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Can God Get Glory from My Life?

    by Dominique Henderson

The Church-an Institution or an Organism? (Part 1)
Date Posted: June 28, 2009

I will start with an apology in that this thought will take some time to flesh out. I don’t know how long but it has been something I’ve dealt with for two years so it may take a while. But what happens when you as a believer find yourself in a life that has as much bondage as the life of sin you left? Let’s say you are a part of a church that believes that the more programs that it puts on the holier they appear. The pastor or leadership can never be challenged because they manipulate individuals to adopt their agenda. Consequently, you feel confused and trapped. What do you do?

In the movie, The Matrix, Neo (Keanu Reeves) plays a man looking for more out of life. He can tell that there is more out there but just can’t put his finger on it. When he finally does, he realizes that what his mind was grasping for was not readily accepted by his eyes. It was like what he really wanted to know he now can’t handle. It is like when something so surreal happens you want to press the "rewind" button in your mind and just go backwards in time. Unfortunately he finds out that the world he was living in all of his life has just been a computer-generated façade masking his slavery to a system. Everything he has ever known to be true is just a lie. (I apologize for having begun the last two weeks of devotionals with movies, but it just seemed appropriate.) But have you ever felt like Neo? Worse yet, have you felt that way at church? Amazingly enough, I draw many parallels from this scenario to life in religious America today. Of course, the matrix is much like the world of sin we live in. And since individuals have been given purpose by God at birth, they long for “more” from their life. But not until they experience a life with Christ do things start coming into perspective. When they “unplug” from the matrix they usually seek attachment to a church or a community of believers. I did this as most have done also. Having spent a large period of my life in church, it may come to surprise most that I just recently have truly understood the meaning of the word “church” (more on this later). Maybe that isn’t a surprise because I find that in conversation that most believers use words to describe the church more as an institution rather than a living organism. This debate in nomenclature has been a key turning point in my Christian walk (and that of my family’s) for the past few years. When you unplug from a life in the world and plug into a life in the church, you don't expect to eventually feel bondage. But what if you started to experience bondage inside of the church? You are experiencing the institution of church. It is much like what I described in the first paragraph above. There are mandates instead of freedoms. Things such as, this is where you should go at least weekly for fellowship with others, or that it should be run by an seemingly perfect pastor/leader or that you should be involved in its programs and activities in order to be a better person. But tell me, at first glance, how is this so different from the matrix? It really isn’t. The deficiency here is the church operating as an institution, rather than it operating as a living organism. This is how the church's power becomes extinct. It doesn't grow, flourish or nurture the ones that are there. As a living organism, the Holy Spirit is the power that each believer uses to function in this world as Christ’s body (we’ll look at this power very closely in the Scriptures next week). And collectively the church as a body has this same power (in greater proportion though.) But when the church is reduced to an organization, it attempts to use inanimate programs and activities to carry out tasks. Well you may say, “isn’t the church the people within the organization?” This is exactly my point—it is the people. Believers must take the stance that they will be a personal representative of God’s agenda and not just a number on the church roll. When that happens the church as a living, breathing organism is ready to take on the Enemy and reach the nations. But when it is an institution it struggles along churning out program after program burdening the people along the way because of the vision of one man or woman. When we unite under one purpose that is God-ordained we will see change in this world, but until then we will continue in “circles”.

(to be continued)

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Biography Information:
Dominique Henderson is a believer in the one and only Son of God - Jesus Christ.  After being a believer for many years, he didn't begin to realize the purpose God had for him until the age of 30.  He has a passion for fellow musicians and worship leaders that have allowed Satan to distract them from their God-given gifts.  He now lives day by day following the lead of the Holy Spirit--not perfectly but diligently. He enjoys writing and spending time with his wife, Briana, and their three children.
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