Living the Story

I read this excerpt this morning and was just floored.

"No one will come to know Christianity's particular God, or will want to know that God, without the vital and promising life-witness of the community called church. For if we expect the Christian story to bear any persuasive potency, then 'at the very least, that story must have the power to take hold of our life and sustain it, and even possibly transform it. . . And if those who espouse a particular master story nevertheless show themselves unwilling or unable to follow it. . .with fidelity, why should anybody else take their story seriously?' " Rodney Capp, A Peculiar People: The Church in a Post-Christian Society (IVP, Downers grove, Ill., 1996, p. 183, citing Michael Goldberg, Jews and Christians, Getting Our Stories Straight (Nashville: Abingdon , 1985), p. 222

 I apologize ahead of time, but I have to have a little rant.  I had a dream the other night that is still really bugging me.  It involved a couple leaving the church because "it just wasn't for them."  In the dream, I was SO MAD.  Here's why...  And I can say this because I have been the offender in this way in the past.   I get so tired of people picking up and leaving churches because they're not being fed, or it's just not my thing, or this little point of theology or the music's too loud or not loud enough or I don't like the color of the carpet... If you are within a body of believers where there is any chance of Christian family happening... and maybe even if there is not... How are you participating?  Listen, I've been there.  I have had such high expectations of the clergy (you know, the people being paid to entertain "us") and then I've turned right around and been pissed off that there is such a distinction there, between them and us.


Look, nobody is responsible for what you "get" out of "church" besides YOU.  Are you LIVING the story?  This is what determines if the rest of the world "gets it."  Don't you think that's pretty important?  Do you even know the story you're supposed to be living?  So much of how we live as Christians is based on stuff we've heard through the grapevine, or always known about Christianity, or well we were raised that way... Get out your Bible... Read about how the disciples lived out the story... Read about how the church lived together, ate together, supported each other, prayed together... and not just Sunday morning!  This was a new way of life they had entered into.  And guess what.  This is also what drew people to them.  And then think about how different from that we live as "Christians" today.  You can't just wait for someone to hand you "religion" on a plate.  You can't just "go to church," fill up and then be on your way til the next week.  Each person has to devote themselves, make an effort to live out the story.  That's what makes us credible.


Get this... That's what makes the message of Jesus credible... And maybe this sounds mean or harsh or whatever, but seriously... Do you ever wonder why we are not credible... not relevant to our culture?  Do you ever wonder why Jesus is no longer relevant?  Hear me out before you get the stake and the torches.  How do the people around us see Jesus?  That's right.  Us.  Not our pastor, not our doctrine, definitely not the carpet in the fellowship hall.  You can't just "find the right church."  You have to BE the right church.  You.  Examine your life.  How are you living?  And not just you know, how many good things have you done during the week or even how many times you read your Bible.  How are you living with the rest of The Body?  Are you participating?  Are you living the life of Jesus so that the world has an accurate representation of who He is?  That's a corporate thing.  The whole church, all the parts together.  Don't hold your part back and cripple the church.  If we show the world the whole story, they will want to meet the Author.  Wouldn't you?