ARE PEOPLE COMING OR GOING OR STAYING?

Our street is covered with ice this morning. Today is Saturday, Jan 13 and normally we would be up early and off to Church. We are Seventh Day Adventists.

Yesterday afternoon, it began to sleet with only trace amounts of snow. It turned in to quite a storm! Not like a blizzard of snow or anything like that- but, definitely, the radio and tv stations were right... we were under a winter storm watch.

Businesses all over the city and metroplex were letting their employees leave early. People were afraid, and hit the streets by the thousands. By the time I left work- and I had to remain on the job til 4:30, my co-worker til 5:30- my drive home was on slick roads but the greatest danger was from people who seemed to think "my car is better than your car and I can drive faster than you can and I can stop on a dime". I listened to 980AM on the radio, for the constant weather updates and the call-in reports on road and highway conditions and discussions of why people are bad drivers.

Most of the time I had to drive at 20 to 25 mph- and I got out of our parking garage at work, at 4:40- yet managed to get home by 5:15. 9 miles approximately.

Our decision to stay home from church was made last night when it was still sleeting. It was really coming down with a vengeance, most of the evening it seemed like. For most of our married-life, we have lived just a few blocks away from church... but, now that we're into our new church building, it isn't so. We are miles from it. And THAT is intimidating, when the weather conditions seem harsh!

But the real issue in my mind right now, is in wondering about the things that attract people to a church or to a religion or to a particular religious denomination. And what keeps them there, faithful and excited about their faith... or what keeps them drifting from church to church... and what motivates people to gravitate toward a certain church when they haven't the means or transportation to really be able to get themselves there.

I talk with someone who is always excited about the things going on at their church. Talks passionately about how excited they are to be in love with the Saviour, how exciting it is to be in a large church full of people who are mostly just as excited about this love and passion as much as they are. A church where the average attendance on Sundays is at least 1500... maybe as many as 3000...

And I hear how when you walk in, your ears and eyes will meet a congregation whose voices swell with shouts of praise, prayer and exclamations of affirmations. With "holy hands raised in the air"! The excitement, I am told, is amazing and contagious and puts you in a "tongues-speaking" frame of mind.

I am very tolerant and believe that we all deserve the respect and the right to worship as we each see fit. After all, this was the premise for the beginnings of this country, right?

Wrong!

Those who first settled this country were extremely intolerant in matters of religion! It took men like Roger Williams to take a stand upon conscience and to say to all those around him, God meant for us to have the freedom to worship Him according to the dictates of our own minds- and not according to the consensus of the majority of society.

I believe in religious liberty. I always have, and have always marched to the beat of a different drummer. Internally, I know what is right- and what is right for me. In matters of conscience, society has no right to dictate in matters which have to do with conscience, and individuality. Society should only invade personal perimeters when an individual becomes a danger and a threat to others!

Our churches across America are full of people who hunger for a relationship with Jesus Christ... with God our Father, and with the Holy Spirit. People who experience that relationship and are growing daily in that experience. These people are from all walks in life, from all social levels, from all kinds of different mindsets. Ordinary people- and many who are not so ordinary.

And when I say "our churches", I mean all protestantism and all the other realms as well- the
Catholic, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Christian Scienc, Scientology... These are all American religious groups, and tho we are all very different, every man, woman and child has the right to believe and worship as they want. We should ALL respect one another's right, as far as religious freedom and expression is concerned. The line is drawn if religious expressions involve ritual murder, sexual exploitation, dismemberment, slavery, multiple marriage, or anything else which blatantly or not, interferes with personal freedom of another person.

So what is happening in our American cultures?

Why are people leaving their churches and dropping out of practicing matters of faith? Why are people leaving their churches and deciding to live for self only? Or to live as a believer but without the benefits of a church membership? Why are people going church-hopping? Why are some people-including couples- leaving churches where they have pursued a particular experience for years & years- and then suddenly quitting? And staying at home. Why are people who have been ultra-conservative all their lives leaving their churches to go to one that is very liberal? What is the difference between the liberal and the conservative churches? What is the difference between a non-church goer who is a "good person" - and the person who is and does the other?

