Bad experiences at church

"But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved."- Hebrews 10:39

Friendly fire is a term that the military uses. That’s a nice way of saying, "Someone shot one of our own!" At times the real enemies are right in our own camp. The folks who are supposedly backing you up are the ones you need to be concerned about.

I’m thinking of a conversation I had with a young man. "Where do you go to church?" I asked. "Oh, I don’t go to church anymore," he exclaimed, adding, "I had a bad experience and we dropped out. We still believe in God but we don’t go to church anymore." I said, "Someone did something or said something that offended you, right?"

"Yes, that was it exactly," he replied, relieved that I seemed to understand. And I did understand, at least to the extent that he had been wounded by friendly fire.

"Let me tell you about my experience," I began. "I had been in Latin America lately, and a friend had directed us to a fastfood restaurant. It was a beans-and-chicken sort of place, and we enjoyed the ambiance and the food–at least for a couple of hours. And then my wife and I both started coming apart at the seams. I mean we were really sick. Believe me, it was no fun. So as a result of that bad experience at a restaurant, I vowed never to darken the door of a restaurant again. Right? No, of course not. Okay, we got a good dose of food poisoning, but it wasn’t fatal and you can be sure that we haven’t stopped eating out." Yet that was exactly the logic of the young man who had given up going to church because he had been offended by something.

The Bible instructs us, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing," says Hebrews 10:25, adding, "but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching." In other words, when things get tougher, we need each other all the more.

"But I don’t need church. I can do it on my own!" you might say. It’s true that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to a garage makes you an automobile. But think instead about the image of a camp fire where the burning logs feed each other. Take one of those brands from the fire and it begins to go out, and fast. I’ve noticed that people are much the same. Worshipping with others not only allows your soul to be fed from the Word, but there’s something about rubbing shoulders with others that strengthens your life.

Yes, you can have a bad experience at church where someone says or does something unkind. But don’t give up on church any more than you give up on eating out when you have the misfortune to once choose a restaurant that serves spoiled chicken.