An Ingrown Church.

If you will recall, in the last post "Your I.T. Expert" made two points about the all important Ingrown Toenail.

I will devote this blog to the second point. The gist?

Don't trim your toenails too short, as you may set the stage for ingrown toenails.

Are you shaking in your boots? You know...the ones that aren't too tight? Of course not. What you are doing is wondering how I am going to weave biblical insight into a toenail!

Oh, now. I'm not going to do that!

But, remember when we learned that if our toenails are trimmed too short...it could set the stage for an ingrown toenail?

Honestly, when I read about that, I thought of the church as the toenail...and when we "trim" the toenail - or church - too much...the church can become ingrown. The danger of a church that becomes ingrown is that their focus is placed on ministering to themselves before reaching out to the world.

So how do we "trim" a church?

First thing we need to do is get on the same page. What is the church? That may seem like a silly question, but it is viewed very differently by many people

Some people think church is simply a building where religious people meet. A location.

Wrong.

There is a difference between the church and a church building.

All throughout the New Testament are references to the church.

The church that is being persecuted.

Buildings aren't persecuted.

The church that speaks.

Buildings can't talk.

Great fear came upon the church.

Buildings don't get scared.

Prayer was offered to God by the church.

Buildings don't pray.

Need I continue?

I love the church. (And yes, I enjoy meeting in church buildings). The true church, however, is an incredible movement of God that spans the entire world. It consists of people who have chosen to ask Jesus into their lives and subsequently follow Him... It goes beyond buildings, beyond denominations, beyond theological differences that have nothing to do with salvation.

When we insist that the church is nothing but a building or when we limit church to a specific denomination...even when we over-emphasize theological issues that are not salvation related,
we are, in a sense, "cutting our toenails too short", and setting the stage for...

An Ingrown Church.