And why are there so many people who believe in God but do not believe in all the trappings which go with being a member and practicing believer of some church or religious organization?

How many believe in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit- and do not want to belong to a church?

Are more people coming into churches than out? Are churches across America growing? Or are they experiencing dwindling numbers for multiple reasons? And are more people leaving churches and religious organizations than are going into them? Or are the mainstream churches and religions holding their own, against the tide of human movement in a million directions?

God Himself is still very much active in the lives of billions of people, many of whom recognize it, and many who do not. God is still working on the lives and hearts of billions of people who are confused and don't know where to turn- or are going from church to church- or from religion to religion. God is just as present in the lives of believers and non-believers, as ever. God hasn't stopped loving the creation of mankind.

People are leaving churches because someone has offended them or the minister spoke a message which was offensive to their ears. They might go to another church within the same denomination... or change denominations. Why? Is the answer elusive? Not at all- but it IS one that people do not like. I won't go into that.

People who believe in Saturday as the seventh-day Sabbath leave that belief system- and stop going to church. Or they go to a Sunday church. Or return to one they had come from to begin with.

And just as many people are leaving Sunday churches and finding their ways into churches which are seventh day. Jewish folk often do not practice their beliefs in the formal way which was originally so. Some of them become members of denominations for many different reasons. And there are many, many people who decide to become members of the Jewish religion.

And why do people hear the message of righteousness by faith at a Revelation Seminar and leave the church or the lifestyle they had been living, to become a member of that group which gave the seminar? They know that they have discovered a truth that cannot be lived without! And yet, sometimes, after some weeks or months or years, they disappear from that group. Why? Some say they were not being "fed" or "nurtured" as they wanted to be. There are many other "reasons". Sometimes they are offended by a member of the church. Or they think they can't stand the "hypocracy".

It's the same in many protestant groups! People weary of the "forms" and "rituals". They are offended by someone. Or get mad at someone. Or they begin to "find" that they are not being "blessed", "fed" or "nurtured" as they would like. People are leaving major denominations all the time. In search of something meaningful. Sometimes in search of a mate. Or people to be social with. Or to find people to just date.

The biggest "black-hole" that I see has multiple creatures in it, ready to gobble up the unsuspecting!

Those creatures are things like "Pastor --- was very unkind to me. I'm leaving". Or, "someone I'd always trusted in that church has hurt me deeply or has offended me or made me mad." "So and so's kid hurt my kid- now they will be the enemy." "I really got tired of all those pleas for my money." "This pastor's messages didn't do a thing for me." "I'm just not being fed, here at this church." "This church just isn't Christlike". "There aren't enough people here who are mature enough to keep this church together". "This church stifles my sense of being."

How very sad that people are not grounded well, in faith.

How very sad that people can leave a good experience and feel that they can find a better one elsewhere. How very sad that people can feel that their feelings are more important than everything else! Does that mean they were never well-nurtured and kept involved and growing in faith? Is it someone else's fault?

I take heart in the fact that people are church-hopping, and looking for "the truth". Because when we find it, we know it. And there are no "externals" which will drive us from that. NO amount of tugging, and pulling and twisting will get this person away from God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The person who is really and truly rooted in their relationship with God will not leave it because someone said or did something offending.

Indeed, the mature christian will be able to stand on his or her own, and say "tho I am offended, hurt or treated badly, I have Jesus- and I'm NOT GOING ANYWHERE."

So, is the question ansered? Are people coming or going or staying? Maybe.

But maturity is the ability to endure uncertainty.

Many, many people have lots of other definitions of maturity. Which is fine. We are all free-agents and can believe whatever we want to, right?

But how can we discern when our own selfish minds are interfering with our spiritual thinking and growth?

Personally, I know the truth. And I am still a sinner. But, God loves me. He is working in my heart and life and mind. I'm so glad He is... I want Him. I want this relationship to be everything it should be- on His terms. Not mine.

Are you coming or going or staying?