CHURCH! ITS NOT JUST FOR THE RELIGIOUS

CHURCH! IT’S NOT JUST FOR THE RELIGIOUS

By Rev. Stephen V. Bolin, Sr

Pastor, New Covenant Church-Port Leyden

June 8, 2016

Contrary to popular belief, church is not for the religious anymore. Back in the day that statement probably would have been sacrilegious to church goers across the nation. However, in this new community based environment, the religious feel uncomfortable in church. Liturgy has had its place in church, years ago, especially in our area (Lewis County, New York and the surrounding region). However, in today’s society, in our neck of the woods, a new breed of believers is rising up in churches all over. As a pastor of a former liturgical congregation we face some tremendous challenges. One of the challenges is to rid our persona of a religious spirit. What I mean by that phrase is this; church used to be about coming on Sundays, sing a couple of hymns, take communion, hear a sermon about how bad you are, try to be better, but somehow…never attain such a glorious state. It was a message of condemnation that only a few could really seem to arrive at this special “state”. On the contrary, most everyone never could reach it because it was too hard. You see, there were a list of rules and regulations that had to be followed and if you broke those rules….then you’re bound for hell, fire and damnation! Believe it or not, this message worked for some, because if one abided by these rules, it brought about satisfaction that you were doing the “right thing” and feeling good about yourself. As long as you kept this up…you were aces in The Lords eyes (so we were told). Fast-forward to today’s generation, their children (the 40’s and early 50’s) want nothing to do with church and their children….they don’t see the value of church.

The children of the religious generation want nothing to do with church because they saw firsthand that those living in this spirit, possessed more condemnation than commendation. They possessed anger and wrath than joy and peace. The parents were forced by the church to conform to this spirit because of the fear of the result would end in going to hell! Is this really the message that Jesus preached and lived? I don’t think so! If anything, He preached against it to the “Religious Zealots” (the Pharisee’s). One of the most famous verses that nearly every American knows by heart is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This was part of a conversation that Jesus had with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Jesus was telling Nick that faith in Him was the way to everlasting life…not following the law or following a “Religious plan”.

I believe that the message that Jesus preached and shared was intended to be simple and not complex. Somewhere down the line it became complex. This wasn’t God’s intention or even God’s fault. It isn’t even a “Christian” problem. It’s a human nature problem. It’s not easy accepting such an enormous gift by just believing. We want to work for it, we want to be worth the value of this gift. That’s the problem…we were declared of high value by God before we had a chance to be of a good value to society or even to God for that matter. The Bible tells us that it is by this gift through believing (having confidence in Him and for what He did) that we have eternal life. It is not by our own methods or religion or even great intentions so that not one of us can stand and say, “I deserve Heaven!”

At our church we don’t preach religion, we avoid religion all together. Although, we do have services religiously every Sunday at 10:30am and every Wednesday evening at 6:30pm. We come and celebrate what Jesus has done and is doing. We celebrate with communion because we remember what He has done. We celebrate through singing because of what He is doing in our lives and we share a message of what He has been saying to us. You see, Jesus gave us an example of not only what to teach, but how we should live our lives. He summed it up in two sentences. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love your neighbors as yourself. We don’t worship or work in the church in order to prove anything. We worship/work because we believe and are persuaded and have the utmost confidence the Jesus is who He says He is and has done what He says He will do. Religion measures a person and sizes them up based on what they do. That is man’s attempt to be self-righteous. God’s perspective is this: “He chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4). The religious spirit doesn’t like this because they want to perform and be counted worthy. This is really offensive to God because His plan is fool proof. Man’s plan is foolish. It is foolish for man to think that can make his own righteous (in other words “right with God). The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the believers in Rome (Chapter 3 verse 10) that, “There is none righteous, no not one!” You see, it’s foolish to try to be something that limits you to less than what you want; especially, if God has made you everything that He has desired you to be.

As a pastor I want to show, teach and demonstrate what it means to walk in the image of Christ. Not through the eyes of a religious zealot but through the vision of a believer, one who is persuaded and convinced Jesus died for my sins and forgave me of my transgressions and made a way that I could live freely from condemnation set apart from my old ways. I want to teach and demonstrate what it means to live a life of faith in a world that seems faithless; to give hope when life appears hopeless. I am so thrilled that God does not measure my faithfulness by what I do, but how much I believe. My faith is not measured by my works; my works are measured by my faith. In a simpler way, I don’t do good works to prove that I am a believer; I am a believer and the evidence of my persuasion and confidence is backed by what how I live my life. I live in commendation not condemnation!

The religious are welcomed in our church, but will be very uncomfortable until they are delivered from such a spirit. Those who have not adopted such a spirit may have less to fight through, but still must believe nonetheless, with a child-like faith. Church should change with the culture, but the message will always be the same. If don’t change our tactics, we lose another generation! If you tried religion and it failed you, try Jesus!

Bibliography

All scripture text are from the NKJV Thomas Nelson copywrite 1983