I am a Spirit…

originally posted here, by Darin Hufford

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My wife and I made a decision about two and a half years ago that we were going to stop going to the “Institutional church”. We did not come to this conclusion through bitterness caused by church, we simply made a decision based on things that we had seen and personally felt for years but were (until that time) unwilling to admit. When I say “church” I am not talking about the Church Universal. I’m talking about the institution of church that we know today.

For the most part I think “church” is a business. In fact, many churches readily and openly admit that. I have a difficult time believing that what we know of “church” today is at all what Christ had in mind. It’s become a play. Worse than that; it’s become a rerun of a play. And yet even worse, it’s become a rerun of a play, lead by hijackers.

Someone somewhere along the line got the idea of putting on a “play” for people and calling it church. The spectators sit quietly waiting for the performance to begin. Each week they start with colorful music and someone leads them in four or five songs. Then the spectators sit down and wait for the announcements. Once that’s finished, the spectators are encouraged to give money to the “playhouse”. Then the spectators sit quietly and listen to a guy stand up and tell them what God is saying. When he finishes, all the spectators file out the door, pick up their children and head for home. One the way home they discuss the play. How the worship team did, how the Pastor preached and so on. Seven days later, they return and experience it all over again.

I call it a “rerun” of a play because if you have been to church for three years or more, that’s exactly what it is. They basically quit filming new episodes, and are now playing the spectators reruns of old episodes. It’s the same thing every week. Perhaps this is why Christ’s ministry was only three years. After that, He would only be repeating Himself. Other than a new song here and there, everything else is pretty much the same. The Pastor reminds you that “Christ took the nails for you”, and you need not to sin, and you need to read your Bible and pray, and (most importantly) you need to come to church every week and put money in the offering, and then it’s over. Week in and week out, it’s the same thing.

I’m not blaming the Pastors of America for this. I honestly don’t think it’s their fault for not preaching something “new” every week. Truthfully, I don’t think they could even if they wanted to. I do however; blame them for making people feel like they have to continue coming week after week or else God will be disappointed in them. This is where the “business” of the playhouse comes in. People are encouraged to keep coming back because the organization needs their money. If people ever felt like they could graduate from the institution, and live their lives in the world with what they know, it would be a devastating blow that eventually would destroy the institution. It is this way because “church” as you and I know it today has been built on the teaching that “once you are in, you are never allowed to leave”. There is no such thing as graduation or moving on. We are taught that we must attend every week for the rest of our lives regardless of whether we know the Gospel or not.

If you think rationally about it; it’s a ridiculous notion to think that anyone benefits much from sitting through a re-cap of something they already know week after week. It’s even more ridiculous to believe that people “need” to be there every week in order to grow spiritually. My personal opinion is that it’s just not worth going after a certain amount of time. It’s not even set up for fellowship. You come alone, you sit alone, you worship alone, you listen to the sermon alone and you leave alone.

Real fellowship happens at Starbucks with a friend or in your home over dinner with people you love. Yes the Bible does say, “Do not forsake the gathering together” but that’s a far cry from “Do not forsake going to a building and singing songs that were selected by someone else and sitting quietly while a guy talks for forty five minutes about a bunch of stuff you have either already heard or you already knew, and then leaving”. That’s not church; that’s tradition.

All in all I think the institutional church is great for people who don’t have any Christian friends. It’s a great place to meet other believers. If you DO have Christian friends however, why would you continue to go? My belief is that you ARE the church. When people ask me where I go to church, it’s like asking me where I go to Darin. I AM the church. Wherever I go, church is there because I am there. I am outreach, wherever I go there is an outreach because I am there. I think the problem with the modern day church is that people “GO TO IT”. It shouldn’t be a place we go. Church should be something we become.

I say that the modern day church is a “rerun of a play” that is lead by “hijackers” because I feel that the modern day church has hijacked everything that flows naturally from people who know and love God. They have institutionalized “heart things” and forced them into a robotic and ritualistic set of traditions.

The problem with the Institution of Church as we know it today is that it almost always seeks to “take over” or “hijack” every living expression that results from authentic relationship. Then it tries to purchase a spiritual Patent on each individual experience and dictate when and where it will manifest again. Over time we find that everything that would naturally flow from relationship with God is no longer allowed to flow naturally. It must now flow under the orders and instruction of those who run the Institution.

