By Jim Tune
The great myth of this generation is that you can love Jesus but not the church, that Christ can be separated from his bride.
Having served the same congregation for 15 years, I have seen a lot of people come and go. Some leave other churches to come to ours, and some leave our church to attend another. Others leave church and the faith entirely, or think they can follow Jesus without assembling with his people. Some leave because they”re under the false impression that Jesus” people down the street would be better people to follow Jesus with than the ones right in front of them. But then there are the “stayers” . . . people who remain faithful to their local church, even when they feel like leaving, so they can spur on the “body of Christ to love and good works.” I like to think of their decision as perseverance in stability. The Benedictines speak of life together in the abbey: “God has placed us in a community of people with whom we would not have chosen to live had it been up to us.”
“Stayers” look at other church members as a particular constellation of people to speak to and hear from for their mutual growth in Christlikeness. This means more than just remaining in place. Parents, spouses, neighbors, coworkers, and others know we can live or work somewhere for a long time and be with the same people day after day, yet take little interest in what is happening.
Staying means being faithful””faithful where we are. Staying means paying attention””really paying attention to those with whom we live and to what is happening in our common life. A person stays where God has placed him or her because in that group, while speaking the truth in love, they will grow together “and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ,” as Paul described it to the Ephesians (4:13).
It”s tempting to believe the grass is greener “over there” . . . in another marriage, another church, another job. The trouble is, once we wander into the other pasture, we usually discover the grazing is more or less the same. But not only is the grass unchanged, we remain unchanged. Conversion and growth in character happen when we remain, not when we run.
Life in community is hard. At one time or another, everyone wants to walk away from the hard work of real fellowship. The church can be a tough place. We hear things we don”t like, we see things we don”t approve, we are forced to pray with people whose opinions contradict ours. Weekly we greet people we don”t especially like. And that”s hard.
But in these communities come our most powerful experiences of God. It is in our church we will work out””difficult as it may be””our salvation, alongside other sinners; sinners just like us.
Stay. It”s how God changes you.
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