“In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you..” 1 Cor. 11:17-18
(Jesus) is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Col. 1:18
Dear Lord Jesus, forgive us. Forgive us for how poorly we love as your people. Forgive us for contradicting grace and sabotaging kindness. There couldn’t be a more painful and humbling indictment from heaven, than to hear you say to us, “your meetings do more harm than good.” Forgive us for our niggling pettiness and gossipy petulance. Forgive us for turning wine back into water, or worse, into vinegar.
Forgive us for being preoccupied with the fly-weight issues of our agendas than the weightier matters of your law—justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matt. 23:23). Forgive us for being better at guarding the status quo, than preserving the unity of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3). Forgive us for being more paranoid about the budget than preoccupied with your beauty. Forgive us when our planning meetings outnumber our praying gatherings ten to one. Forgive us when we have more heated conversations than fresh conversions.
Forgive us that we ever joined these two words together, “my” and “church”. The church is your Bride to love, not our clay to mold. We can make an idol of anything, including your church.
Forgive us for giving non-believers way too many excuses not to take you and the gospel seriously. Forgive us for fulfilling more stereotypes than hearts. Forgive us for making your church more like an ingrown club than a welcoming community; more like a walled city of protection, rather than a magnetic city of mercy; more like a museum for old memories than an incubator for new stories.
Forgive us for being better at manipulation than ministry; more known for self-righteousness than gospel-heartedness; for being more concerned with being a church of “first buzz” rather than being alive with “first love.” Forgive us for being more sad when we think about people transferring to other churches, than when we think about people going into a Christ-less eternity.
Lord Jesus, it’s a good thing that one Day you WILL have the supremacy in all things (Col. 1:18), including in your church. You are not only the head, but the heart of your Bride. Send your Spirit and do a great grace-work, in this day. Humble us. Break us. Melt us. Mold us. Fill us. Use us. The time has come for us to have done with lesser things and smaller dreams. Forgive us… forgive me. So very Amen we pray, in your holy and loving name.
