What's in a Name?

We went to a Sunday Club meeting last Sunday. It was the first time we had been to such a gathering for over a year. We were invited to go as it was a 'Royal Ranger' service and the last time we would get to see a couple of friends who have been active with the RRs and are now moving up north.
The wife has not been able to find close relationships in the large group - although they were there for over two years. Most people were too busy with jobs, lived too far away or were too occupied with 'church' business to get involved with them. Yet to hear the flattering things which were said about them, you would have supposed that they had been in the bosom of the family.

We knew a fair handful of the people there. It was really nice to see them again. One told us that the group was in yet another crisis, but from the leadership's attitude, you would have thought that 'everything in the garden was lovely.' There was a cold atmosphere there and few people seemed really open, spiritually. It was sad.
It's the usual story. I wonder when we will see that it's the religious system which perpetuates the problem. Our spiritual DNA makes us long for relationships, but all we get is programme. We were told when to sit, when to stand, when to pray, when to sing, when to applaud those who stand on pedestals...it was control from beginning to end. The 'pastor' was running the show - at least from behind the scenes - and came forward when 'important spiritual things' were taking place - things which stipulated that an 'authority' was needed.

Where was the Headship of Jesus Christ? Where was the Holy Spirit allowed to minister through the priesthood of all believers, via the Body? There wasn't one moment of openness to the Holy Spirit. The 'pastor' kept mentioning names of well-known people who had achieved great things in the eyes of the world, as if in order to impress us.
An old friend who we knew from years back, who is, with his wife, now 'in leadership' in the group, looked through us as if we didn't exist. We've visited them before and his wife has been to our home with her children. I smiled at him from across the table at lunchtime afterwards, but he just looked cold and walked off. Perhaps he was thinking of something else and wasn't aware of it. Never mind. But it reinforced the conviction that so many so-called Christians here are relational cripples. No wonder so many people get hurt and end up church hopping.

Lord, You build Your Church, as we seek the Kingdom and are salt and light in the world.