We live in a fast-paced world, where real communication has been twisted so we no longer really understand it. I had a look recently at the Twitter phenomenon, and thought it was the craziest idea! The video said that Twitter helped you communicate in the space between emails and blogs.
But is this really communicating? It seems more like we all end up knowing a lot about people and them about us, but never really engaging with other humanoids, and our concept of what communication really is ends up blurred.
This isn't a Twitter-bashing session. If you use it and it helps you, great! But what if a distorted perception of communication crept into our churches?
What if as we went to church, we listened to the Bible being read and preached a bit like reading Facebook updates? What if as we prayed and sang, we did it as though we were tweeting on Twitter? What if we confessed our sins a bit like a blog, and then heard a word of encouragement from Scripture a bit like an RSS feed?
What would happen is that a chasm would exist between God and ourselves. God's people would be reduced to anonymous, casual passers-by. And God to us would become impersonal and small. Even the Word of God would become a thought for the day, reduced to whatever hot topic is up for discussion, and would get old in a few hours.
As A.W. Tozer would say, "No! No! No!". This is not what church is. When we come together as a body of believers, God meets with us. He dwells in our hearts by his Spirit. He knows us inside out, better than we know ourselves. And he chooses to reveal himself to us, by his Word and in the form of his Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.
In an age of casual communication, where even a phonecall takes effort, this might well be the most real relationship we could ever have - being known completely as God makes himself known to us.
This should inform our understanding of why we're at church. What if we went to church as though we were taking time out to meet up with a special friend and have a conversation? We shut out everything else and prioritise that time, without rushing, and with an aim to give ourselves as we are given to, transparently, without our own agenda.
We would hear God speak and would listen patiently. We would respond in prayer and song and in the way we live our lives. And we would build strong relationships both with our Father and our brothers and sisters. It would be a two-way conversation built on firm foundations, and all the time it would be developing and growing. But note that this is a corporate relationship that is growing - us and our Lord, not me and God - there are no solo Christians.
John Owen was an English pastor in the 17th century, a Puritan who rebelled against the Anglican church to seek to strengthen himself and others in simple faith in our Lord Jesus. He knew only knew communication face to face or in a letter, but he wrote these words:
"What do men come to hear the Word of God for? What do they pray for? What do they expect to receive from him? Do they come unto God as the fountain of living waters? As the God of all grace, peace and consolation? Or do they come unto his worship without any design as unto a dry and empty show?...Or do they think they bring something unto God, but receive nothing from him? To receive anything from him they expect not, nor do ever examine themselves whether they have done so or no?...From hence springs all that luke-warmness, coldness, and indifferancy unto the duties of holy worship, that are growing among us."
Do you aim to have a conversation with God when you go to church?
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