6 Jul 2011

Colossians 3:16

Posted by joncooper

Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

We don’t really do much of this anymore. Instead we go to church, sing a few songs, get preached at for 45 minutes, and then go home. We don’t teach or admonish each other. We’re passive; we sit there while someone talks at us for a long time, with no real opportunity to interrupt or get clarification. You may be able to hunt down the preacher and talk to him for a few seconds after the service, but the chances are he’s already run off to go eat. Some people have gone to church three times a week for the better part of 60 years, and yet after all that they still know very little about the Bible. (Imagine what you could learn about, say, knitting if you took three hour-long classes a week for six decades!) Theological ignorance is rampant, on a truly appalling level.

On top of that, churches are oddly impersonal. People go to church, act like everything is going great in their life, and then go home. If you’re looking for some good Christian friends to help you over the rough spots in your life, well, chances are you’re out of luck. Churches are not places where people go, confess their sins, and then help each other live more godly lives. They’re more like a spiritual obligation – you feel like you have to go, even though going is a pain and people in the hallways are more likely to talk about sports than God. I’ve often wondered if people go to church because it makes a genuine difference in their life, or if it’s because they’ve been told since childhood that all good Christians go to church and the really good ones go to every service.

The early church was different; there people gathered together as a family. They knew each other’s burdens and cares, and they encouraged one another. Everyone had something to teach, or something to add, or something to give. It was more like a family than a lecture. Today our churches are impersonal; you can go to a church for years and never learn anything about the people who sit behind you. Not only do churches demand little, but there aren’t many opportunities. They seem designed more for comfort than personal growth.

Maybe I am just growing old and intolerant. It just seems that our churches today are largely a waste of time and do little to actually help people grow spiritually. They could be so much more than what they are.

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