Tonight Gordon and I and another new member have been officially welcomed into the fellowship of Spicer Street, St Albans. The simple but significant little procedure turned out to move us to quiet tears. Aaah how honoured and at home we feel and thrilled with OUR Bible-preaching pastors and church and with our new family!
Oh dear, then………..my eye caught a short blog about the possibility of disillusionment with a church (and they with us!). Who will be in the mood for such “negative” realities while enjoying the bliss of trouble-free church-ties. Please, not tonight!
It turned out to be strangely irresistable………..I kept on being drawn to that short article: “In our love for our church and our holy regard for those who lead us in the things of God, we forget the nature of humanity”. In our high happiness, would we be blind to the potential of our failures and those of our new church family. Will we in dream-like state, persist in forgetting that humans are combinations of greatness and grief, of doing well and of disgusting sin.
So, we better check, right at the outset, that we are not merely sentimental about our new church this evening. There is depth and sincerity in true love, and it should not cause us to drop our guard against the natural failings of humanity and ignore the signals our inner radar may be sending.
True stories abound of what people have suffered in the very place they have never expected harm – ie their church. Will the devil not strike hard where the pressure is on to change, to be like Jesus, where the stakes are high?
That is all I have to say about that (ala Forest Gump).
Except……….this specific, timely warning has not dampened our excitement over the fact that this very evening we became fully fledged members of our local church. But now we are all too well aware of our own personal potential for failure and sin. And the same, in theory, of our church’s. So we go into this new phase, armed with God’s ways of confession and forgiveness and humility and service, clinging to His sure promise to us and to our new church family
“Give praise to the One who is able to keep you from falling into sin. He will bring you into his heavenly glory without any fault. He will bring you there with great joy. Give praise to the only God. He is our Saviour” (New International Readers Version)
