Many years ago B.C. (before children), Tina and I were attending a church that we had been at for a couple of years and found ourselves at a place where we were rather discouraged with our “church experience”. It happened to also be the church that my parents were also attending, so our typical Sunday looked like Tina and I getting up and driving from our second story apartment in East Town (Grand Rapids) and driving to our church in Rockford. We would walk in, find the pew my parents were sitting in (yes we still used pew’s back in the olden days) sat with them, did a little singing, listened to a sermon that occasionally held my interest, stood during the final prayer, and then walked out to my Escort Pony and drove to my parents house for lunch before we would head back to our apartment. This was our Sunday routine, week after week, and after several years of this, we found ourselves looking at each other thinking, “there has to be more to church than this.”
Church had become to us the sum of its parts - singing, sermons, and corporate prayer once a week. And, to a large extent, it was also the sum total of our spiritual activities on a weekly basis. We weren’t exactly sure what was missing, but we did know, that for the most part, we were very disconnected from the 800ish people that sat in the rest of the pews each Sunday morning. So, what did we do? Well, we did what most 20 something newly married couples might do, we started looking for a church that was more welcoming, inviting, and friendly. It didn’t take long for us to realize that that was a very naïve way to think about this problem. We thought our issue was “out there” and we just needed to go find it at a more engaging church. What we didn’t know was that our issue was really “in here”, our own hearts. We weren’t missing biblically based theologically sound preaching, we had that. We weren’t missing dynamic genuine corporate worship, we had that. We weren’t missing being a part of a vibrant church that cared about inviting the Holy Spirit into it’s every activity through prayer, we had that. What was missing was that we weren’t taking responsibility for our own engagement. We were waiting for someone to come to us and invite us into community. We were waiting for the church to do its job and connect with us – how naive. What we came to realize was if we wanted to build relationships with people in the church, we were going to have to dig in and be intentional about building that ourselves.
Over time we learned that the Christian life is not simply including a number of “spiritual” activities into our weekly routine. The Christian life is all about following Jesus and following Jesus is not a solo endeavor. We follow Jesus best when we do it in a community of His people. That’s what we were missing. That’s why we felt like there had to be more to the Christian life then attending a worship service on a Sunday morning, because there is more – much more, we need people.
Today, as I write this, I can reflect on a number of people who we started “doing life” with back in our 20’s who are still part of our lives today (25 years later), and yes, we found them at the same church we were sure we needed to leave to find community. There is no doubt in my mind that I would not be where I am today if it wasn’t for the ways in which God has used these people in my life over the last few decades, and most of it had nothing to do with a Sunday morning worship service. Our time together includes living rooms, hospital rooms, long conversations sitting in cars in driveways, restaurants, baseball games, campfires, and cruise decks. I’m so grateful that God showed us that the Christian life is an engaged life. A life characterized by the hard, yet rewarding, life of cultivating relationships of grace and truth.
This Sunday, I will have a lot more to say about living the engaged life as a Christian, and how we as a church want to come along side you and help you dig in and see that there is more to the Christian life than coming to church on Sunday mornings. Ironically, we’ll see you this Sunday morning at 9:30 or 11:00.
Guest blogger: Pastor Matt Mead