The Blue Church

Given that longings are a part of us, the next question is, what part? That is, if we have longings (and we do) because we were made in God’s image (and we were), how do we deal with them, now that we are fallen creatures?

The approach of the holidays and a new year often find us reflective about our past and hopeful about our future. We begin planning with a clean slate, hopefully a little wiser for our experiences. But between the past and the future, right there on the line of the present moment, lie our longings.

Surely you’ve been there, sitting on the passenger side, riding with someone who keeps looking at you when he talks. He keeps making eye contact with you instead of watching the lines on the road, the oncoming traffic, the signal lights, and the pedestrians crossing in front of him.

Years ago someone asked me about my greatest challenge in ministry. Without hesitation, I answered that our greatest challenge is the loss of community in our culture. That is, families and churches have become fragmented, and people, regardless of how crowded things get, feel very much alone.

Many have asked me over the years, questions like, “Why should I belong to a church?” or, “Is church membership biblical?” All churches used to have membership, but today many do not. Is membership an outdated tradition, or are there some sound, even biblical reasons for continuing it?

There is no doubt that Jesus commanded His disciples (Matthew 28:18-20) to be baptized. So why are professing Christians, in increasing numbers, refusing baptism? I suspect it is because confusion dominates the issue: Confusion over the mode of baptism (sprinkling, pouring, immersion).

The author of Hebrews encourages us, in light of the many testimonials to God’s faithfulness, to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1, 2a, ESV).

There are days when it seems like nothing goes our way, and when everything we look to do is either stopped or detoured. There are times when we wonder just where God is in life’s equation.

Many, if not most folks tend to be seasonal givers, event givers, ad hoc givers. We tend to give when the hat or plate is passed, when we feel guilty, when we hear of some special need, or around Christmas, when giving is a tradition.

Castles dot the landscape in Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, The United Kingdom, Switzerland. Virtually everywhere, their presence is a stately, haunting reminder of ancient wars, cultures in crisis, and fear.