Maybe Don’t Go To Church As Much

After a week of change, I have learned a few things about the “real world”. For close to the last decade, I have had the rare privilege to be on staff at a great church. It has been full of too many great experiences and lessons to share here, but which I hope to share in following months. Yet, now I find myself in the midst of non-ministry, ministry work (that is “non-professional” ministry). Working as a teacher is a grind, but a terrific one. It is also much like many professions that you experience day to day.

This week wore me out. It tried my family but it also brought incredible refreshment and encouragement to us. However, I feel like now I am beginning to understand why many people don’t come to church, or at least do not regularly attend. As a pastor, I don’t know that I ever got this. I used to think, “it’s only a few hours a week, why not volunteer too?”

The church work I was in love with blinded me from the truth of what you face. The schedules you are immersed in, the responsibilities you juggle, and the relationships you attempt to foster, are all demanding and areas of perhaps greater ministry than within church walls. It is easy in this to become burnt out, tired, and exhausted in this life. I fear that I might have not shown the proper grace and I fear that many churches have missed this as well. On one hand, we teach you should invest in your family and cultivate your career for the Gospel. Yet on the other hand we teach you need to volunteer, attend church, and be part of a Life Group. Without meaning to, we have went back to a deeds based religion; one that wants you to do “more”. This is not a clear example of the grace we have been given and created to exemplify.

So is the answer less church? Not exactly. Some of us could gain more from the relationships within the walls of a local church. The answer may be found in what we are doing to stay spiritually healthy and how are we investing in our own families first. If our job has a demanding schedule, then that might be where God wishes for you to grow spiritually. For too long, we have sanitized ministry. Do not be afraid to say no to the good, to breathe life into your soul and your family. This might mean a step back from church, or it may mean a step towards.