Church

Today, a local church I'd been following online opened to in person fellowship for the first time in over thirty weeks. As I am always honest on this blog I will admit that organized religion has left a bad taste in my mouth for sometime now. Watching humans screw up everything they touch, including the wonderful message of the Love of God has frustrated and angered me. I am a Christian, but I unabashedly call out Christian institutions for turning away more people than they are attracting to God by the misogyny and bigotry and ignorance that their leaders interject into the Faith. As a Black person who is learned about the disgusting religious justifications of slavery and white supremacy, it has sometimes been difficult to push past that and remember my personal relationship with God has never led me astray. God has always guided and guarded me.

In the US, Randy and I have been very frustrated with the churches we'd been member to over the years. Two or three years ago, Randy and I left a large non denominational church with no courage to speak to the evil in the world or to speak to the hurt of the community and joined the launch team for a non denominational LGBTQ affirming Christian church founded by one of their former pastors. It was a struggle and it was disappointing to see that the more our pastor spoke of the true love of God and welcomed EVERYONE to the church, the less his old followers came. So many Christians were happy to hear a feel good sermon but once attention was being brought to the high rate of suicides amongst children in the church who have been made to feel unlovable by God, now he was the enemy. I watched this cis gender heterosexual white man grow in his understanding of allyship and in the appreciation that, as he quoted, "If you're an ally of a group of people and you're not getting hit by the rocks aimed at them, you're not standing close enough". It was a rewarding time, and a time that showed me even more, the ugly heart of many churchfolk. So willing to hold onto their own hate and bigotry in one hand while claiming to be holding on to God with the other.

Before we left, we did find a home in a Black Baptist church which didn't just speak the Gospel but practiced social justice every day of the week. I was so happy to see how much my children's faith had grown, with my eldest two becoming saved (accepting Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior) last year.

If it weren't for our desire to give our children the foundation of faith and bible knowledge, supplementing with the lessons I try to find the time to teach, I think that Randy and I would be fine with staying home and continuing our personal relationship with God apart from the humans that make up the church.

Today we expected a simple sermon, something sharing the good news of the gospel. We weren't expecting much substance. I think that we both had stopped expecting that from the institution that is actually supposed to be encouraging its people to be better versions of themselves.

What I got surprised me.

I hadn't logged in for online service in some weeks. Apparently they had been highlighting a significant person in history each week who has made a seismic shift. Today they picked:

Martin Luther King Jr.

Today's sermon was from their series called

Seismic shifts. Global movements from the book of Acts

According to the pastor, they had been speaking about God's heart for the church. What God wants the church to be. Previously they had discussed that it was to be a place led and empowered by His spirit, a place of deep hospitality and radical generosity and a place of humble service where every person is utilizing the abilities that God has given us. Today's installment was about Diversity.

Diversity is a big part of God's the vision of the church.

I will try to summarize as succinctly as I can.

In Revelations chapter 7, the Church in heaven is described as being a ..."great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language...."

Although the belief in Jesus started with the Jews, through the disciples, word spread to Jews and Gentiles alike. Groups of people who were historically very segregated and who had tensions between each other were seen coming together in fellowship with a common belief or goal. People went from worshipping Jesus amongst their own ethnic communities to congregating together cross culturally for the first time in Antioch, which is where they were first called Christians.

The pastor emphasized that it is not a minor detail or a coincidence that the first time the word "Christian" was coined was also the first time that the Church on earth looked like God's vision for the Church in heaven. Despite all of the differences, the thing they all had in common was that they were all believers/ followers of Christ.

The pastor stated that racism was sin and so was bigotry. He said numerous times during the sermon that "The heart of God is to open the doors to a multi-ethnic, kaleidoscopic church"

He took a moment to celebrate the fact that over 55 countries are represented in this local church and thanked those of us who came to New Zealand for adding to the richness of this community.

He also encouraged us to be deliberate.

He quoted someone named Ajith Fernando who said " Fostering leaders from different cultural backgrounds is a goal to work at in all churches that have a diversity in their membership." as he listed the diverse people who comprised of the leadership team in the first church in Antioch as discussed in the book of Acts.

He admonished everyone to identify and repent for their biases and prejudices the moment they spring up. He wanted us to all be diligent.

Randy and I were like, what the heck did we just witness? Our first live sermon in a new country and we find a church that was comfortable with saying what needs to be said, no talking in code or trying to placate people's feelings. I was stunned. I leave you with the video they played at the end of the service.

What a beautiful world it would be if we could all be on earth as God envisions for us in heaven- all languages, cultures, nations, tribes, peoples all coming together in love and unity, celebrating not fearing diversity, coming together for good. That would truly be heaven on earth. The entire world cannot look like that if the Church still hasn't even succeeded on a large enough scale.

I hope I see that before I die. If not, it is good to know that I will at least see it in the afterlife.