Is it necessary to go to church meetings - what's wrong with just living out your "Christ-following walk" in your normal daily life?
Does being part of a church take away from your freedom in Christ?
Check out what she says, see what others have said and have your own 5 cents worth.
Because it seems that some of her (and others') concerns seem to be about what church organisations might expect from them -
My question is:
How much are our lives regulated by feeling we have to come up to somebody's expectations of us?
People like:
Our parents. . .
Our partners. . .
Our bosses . . .
Our children . . .
Our friends . . .
Church leaders . . .
Ourselves . . . Do you have a super-ego that says you should be better?
And God . . . What do you feel He expects from you?
Think about it - you may be surprised at what you discover.
5 comments:
I love the worship in big churches...but dislike feeling so lost in the crowd. I love our small group gatherings...like minded people talking about the difficulties they are faced with in their daily walk with the Lord. I love that in the small group we can trust each other with everything and pray for each other.
But a man is not an island...we as christians need each other...we need mature christian fellowship.
Wow you and Mel are certainly posting some challenging questions, aren't you?!
This is a toughie. I like to think that as I have become more mature, it matters less to me what people think. Unfortunately that's not always the case!
Yup, I am with Lynette on this. I like the small group interaction with group of friends who encourage challenge and walk everyday life with me.
The only thing i miss about corporate church is worship.
I think you and I both know how I feel about accountability and responsiblity etc within the church context....
I love love church. For me, its an honour to live as part of a church community and an honour to be free to worship my King in that setting.
JoshGen is amazing in that one of our main visions is to not let people get lost in the crowd - the leaders make sure you are discipled and "knitted in", not only with each other but more importantly, into Jesus as well.
I know its so easy to fall into performance pressure in a church - being on leadership myself I am very aware of it. But I make sure that whatever I do, where ever I am operating, whatever my ministry, it has to be in HIS GRACE that I perform it - otherwise its tickets for me, I fall into pleasing man and meeting expectations and I forget that I am doing this thing for Jesus and for His Kingdom.
Coming from someone that easily falls into people-pleasing mode (Allie you know me), I can truly say that I have found a church/home where the leaders are for me, plugged into Jesus and focussed on HIS Kingdom, so its safe to be accountable to them and work together with them to see His Kingdom on earth.
All I know is I LOVE people and I want to see everyone come into the fullness that God has for them and I have the privilege of witnessing that in JoshGen.
Flip, this topic is SO close to my heart and I have thought about it and spoken about it and heard preaches on it. Its tough to get my heart of it across in a little comment, but anyway, that's basically my take on it.
Good morning! Completely not to do with your post, but just wanted to pop in and say I'm fine, thank you for the concern! Was laid low by the cold, and then swamped with work, and now in Joburg visiting my ever-expanding sister! Had dinner with Clive and Frank last night and Clive said you'd called - sorry to make you worry! Normal service will resume this week I hope! xx
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