Thabiti brought the fire with this on threads (link). If you’re on threads you should follow him and learn Christ from him.
Maybe I should hold some of y’all’s hands when I tell you this….
But you aren’t actually looking for a biblical church. You’re looking for childhood nostalgia or all your preferences assembled into a weekly performance.
In the Bible, churches are messy. Folks dealing w/ sexual immorality (1 Cor. 5-6), personal beefs (Phil. 4:2-4), judging each other over debatable secondary stuff (Rom. 14-15), suing each other (1Cor 6), entertaining false teaching (2 Pet 2:1-3), etc.
So when you’re looking for a church w/o problems, where you’re never bothered, and everything is the way you like it down to your preferences, you’re chasing fictions and utopias that were never available.
Instead, accept the mess. Ministry happens in the mess. Sanctification happens in the mess. Growth happens through the mess. Real love is forged in the mess. Most of all, Jesus enters the mess to make us more like himself. Biblical churches really are hospitals, not finishing schools.
But too many don’t want that.
Now, don’t get me wrong. You shouldn’t choose a church where sexual immorality brawling, beefs, false teaching, etc are *celebrated* or *permitted.* That’s not what you’re looking for.
But that is where you will end up at some point. Because sinners. When it happens, know that the Bible’s two instructions are: 1. Repent 2. Reconcile
That’s it. Turn from sin; turn to each other.
Fight together for righteousness and holiness.
Accept one another and be better by God’s grace.
Church is work. But, again, some of y’all don’t want that.
That’s why you never “find a church” even though you’re always “looking.” That’s why when you do find a church, you’re quick to run when something bothers you.
You’ve made your sensitivities a fruit of the Spirit and “the Spirit” always has “something not sitting right with you.” But “the Spirit” never has you showing a bro/sis their fault, restoring those who stumble, healing the weak, bearing with others in love, praying all night or anything else that would be redemptive, full of grace and truth, hopeful, sacrificial, and loving. That’s what a biblical church does and it’s hard. And you don’t do hard because you want “soft life” Christianity.
I’m sorry to tell you: daily cross-carrying is HARD.
Gouging out your eye and cutting off your arm is HARD.
Loving one another is not a Hallmark movie; love is HARD.
You want people to do those hard things FOR YOU but don’t want to do it for others. But that’s what a church is.
And such a church, with all her warts and faults, is stunningly beautiful. Principalities and powers marvel at her. Glory adorns her forever. She is becoming the blood-washed radiant bride that Jesus will return to receive unto himself.
Nostalgia won’t help you reach glory. Our preferences are too weak and uninspired to sustain the whole body of Christ in its warfare against the world, the flesh and the devil.
We need things we never learned in our childhood churches.
We need things we don’t prefer and wouldn’t choose.
We need each other and we need to learn the habit of not quitting on each other.
We need faith, hope and love. For our churches. For our brothers and sisters. For ourselves. I pray the Lord by His grace gives us what we need to truly be the church.