Church and the devout's misdirection.

This morning, someone I know for decades wrote to me. That friend said that she’d met an ex-church worker. That ex-church worker had been working for church for decades and said it was a wake-up experience. This is that person’s own words as expressed: -

"I came out of the darkest pit. I am no longer a Christian. I am a free thinker". 

Ironically, it seems like that person has found the truth, and it had set that person free, at least free from the “darkest pit”. 

After hearing that, my friend stood there in shock, speechless. Me too. I read that and it took a while before I snapped out of it.

I however needed to write this note this morning to set the record straight. And the record has always been that we pay the price when we mistake the Church for Christ. That is the price not of the Cross, but the price of a devout’s misdirection. 

This reminded me of the sad City Harvest saga. It took a trial of many years, and many lives and faith destroyed, before the leaders came to their senses and apologised. 

As Peter denied Christ thrice before he bowed in utter remorse, it took the head of City Harvest that many times, three that is, before he ceased all struggles and accepted the verdict. But by then, many, I believe, had come out of their own “darkest pit” and...well, became free? 

Returning to the price of a devout’s misdirection, we are all never too innocent when we are embroiled in our own church’s saga. I always believe that humanity itself is already a struggle to make ends meet, that is, to untie the Gordian knot of our own unmaking as we confront the common temptations in the different contexts in which they unravel before us. 

But when you light the match of religiosity and toss it carelessly into the rapid kerosene river of the mess that we are struggling with, that is, the hypocrisy, the pride, the lust for power and the ego, what you get is an institutional inferno that perpetuates itself indefinitely. 

Alas, truth be told, the church is supposed to be the bride of Christ. That much is clear. But this is one bride that has her own issues; some of which are deep, dark ones that seldom see the light of day. 

Let me nevertheless make this controversial statement, and it is this: the rise of a leader is often taken to mean that it is an anointing of and from God. That is another bold presumption over the long and convoluted history of church leadership. 

But let’s face it, the rise of a leader can be for many reasons, and for some, the predominant reason can be one other than an anointing of and from God. Or it may start with that, in the Spirit, but end midway in the flesh. That is, to me, is one of the manifest symptom of a devout’s misdirection. 

And for this sacred reason, it is indeed a blessing for a leader to start in His Spirit, persevere no less in His Spirit, and complete the race gaining the crown of Life, yes, in His Spirit. 

Let me return to my point about misdirection above, and let me ask you this: which came first, Trump’s Office of the President or God’s anointing? In my view, it is (most of the time) the former. The office of the President brings about the coveted legitimacy. And the anointing is therefore its afterthought.

So, by default, he or she who enters that office is deemed anointed, not the other way round. It is the chicken-and-the-egg quandary all over again. But the difference, in the context of a country and a church, is that one is an academic teaser, while the other concerns lives, thousands, if not millions of them. That’s the sin of misattribution, the close cousin of misdirection. 

When Christ declared to Peter that upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail, made no mistake about it, He is not referring to a human means to a glorified end. He is however talking about a Godly means to a Godly end. Any other way conceived by men is no more than men building their own tower of babel to reach not the One who created us in His image, but to reach the ones who create gods in their own image.

This is the mark of a devout’s misdirection. It is as insidious as it is deluded. For the price of the Cross is not in building the church for all to marvel. It is in the building of the temple within us, so that all could be transformed by the power of His name that we bear. Make no mistake about that, because committing that mistake is the allure of the pit that turns ever darker every time we tell ourselves otherwise.

 

Have an overcoming mid-week. God bless.