIDE OUT


this was a pretty random ramble so take it as you will, i am sleepy :-)