The church is terribly disconnected. Imagine a body where every joint is dislocated. Worse, every digit, limb and organ is separated and fiercely independent from the rest of the even-less-considered body. That's essentially how the church as it 'exists' persists in it's individuality. Within a congregation and how those congregations lack interaction, is exactly describing this body that ceases to be as the apostle Paul originally described the church. It ceases to be the same church envisioned by Jesus in his prayer for unity in John chapter seventeen (pause to read this, especially after verse twenty). Go on, read that (seriously) and maybe while you're at it, read some of Paul's letters (because they're 'divinitively' more capable of addressing my point [and yes I just made that word up]).
Okay, I hope we're on the same page here, after you've gone and read what I've suggested. I must ask though, did you see the same church Paul was encouraging us to be, as is what is existing today? No? I didn't think so. I really think it would be great if we just forego sermons and read whole books of the Bible. That's essentially what the church did initially for the first couple of centuries. When they received a letter, they would read it- in it's entirety- and discussed what it meant. Today, we 'study' a letter verse by verse and word by word, but lose it's true meaning in the meaningless and seemingly endless definitions of english words (yes, I'm criticising how adult bible study is done in most churches- completely worthless).
Okay, that last paragraph was basically a parenthetical rant that was completely off-topic. What I hope you see is that we need to reconnect with one another. Even I, as a self confessed introvert, see how unbalanced we are. I admit, I need my Christian brothers and sisters. I need them much more than I admit. I need them to confess my sins to. I need them to cry on when things are going wrong. I need them to correct me when I'm in the wrong. I need them to direct me when I need direction. I need them... to be connected to Christ.
Yes... that's right. You need your church family to be connected to Christ. As much as some people would like to live their lives declaring how they don't need the Church, that they are a Church of one member, or people at church are hypocrites... you can't be connected to Christ without being connected to the Church. And yet, even those attending church try to keep to their individual self, never really becoming part of the body.
What really hurts, is how churches are not cooperating with one another. We declare autonomous functionality to prevent 'heresies' from spreading, but we fail to allow the good teachings to spread as well. There is no New Testament example for autonomous churches that I have seen (if I'm mistaken, please show me credible verses in context, and I'll reply with verses to support my next statement). In fact, I see evidence for quite the opposite, even spanning across cities. This was in the days before planes, trains and automobiles! So why are we so adamant about being separating from each other. Sadly again, it's because these churches within the same city limits have been 'multiplied' by division. There's still some ancient bad blood, that no one under the age of 80 actually remembers why they initially split. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but not too far off. And yet, how much does the Bible encourage unity of the body? We've splintered to pieces and have declared a hatred for one another so harsh that we even doubt 'their' salvation!
How can we even claim that Christ is the head of the church when we have behaved so adversely to what the Bible has commanded? I cannot proclaim that churches of Christ are following the New Testament as other church leaders would. I can only hope that someone (or many) who have 'rightly' earned the ear of those who proclaim Christ as Lord, is (are) making similar statements. We are a dismembered and decapitated church.
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