Facing My Fears in Today's Church - Part 2

Fear-Facing.

Fear carries an angle in which Satan would just love to sneak into the kitchens, foyers and sanctuaries of our churches. He would use this angle to creep into our homes, restaurants and any brotherly gathering from Monday to Saturday as well. Our fear is used as a distraction, keeping us focused on social agenda, keeping us easily offended at one another, keeping us ready to do doctrinal battle with each other.

God, on the other hand, tells us in His word that power, love and self-control are from Him. Imagine a group of believers with just those 3 items...they’re a recipe for perfection! They totally stomp out fear. I ask myself, “When I think about the people at church, do I say ‘I thank my God every time I remember you’...or ‘Their love has given me much joy and comfort’ ...or ‘I appeal to you on the basis of love?’” I can think of many times I have had very little if no self-control during a conversation with a brother or sister in Christ. How can I even expect to see power when my self-discipline and care for those around me are currently performing so low.

There is so much community built upon love in Christ and so much destroyed by fear and pride. Church wasn’t meant to be defined by our services or our constitution. It was meant to be defined by Christ living through His people 24/7, being His hands and His feet; not only toward the lost, but toward each other.

Idle Coffee.

 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 ESV

Something happily overlooked all too often, is the command to help each other out. We all have needs – physical, emotional, spiritual...etc. We have all gone through highs and lows and will likely always have that bumpy road to cruise on in this life. If we were designed to be “all good” on our own, God could have made a little island for each of us to make camp, however, God’s perfect design was not so.

You’re sitting across the two-seater table with your friend at the cafè down the street; you start to talk about life. As you sip your hot morning’s brew, you listen to her speak about her wonderful husband, children on the honour role and the topic of her daily devotional read. Isn’t this nice. You reciprocate by smiling and thinking of a few things going well in your life too so that you can return them in conversation. You want to keep this lovely mood that matches it’s partnered environment. Perhaps you chime in about the extra wait in traffic this morning and she might even admit that she burnt her dessert last night, but the topics otherwise consist of cordial pleasantries.

Is this picture depicting a strange resemblance to that of the church family life we see today? It is for me. Don’t picture only the four walls around the church sanctuary enclosing a large group singing a hymn, rather, think of the family you invited out for lunch after church, the elderly lady in the lodge that you visit because she’s too frail to attend services any longer, or the friend you talk to who attends the other church across town. Church family. We are commanded to carry their burdens! Are our services, our lunch dates, our visits filled just with simple and pleasant fluff?

Maybe your coffee date consists of bashing and trashing the person(s) not present. Maybe the friend across from you likes nothing more than to rag on and on about everything her husband did wrong this week or how her neighbour’s kids have been a terrible influence. Is this the image that comes to mind when we recall our social encounters with each other?

Scripture does not call us to grumble in order to temporarily alleviate some of our stresses. God doesn’t want us using our time on this earth tearing others down. We were meant to encourage and build one another up! We cannot ignore our burdens nor can we pretend that complaining is how you bear them. Idle chatter and/or gossip are both sins and are both not the answer.

What does bearing burdens look like?

When it’s time to share our burdens, it’s something personal or spiritually heavy on our hearts. Struggles in our lives that we battle in our mission to serve Christ, hardships we face in this life are tearing us down, something important on our minds that God is using to teach us.

The verb in this verse from Galatians 6 is “bear”.  

From the Greek bastazo: I carry, carry away, bear, to take up, endured

This “burden” is not just a weight. Figuratively the definition encompasses : what has value, : significance (from baros in the Greek).

We’re not only supposed to go out and sip a yummy cappuccino and confess our burnt pies while we know darn well that our hot water tank burst this morning and the basement is flooded. We aren’t supposed to sit there and nod while listening to our friend tell the tale of their neighbour’s burnt pie. We are supposed to share the heavy things in our lives that matter so that someone can help with the weighted load. We are to be an ear for the broken-hearted! Bearing the burden of another goes beyond the coffee shop and into their lives. It presents us with part of their load to carry and endure. This may not sound fun; it may sound allot like and investment with no promised return. This command is a command to the church, so that people like me don’t let selfishness take over and stop investing myself in those around me. If I pack the definition of church into the four walls of our building, we’re only going to be “church” on Sundays. It’s got to be lived out all week long.

The Strong Rope. When I first started thinking about my fears in today’s church, I looked at all the hurt and stress and thought to myself I want out. I know that God wants His people united, but I wanted a goal I could skip to, not have to press on towards.

 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him – a threefold cord is not quickly broken.  Ecclesiastes 4:12  ESV

Among my foggy thoughts of discouragement, came a clear picture of what God desires. He want us helping one another, encouraging one another, listening to one another, reproving one another in love. Being together, giving glory to His name corporately. If we would receive God’s power, love and self-control, we would overcome any storm of politics or any tornado of disunity that heads our way. Our rough patches in life would be comforted and our praises would be shared and rejoiced over.

I don’t want to be the believer that mocks the power of the Spirit, ignores the ones around me or flies off the handle when things aren’t seen my way. I don’t want to be the fray in the rope my Lord designed to be strong.

Conclusion. There are many aspects of today’s church to look at and many viewpoints one could describe. There are struggles that will always return, scars that will never go away completely, and fear always trying to creep in. This short journey has taken me through the biggest issues affecting me in my place of worship and has helped me immensely - reading, studying, writing and working out the truths within my flurries of thoughts. Facing fears about church has been a bold move for me personally.

 For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control. – 2 Timothy 1:7 ESV

Wise words. Words of promise. Words to claim! Words of truth – to believe!

People with fears in churches today are for real. There’s no denying it, it just is. In a dark and imperfect world, we are the light but imperfect as well. God’s word speaks to us about each other because He knew that we’d need some guidelines and helpful hints! Not only is our Christianity about our relationship with God, it’s about our relationship with each other as well – being that chord of 3 strands that is tough to brake.

God COULD zap away our fear...in fact, He could actually just zap us into robots that would just walk along the straight and narrow and it would be much less confusing...but my God doesn’t want a robot, He wants flesh and blood. He wants people with room for error so that when they recover from their mistakes there is a reason to throw a party!

This post is ending on the flip side of the note that it started on. As I typed out some of my struggles about church, I came to the conclusion that no matter what struggles we have or how imperfect we are, we are God’s people. Corporately “church” when two or three or more are gathered.

 Facing fears in today’s church = God’s people facing their fears with Him...together.