JAMES 4:8 (NASB)
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…  

     Worship is a lot like sex.  You can show up, sweet talk, dim the lights, set the mood and hope for the best, but without regular intimacy, it is simply a cheap act of forgery.

     Recently, I discovered that Sunday after Sunday I had slowly slipped into a forged intimacy with God during worship.  I didn’t get it.  I showed up, sweet talked, dimmed the lights, set the mood and left with this feeling of “I’ve had better…”  Things just weren’t what they used to be.  Then I remembered something from early on in my marriage.  Somewhere in year two, I stayed outrageously busy and unknowingly began to estrange myself from my wife.  We saw each other at the end of the day, we ate dinner together and slept in the same bed but nonetheless, we didn’t spend any real time together.  I wasn’t pursuing her anymore; I was just too busy to even think about it.  As a result, there was an intimacy gap between us.  I, like most confused guys, thought I knew exactly what it would take to close the gap.  All I needed to do was plan a nice, romantic date night and things would be back on track.  Just show up, dim the lights, sweet talk her, set the mood and hope for the best.  Not the case.  At the end of the night, my wife finally looked at me and said “I feel like I don’t know you”…  Now fast forward to recently.  On stage, after church… “What happened? How did I not see this??”  I was trying to use worship to close the gap between myself and God, to forge a connection and God was on the other end saying “I feel like I don’t know you”.  

  I now understand more than ever, that worship is a response to intimacy with God.  And much like a romantic date night with my wife, this encounter doesn’t start the day of, it begins well before.  I know that by spending time with her throughout the week, by helping around the house to ease her mind, by leaving notes as an outward expression and always putting her first on my list to give her priority in my life, I am facilitating intimacy.  Then, whatever happens on date night becomes a response rather than a cheap act of forgery.  Worship with God is no different. 

Cheers.

ACTS 2:43-47 (NASB)
⁴³Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. ⁴⁴ And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵ and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. ⁴⁶  Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

     When I read about what many refer to as the “first Church” in Acts, I see a group of people, shortly after the crucifixion of Jesus, responding to something.  The standard mode of operation for today’s Church might lack this trait.  The Church, initially a community of people, has now become a collection of people and we don’t seem to respond to the Gospel as often as we try to deliver it in a nice little package.  Today’s Church has tried so hard to make people comfortable and meet their needs, inadvertently enabling them to simply be consumers of this product called “God” or “worship”.  I totally get being an “attractive” church.  The lights, the big screens and the graphic tees; this isn’t that kind of issue - that stuff is the language of today’s people.  Lately I just find myself questioning the fact that we don’t seem to be measuring up and selecting a church based on it’s community anymore.  Reciprocally, churches don’t seem to be holding their members accountable to being a community.  We have set up a system, in many churches, where John and Jane Doe can come and go every week, have a private worship experience, hear a message amidst a crowd of strangers and go back home to chaos.  But what good does this do for the rest of God’s people?  Does the Bride of Christ simply need to hear an attractive version of God’s messy reunion with mankind and go about their busines?  Or do we need: To completely rehabilitate a collection of people into a community of believers and doers by focusing our efforts on providing solid, Biblical guidance on how to LEARN and LOVE and LEAD like the Church as described in Acts?  

     I think the answer to all of this is in the initial question. “Maybe the Church isn’t so much about God, but about God’s people.”  Notice which statement comes last in the Acts 2 verse shared above.  The first Church wasn’t setting out simply to make Christians; they were engaged in community as a response to God.  If I were starting a church, the boldface statement above would absolutely be my mission and vision.  Learning: we retell the story, teach from the Bible and study new ways to unite the communities around us.  Loving: we live for the sake of others, we look for the ways God has loved us and we actively pursue that both with Him and with the people around us.  Leading: we latch on to God’s authority, set examples and interact with the world in a way that draws people to Him.

Cheers.  

Numbers 21:16 (NASB)
From there they continued to Beer, that is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.” 

     Okay, so God did lead them to Beer but they ended up drinking water.  Nonetheless, it makes for a great conversation starter doesn’t it?  I have recently been encouraged by several to start blogging some of my ideas on God, Church, Religion, People, etc.  I find that there are so many questions out there. Some old, some new and some of which we’ve simply been settling on the answers.  My goal with this blog is to explore some of those questions as they pop up and share them with the world.  I hope to provoke and inspire people with short, concise, hearty gulps of what I’m calling “Church Beer” to whet the palette and provide a little buzz for the mundane status quo.  

If you like what you read, share it. If you hate it, share it.  If you think I’m right, I probably am and if you think I’m wrong, I probably am.  Be looking early next week for my first official post.  

Cheers.