Today I read a devotional article
in Turning Points Magazine by well
known Christian author David Jeremiah. The article gave statistics on how
Church going people are more happier than non-Church going people. The article
is entitled "Seriously Cheerful." Part of the devotional is as
follows:
"According to
an article in The Journal of Religion and
Health, people who regularly attend church are 56 percent more likely to
have an optimistic view of life and 27 percent less likely to succumb to
depression. The study was based on a sample of nearly 100, 000 women and was
funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Imagine! The U.S.
Government funding a study demonstrating that Church attenders are happier,
more optimistic, and less depressed than people who don't go to church. We
could have told them that without spending a penny. Joy is the instantaneous
response of a heart that's filled with God's blessings."[1]
The article is encouraging no
doubt, perhaps Church has been a positive experience for some, but
unfortunately it is not the experience for many of God's dear children who have
been anything but happy going to Church. For many of God's dear ones, attending a local Church has caused them to "succumb to depression." and has robbed them of any true happiness and optimism. Now I am not saying here that God is to blame, but rather we as Christians are really the ones to blame. For a lot of Churches here in my home country of Canada are filled with believers who are middle class people with families. These Christians who are supposed to represent Christ live comfortable lives with their social clicks within the congregation, while outside the Church they are wholly taken up with work and family events. Even most ministries within the local Church are primarily geared towards families, while single people (primarily the middle age and elderly) are left out of such ministries unless they are family members. Sadly, many such Christians are left to fend for themselves, which usually results in many single middle aged saints leaving. Then there are those saints who are either on welfare or are not working for some reason or other. Instead of fellow Christians drawing along side such believers to see if they can help them; they instead look down on their fellow brethren, resulting in ignoring, belittling, or judging them in their situation without even getting to know them as people. Sometimes when a fellow brother or sister in Christ is brave enough to call such fellow believers on their demeaning and snobby behavior, they usually use such tactics as straight out denial of their behavior or they will accuse such believers as being negative and judgmental, which results in the dear brave soul being silently labelled as a trouble maker to be avoided in their midst. So usually no one ends up saying anything, which results in the bad behavior among Christians to continue on unabated in the local congregation. Hence, the Holy Spirit is grieved and the blessing of God witheld.
In my own personal experience and in talking with many unchurched people as well as former church members over the years who had left a local congregation, seem to all share in common stories of the lack of love, friendliness, and coldness they were met with in such congregations. Recently, I had one of those God moments in witnessing to a dear woman at Chapters Bookstore who was a former member of a local congregation here in town. After speaking to her for around a half hour she revealed to me the bad behavior she had experienced at the local Church she had attended. Sadly, such stories are all too common today. I know that one cannot expect Christians to be perfect. For they are sinners saved by God's grace. However, such believers are rightly expected to be different in their behavior than the non-christians in the world. Though redeemed sinners, they are expected to behave like saints!
I have even heard sad stories of such local congregations having so much strife, backbiting, arguments, and conflicts that it got so bad that some erupted into voilence that nearby neighbours had to call the police to the scene, which resulted in the doors of the building they worshipped in being closed and locked forever. This no doubt breaks the heart of God, but do we as the people of God take this to heart? We really need to take this serious, that these are some of the reasons why people do not go to Church. For such problems in local Churches turns people off from wanting to go. So the question can be asked: "Are people really Happier going to Church?" Maybe for some, but for many "No!" For more and more Christians and non-christians who had or still attend a local congregation are disatisfied and unhappy with the present state of the Church. My own personal experience within the Evangelical Church over the past 20+ years has been anything but pleasant. It has not made me a more happier and optimistic person. Sadly, the only times I have been most happy is when I was away from the local Church and was home spending time alone with God. In the three Churches I have attended over the years, I have never found genuine Christian love and acceptance which should be evident among God's people. At present, I am happy and optimistic because God used some friends and secular sources to help me regain the happiness, confidence, and optimism that my fellow Christians had robbed from me. I thank the Lord for helping me, because God can use anything. (To see more about this, refer to my blogs: "Contending with Loveless Churches" Part 1&2: Friday and Tuesday July 27, 31, 2012).
Now having said the above, I can almost hear some Christians saying "Dear brother, you need to get your eyes off of the people and get them on the Lord Jesus Christ." This of course is true to an extent, but it just compounds the problem, instead of seeking a solution to it. What one is really saying by this quote is ignore the problem and it will eventually go away. Of course, as experience has shown me, it never does! Yes, we are to get our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. We can tell the Lord in prayer about the problems in the Church. Yes, the Lord may even change us personally as a result, which is wonderful. But if the local Church persists in its problems unmoved and unchanged, it still poses a problem for God's suffering saints! Ignoring the problems in the Church doesn't solve them! A local Church as the collective body of Christ needs to acknowledge the sin problems in their midst, and repent of it, and embrace the solution. Only then will such persistent problems in a local congregation be resolved, which will result in revival. God will be glorified and the saints blessed!
