The Struggle

It seems doubtful that the institutional church with its institutionally minded leaders will be able to create a new community of faith that will end up being something different than the institutional church it has become.  Something so entrenched in itself and so dependent on physical things such as money, building, and bigger memberships will have a hard time throwing away the old wineskins.  No matter how hard the effort to create something new, the temptation to utilize what is believed to have worked in the past will be hard to overcome.     

In our day it seems that the church requires some kind of structure and some kind of vessel through which to express itself.  The problem is in boxing something which cannot be boxed.  The church is a spiritual kingdom.  Putting something spiritual within some kind of structure is like expecting  a river to flow without ever getting out of its banks.  Even as God is unpredictable and always doing things which are outside the box made by our expectations, so is this kingdom which Jesus inaugurated with His presence.  We have tried since the day after Pentecost to package, program, and plan it.  Regardless of our efforts it still flows around us as an invisible and ever present spiritual community centered on Christ.  How do you hold something such as the church in your hand?  How do you control it?  The answer is simple.  It cannot be held or controlled for it is of God.       

Therein, it seems is our struggle.  We want so much to make it right that we have lost the spiritual insight required to turn it loose and trust its Creator to unfold it before us according to His design.  We have been taught for so long that God needs a hand in building His Church in the world that we cannot turn it loose, let it go, and forget about trying to domesticate or control it.  Such tasks belong not to us, but to the Holy Spirit.  Nothing is more frightening to the church's leaders than not being in control.  May God help us for it is exactly His help that we need.