I used to love following politics as a child. To read about candidates, congressmen, senators and presidents use to thrill me. To follow the stories during an election period was a fun hobby! I even liked following the world political scene.Not any more.
As I look around the last few years I have grown weary of broken promises, back-biting and scandals. I don't enjoy the political double-speak, gossip and innuendo. The behind the scenes shenanigans disgust me. It seems everyone is out for their own benefit and want to topple the guy or girl above them anyway possible.
Now read that last paragraph and you can say the same thing about church politics! Sin and selfishness run rampant in both.
If you are still reading this than you are probably like me, tired of it all.
I love seeing the body of Christ gathering together to worship. I love hearing the Word preached and to see people loving one another.
Yet it's the behind the scenes stuff that tears the church apart and makes us no different than the world around us. I remember being invited to speak at a church about missions and after the service my wife and I were invited to lunch at a parishioners house. They just had to have a quick, tidy vote on a new pastor. As we packed up our display table, you could hear the weeping and gnashing of teeth emanating from the back room. The door would open and someone would come running out sobbing and grabbing increasingly younger and younger kids to quickly enroll as members to sway the vote their way!
Granted, this is an extreme (I hope) case. Yet how many reading this have heard or participated in church gossip? Or as we try to sanctify it "prayer requests for brother so and so who did this, that and the other!"
1 Corinthians 13:13 says, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Love. Is the love of Christ emanating from your life today? Are you having issues in your church? Is the sin and selfishness coming from you?
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
Let's leave the politics to the world. Let's operate our churches in love!
3 comments:
We knew a couple that would pre-plan their church commitment to never last more than about two years in one place. I asked them about this once and they said as soon as they felt they "were getting too close," it was time to move on. Wow! Most people want to get "close" or be part of the inner circle. But they were simply too wise to the politics that can takes place to want to have to deal with it again. So they avoided the potential brokenness and hurt.
Makes sense to me!
We need to check our own and pray for the body of Christ to recommit to biblical integrity.
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