Church as an Idol

Sometimes the fundamentals of why we walk the Christian life is lost amidst pride and politics. Having been in both the inner circle (leadership of college group) as well as outer fringe (layperson, not really involved other than Sundays), I've had this tension of wanting to be back in that inner circle yet realizing that the realities/burdens of my schedule will prevent that from happening. Steadily, this created a quasi-identity crisis in my role in the church, leading to thoughts of leaving to get a fresh start.

But then last night, something just clicked. I realized that the Christian life is not about where you belong in the church, what roles you play, or what positions you have. No! What matters is that your life is filled with the joy and peace of knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior and in that spirit, your daily attitude on life and the people around you would be filled with an overflow of love. Love. It's not about titles or how much mileage the church gets through you. It's about Jesus and His love for his people.

But we can't keep it bottled up to ourselves - this stuff is too good to just let sit dormantly in our own hearts. That's why we share the Gospel, and I think that's partly where the role of the church comes in, which is in instruction of good doctrine so that we are better equipped to share the good news. That being said, I think for the past few years I've allowed church to become an idol, as the institution and organization of the local church became more important than experiencing the Gospel.

It is liberating to remember that we do not live solely to serve the institutional church, but to experience the life-changing power and love of Christ.