Pat’s Email about Being the Church

Problems in Institutional Churches
Problems in House Churches
Jesus will help us!

The following is an email I received from a lady recently that expresses well some of the concerns many of us have about being the Body of Christ together regardless of the format. 3/23/09

Jim Baumgaertel,

I have a few questions. I joined a couple of House churches a few years back and both seemed to burn out. One quit altogether and the other turned into “Party at Jane’s!!!” We spent so much energy getting the food ready we would ditch the bible study part. So eventually I went back to “regular church” because it wasn’t church anymore!

However I am forever ruined. Now that I have experienced how church really should be I am spoiled. Sermons annoy me because they are all “seeker friendly”. There is no substance. EVERYTHING is about furthering the “business” of church. Most Christians I run into don’t understand Christianity only how to further the agenda of the organization. We simply don’t know our own “doctrine”. So yes no wonder home church’s expressed the mixed up belief systems of the well meaning people who start them. I was blessed enough to get in with those with stronger backgrounds but that was my concern as well. You could believe ANYTHING.

However this particular church had a HUGE small group push and I joined one. We are now practically the ONLY small group that survived. We have a pretty good connection but since I quit attending regular church they are VERY uncomfortable. It is amazing but they really don’t seem to care what scripture says or why I quit attending. All they see is….rebel. So I am wondering if it is time for me to find a group of people that are on the same page. This is getting uncomfortable for me. So at least I can get some feed back online for a start.
Anyway it is now 2009. Everything I read is 2006 or earlier. It seems that others did the same burn out I experienced. I am now even more concerned about the shape of the “church” then ever before. So I guess my question to you is did you also burn out? Where are you guys at now on this issue? What now?

The concerns we had in 2006 are still there, maybe worse.

Pat

What would you like to say to Pat? Whether you fellowship in a house church or an institutional church I would really like to hear from you on this.

Please Email Me

Response #2 to Pat’s Email
about Problems in finding fellowship
4/8/09

Wow, hi Jim,

To Pat, hi Pat I can understand what you may be going thru. My wife and I for years were in the holiness setting, tongues, moves, prophecies. Following the leader(s) no matter how non scriptural it was. I was born into this stuff. It was all I have ever known. but thanks be to God that one day sitting in the midst of all of it, I felt, heard, knew that something was wrong. So we removed ourselves from the organized church setting. We felt like sinners starting off. Not going  to church on Sundays. Not getting together with old members. And figure this, my own mother was my pastor. Still to this day we don’t really see things as the same. It is a little awkward but I just don’t see things the same as I used to. had someone say to me “well the bible says forsake not the assembly” I said ok, but it doesn’t say which day and how many the assembly is  so if I get together with one person at least once a year have I not fulfilled what it says? Well you can imagine that they didn’t like that too much, but what am I to do?

We haven’t found any house churches to associate with. We study the word together. we say at times is there just one somebody out there that we could fellowship with…that is into the word and not all this extra stuff. People have said that we are on the path we are on because we don’t want to be taught. but what they don’t realize is that we would welcome the idea of fellowshipping with someone and sitting and listening, learning, growing (all) together.

If at the moment you can’t find anyone, don’t let that hit you too bad. Take the time and get into your word. Hold on to the God that you know and hopefully when he sees that it is time you will find kindred souls. It may seem lonely, but it will be ok. Now, this may not be completely right and I could be labeled as taking scripture out of context, so I encourage you to go back and look this up for yourself and get a true understanding. And if you find that I am wrong in any way, know that it was not intentional. but if I am right…here is a quick summary of Paul… Paul was in organized church. He worshipped God. he fought for God and was offended when a different sect rose up and possibly in his opinion challenged the God of his fathers. But on the road to get those that he assumed went against God, he met God. for the first time in his life he really met God. Not a system or a denomination. But God. for paul to get where he needed to be, he had to let go of God (what he knew to be God) to find him. he could have easily told Jesus on that road that this isn’t what I was brought up on and I will only follow that which I have always known. But he didn’t. And if I am correct he later says that Jesus or the Spirit taught him for three years before Paul entered back into fellowship with like minded believers.

I know what it is like to be with people. And I now know what it is like to be without people. But in the quiet of isolation, life is still good. And when the day comes that we find like minded people we won’t get lost in the fellowship. We won’t put the fellowship in front of God. We would rather be with people now, but whether we are with people now or later the main thing is knowing, believing God. if he never gives us anyone, we still plan to hold on to him and enjoy this ride of life.

Last thing is this, hope this doesn’t offend. It is about a movie that touched my heart years go. tom hanks did a movie called castaway. And that is how even at times now I feel. But the character was taken out of the hustle of his everyday life and cast away on an island by himself. Tried what he could to escape, but nothing worked. He, like me, would have rather been back in the fellowship of like minded people but no. his only friend after a while was a ball that he drew a face on. But in the course of time he finally made a raft to escape. Him and his ball. but at last he even lost that. The ball floated away. but what touched my heart so was that beside him, around him was a whale. It was like God was saying this raft that seems to be made for one. Know that I am always near. Know that I care. And when all seemed lost. When it appeared that he would just die alone out in the middle of the ocean. The whale woke him up to see a ship coming along side of him.

In my opinion, don’t fight the separation too hard. Learn what you can from it. Grow, draw closer. Know that when it seems that you are alone, he is there somewhere. And when the time is right………

Take care Pat

Fred Harris
North Carolina