Most Sunday mornings (lately), Along with many Americans, I go to a building that our current culture calls a church. I go with the hope of experiencing God, receiving from Him, connecting with Him and other believers in my spirit.
Lately though, I have realized that the thing I go to this building to do, I actually experience more of outside of the building...without the liturgy, the pomp and ceremony...My spirit connects with others better through conversation or touch than through experiencing the same sermon or worship songs.
I've found that I truly love the people that gather together every Sunday at this building, their hearts for Christ, and their different personalities are so awesome when we are all apart from the laws and rituals, the expectations, the clothes, the songs, and the building that makes up our "church." In fact, some of our closest friends pastor the church! My point here is not to say that this place, or the heart of those who go there are bad, or that they have poor intentions.

It makes me really wonder about the first century church. What did Christ really desire for His followers...? Was it really close intimacy, sharing, healing, acceptance, and love? Or was it a hierarchy holding onto a rule book? A certain wardrobe, a certain order of events, a certain place for the "pastor" to stand, a certain place for the "church" to sit, the right songs to sing to bring about a certain experience...it all seems so strange to me now. Is this the way it was meant to be?

I know I've heard from a lot of others who feel the same way, so many are struggling with the "church" as it currently stands...and so, for those of you who are curious, I'm reading a really great book. My aunt Vicki sent me Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna. They invite us to question why we do church the way we do...Here are a few excerpts! I'm leaving out sources used by the authors, so you'll need to actually read the book to get their research and evidence...it's in there :)

"As Christians we are taught by our leaders to believe certain ideas and behave in certain ways. We are also encouraged to read our Bibles. But we are conditioned to read the Bible with the lens handed to us by the Christian tradition to which we belong. We are taught to obey our denomination (or movement) and never to challenge what it teaches. "

"If the truth be told, we as Christians never seem to ask why we do what we do. Instead we blithely carry out our religious traditions without asking where they came from. Most Christians who claim to uphold the integrity of God's Word have never sought to see if what they do every Sunday has any scriptural backing. How do we know this? Because if they did, it would lead them to some very disturbing conclusions that would compel them by conscience to forever abandon what they are doing. "

"There does not exist a shred of biblical support for the church building. Yet scores of Christians pay good money each year to sanctify their brick and stone. By doing so, they have supported an artificial setting where they are lulled into passivity and prevented from being natural or intimate with other believers. "

I hope you'll check it out.