Beautiful things such as communion have now become cold and institutionalized. After all “church” now owns the Patent on communion. It was originally created so that people who love each other could have dinner together and in the midst of that time of fellowship, they would stop and remember Christ and what He accomplished on their behalf. They would acknowledge their present freedom and give praise to the One who brought it to them. Today, however, communion has been reduced to anything BUT communion. We now sit in neat little rows, and are handed a shot glass of grape juice and a tiny cracker. We partake of it like robot-clones on a massive assembly line. There is no fellowship, no eating together, no enjoying the company of the person next to you, no interactive conversation about the work of Christ, and no freedom. You see-dinner with friends and discussions about Christ are things that naturally flow from a person who knows Christ and has freedom. The institution has hijacked that natural thing and taken away its life.

Another intimate thing that has been hijacked by the institution is Worship. Did you know that everywhere in the New Testament where worship is mentioned, it is described as something that transpires between the individual and God alone? New Testament worship is a lifestyle of intimacy between a person and their God. Today it has been hijacked by the institution and worship begins at 7:00pm and ends at precisely 7:30pm on Sunday nights. We are told what to sing, how to sing it, when to raise our hands to God, when to clap our hands, when to stand up and when to sit down. It begins when they tell us it begins and it ends when they decide it ends. The very life of worship has been strangled out of almost everyone’s personal walk.

Giving is one of the most beautiful “natural manifestations” of a person filled with the love of God. Unfortunately the institution has hijacked that as well. A “giver” by today’s Christian standards is a person who gives to the institution. Almost all teachings on giving today are in reference to giving to the church. Even the very essence of giving has been turned upside down. The New Testament teaches “freely you have received, now freely give” and the institution has turned it around and convinced an entire generation that “If you freely give, you will freely receive”. I personally believe that the day “true giving” was murdered was the day that the teaching of “Seed Faith Giving” was introduced to the church. “Giving” went from being something a person did out of love for another, to being something we are taught to do in order to get something in return. We are even told how much to give, where to give and when to give it. The spontaneity of giving from a heart of love has been quenched and beaten into an exact mold to fit the institutions purposes. I have said many times that the world is unaffected by the giving of the church, because the church doesn’t give to the world, it gives to itself. The church stiffs the world.

Today’s church members cannot even have relationships unless they were formed and directed by the institution. People are told where to go to “cell group”, who to open up to, what to do when at the meeting and how to do it. Nothing is allowed to happen on its own. Everything is pre-determined and laid out in the exact institutional order. Gone are the days where each person chooses their own friends based on who they “click” with and who they don’t. Today, friendship is determined and ordered by the leadership and who ever the church links you together with. If you live on 5th street and Main, and Mr., and Mrs. Jones live close to your area; they become your “home fellowship” group. You must open up to them and have relationship with them. Every Thursday evening at 6:00 sharp-relationship begins and at approximately 7:45 it ends. You are encouraged to NOT have friends outside of the church. The institution dictates where you can and cannot go after work, who you can go there with and what you can and can’t do while you are there.

If you look closely all throughout the institution you will find that almost every single area of a person’s life is “taken over” and hijacked by the institution. Even things like “hearing from God” have been taken away. People are taught that the way they hear from God is “through the pastor” or “through others in the institution”. Even the most personal things of all are stripped away. The beauty and honor of being responsible for your children growing up with an understanding of the Heart of God, is hijacked away from you. Now the institution makes no bones about the fact that they believe it’s their responsibility to teach your children. If you don’t bring your kids to their classes, YOU are failing. How has this happened? In the beginning, the institution of church served the people. Today it has been reversed. The people are taunted and manipulated into serving the institution.

I do believe it’s time for people to take a stand and yell “FREEDOM”!!!!! We need to take back what was stolen from us. I am becoming more and more convinced that the “woman who rides the beast” (In Revelation 17) and drinks a cup filled with the blood of the saints; IS THE INSTITUTION OF CHURCH.

If you would like to read more on this I would suggest that you read the article just above this one entitled, “The Church that Christ Built.”

- http://freebelievers.com

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