A local Church should be a strong tower for the righteous to run into, a safe haven for the lone and lost, and a hospital to help the wounded and hurting souls of the world. Instead, local congregations have become homes to those who rise to leadership and are hungry for power and control. Such are like "Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them,..." (3 John 9, NASB). Unfortunately, it has been a place where God's people have been oppressed, suppressed, and even persecuted, while the poor, destitute, and the wounded have been turned away. Yet, the attitude of such leaders and brethren within today's Church is "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,..." However, God's assessment of them is "...and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Rev. 3: 17, NASB). Indeed, sad is the present state of the Church! May God help us! May He send revival!
No, It is not going to Church that has made me happier; it is the personal relationship I have with my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ that has made me truly happy and joyful in life! May you, my friend, find your happiness in Him as well!
In my own personal experience and in talking with many unchurched people as well as former church members over the years who had left a local congregation, seem to all share in common stories of the lack of love, friendliness, and coldness they were met with in such congregations. Recently, I had one of those God moments in witnessing to a dear woman at Chapters Bookstore who was a former member of a local congregation here in town. After speaking to her for around a half hour she revealed to me the bad behavior she had experienced at the local Church she had attended. Sadly, such stories are all too common today. I know that one cannot expect Christians to be perfect. For they are sinners saved by God's grace. However, such believers are rightly expected to be different in their behavior than the non-christians in the world. Though redeemed sinners, they are expected to behave like saints!
I have even heard sad stories of such local congregations having so much strife, backbiting, arguments, and conflicts that it got so bad that some erupted into voilence that nearby neighbours had to call the police to the scene, which resulted in the doors of the building they worshipped in being closed and locked forever. This no doubt breaks the heart of God, but do we as the people of God take this to heart? We really need to take this serious, that these are some of the reasons why people do not go to Church. For such problems in local Churches turns people off from wanting to go. So the question can be asked: "Are people really Happier going to Church?" Maybe for some, but for many "No!" For more and more Christians and non-christians who had or still attend a local congregation are disatisfied and unhappy with the present state of the Church. My own personal experience within the Evangelical Church over the past 20+ years has been anything but pleasant. It has not made me a more happier and optimistic person. Sadly, the only times I have been most happy is when I was away from the local Church and was home spending time alone with God. In the three Churches I have attended over the years, I have never found genuine Christian love and acceptance which should be evident among God's people. At present, I am happy and optimistic because God used some friends and secular sources to help me regain the happiness, confidence, and optimism that my fellow Christians had robbed from me. I thank the Lord for helping me, because God can use anything. (To see more about this, refer to my blogs: "Contending with Loveless Churches" Part 1&2: Friday and Tuesday July 27, 31, 2012).
Now having said the above, I can almost hear some Christians saying "Dear brother, you need to get your eyes off of the people and get them on the Lord Jesus Christ." This of course is true to an extent, but it just compounds the problem, instead of seeking a solution to it. What one is really saying by this quote is ignore the problem and it will eventually go away. Of course, as experience has shown me, it never does! Yes, we are to get our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. We can tell the Lord in prayer about the problems in the Church. Yes, the Lord may even change us personally as a result, which is wonderful. But if the local Church persists in its problems unmoved and unchanged, it still poses a problem for God's suffering saints! Ignoring the problems in the Church doesn't solve them! A local Church as the collective body of Christ needs to acknowledge the sin problems in their midst, and repent of it, and embrace the solution. Only then will such persistent problems in a local congregation be resolved, which will result in revival. God will be glorified and the saints blessed!
A local Church should be a strong tower for the righteous to run into, a safe haven for the lone and lost, and a hospital to help the wounded and hurting souls of the world. Instead, local congregations have become homes to those who rise to leadership and are hungry for power and control. Such are like "Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them,..." (3 John 9, NASB). Unfortunately, it has been a place where God's people have been oppressed, suppressed, and even persecuted, while the poor, destitute, and the wounded have been turned away. Yet, the attitude of such leaders and brethren within today's Church is "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,..." However, God's assessment of them is "...and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Rev. 3: 17, NASB). Indeed, sad is the present state of the Church! May God help us! May He send revival!
No, It is not going to Church that has made me happier; it is the personal relationship I have with my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ that has made me truly happy and joyful in life! May you, my friend, find your happiness in Him as well!
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