Legalism?

Over the past several months, I’ve engaged in the same conversation with several people. The conversation has pertained to community within the church. Every person I have talked with has reverberated the same response, it is lacking. The common sentiment is that there is no community outside Sunday morning and even then, not much.

Let me elaborate;
We go to church; we hear a Bible study, sing some songs, shake some hands and go home. There is rarely depth in our conversations on Sunday’s and usually less throughout the week. My point is, we are all fallen, which means we are all struggling to walk this thing called the “Christian walk”. We are all totally messed up and we are most likely all lagging behind the pace Jesus wants us to run. The thing is this isn’t even the problem. The problem is we don’t talk about it. Why not? Isn’t it the greatest feeling when you make a friend whom you immediately feel open with, someone whom you can be totally honest with? I love friends like that! These friends can ask you how you’re doing and you can say without fear of reprisal or pseudo exhortation or rebuke, “I’m blowing it”. Isn’t that type of friendship where it’s at? I’ll assume you said yes, so answer this question; why do I only have 2 friends like this (and that may be more than you have)? Doesn’t that seem like a problem considering we’re all Christians, part of “the body”? Why is it like this?

Here’s what I think;
Somewhere along the line we’ve been convinced that if you’ve been a Christian for over two years, you should have it all pretty much together, especially if you “serve” in any sort of way. It’s like a chain reaction. We all shake hands on Sunday, each hurting inside yet smiling like we’ve got it all together. So, we each think the other person has it all together, that everyone else has it all together except for us. And because we don’t want to be the only one with “issues”, we pretend we don’t have any. So, this leads to isolation which is the opposite of fellowship, which is what church is suppose to be about.

Suggested solution:
Be real. What I mean by this is don’t wait for everyone else to open up first, they probably won’t. Just let everyone know you’re a basket case from the get go. I know this will isolate us from some, but who cares, we’re already isolated. This will in effect weed out the non-Christians or at least the immature ones. Didn’t Jesus say it was the sick that needed a physician not the well? Let everyone pretend like they’re well if they want to, the Pharisee’s pretended like they were well and I think Jesus had a couple of choice words for them. I don’t want to be on the receiving end of the same type of rebuke the Pharisee’s received, “Whitewashed tombs”. So, by just being real, it will provide real fellowship, which is what the real church is all about.

Disclaimer: If you think this is absurd, please read my first post.