FED UP!!!!!!

I am pretty upset right now with us - "us" being the traditional churches of Christ. I'm upset because I care. If I didn't care and I weren't committed, I'd jump ship. I don't jump ship, not because I believe the coc is the only right group, or even the "closest group" around to the "new testament church". I don't leave mostly because it's my heritage. I am what and who I am a lot because of my affiliation with this non-denominational denomination. I stay because I still see and hear people stating that they want only to be Christians, nothing more, nothing less.

Three major things about me == I am totally sold out to Jesus, I want to see thousands and thousands come to KNOW Jesus as LORD AND SAVIOR, and I want to see all of them grow up to be just like Jesus in every part of their lives and bring others to HIM. To these ends, I try to do all that I do - preach Sundays, write, teach college classes in communication, act, spend time with others over breakfast, lunch, or coffee, etc.

It is also because of these things I get so frustrated with us! I am angry at how satan can and does use conflict over such minor issues like instrumental music in videos in church, or singing with them or singing with a praise team, or seeing videos that make us feel uncomfortable because they are bloody (scenes from Mel Gibson's "The Passion"), or women praying in the presence of men, or women passing communion trays in an assembly, or . . . as if the major, primary thing God is interested in in all the universe is what we do during that hour to hour and a half on Sunday mornings that we call worship.

First of all, God never called it worship, never commanded it, never authorized it, never mandated things be done or not be done in this "worship" which He never commanded nor authorized! Secondly, this thing we call worship (or corporate worship) is something we have inherited and constructed for more than 2,000 years of tradition being handed down primarily from the Roman Catholic Church. WE have taken this "holy construct" and determined all the things we are allowed by God to do or not to do within that time frame. WE then read this entire worship structure back into our Bibles to justify our conclusions, argue with each other, and ultimately divide the loving followers of Jesus into various worship camps. Thirdly, WE do this at the expense of reaching the world with the good news of Jesus! While we bicker and haggle over minor, unimportant, and non-biblical issues (like worship), the world (our own families and friends) are running blindly and wildly headlong into an eternity into a raging hell of separation from the God who loves them! But that seems ok with us -- as long as we "worship on Sunday correctly" - because that is what God is all about! That is why Jesus came and did all that HE did - so we could "worship God in spirit and in truth."

I'm here to tell you - it is not worship either in spirit or truth - if we celebrate, praise, eat the Lord's Supper, pray, study, give, fellowship - all to worship God and ignore all week long either living under HIS lordship or worshiping HIM everyday in serving others and NEVER TELL A SINGLE PERSON ABOUT JESUS, we mock the Jesus we claim to follow! How can we ever say that we are worshiping Christ if we neglect any of these?

To be continued in next blog: