The other day I found a toy tractor in the china cabinet. I thought, “This is the way I feel in church, like I don’t belong here.” There is nothing wrong with the tractor or the china for that matter, it is that they just don’t go together.
A tractor is meant to be:
- used outside
- moving
- doing something useful
- used every day
- handled roughly
Good china is meant to be:
- used inside
- stored in a safe place
- doing somethig pretty
- used just on Sundays
- handled delicately
There is nothing wrong in being a tractor or being good china. But a tractor feels out of place in a china cabinet.
What if we made church more like a barn?
We come into a barn to:
- get out of the cold
- get cleaned off
- get repaired
- be available to be used with other impliments
- get ready for going out again into the fields
So what are you doing to make your church ‘tractor-friendly’? Let us know your comments.
You might be on to something… after all, according to scripture the birthplace of Christianity started out in a stable… which is definitely heading in the direction of a barn. Though there are some barns which are used for church gatherings even in these days… generally the newer the churches are, the more it seems that they are like shopping malls rather than barns. I wonder if Jesus were to be born today if Joseph and Mary would choose a shopping mall or a church over a barn? Somehow I tend to think they’d still go for the barn… it seems to me that would be a lot better than the mall, or even a church for that matter… Jesus always seemed to be not-fitting-in (not unlike your tractor in the china cabinet), but he didn’t seem to mind it though… maybe we should be more like that? Most churches have about as much chance of becoming ‘tractor-friendly’ as the average mall does… folks that don’t fit in, don’t fit in… in either place… and I expect that’s about exactly the way the church and the mall want it to be! Happy tractors should avoid tractor-unfriendly places!
hi, i love the Lord with all my heart and i have a deep desire to want to fellowship with the Lord and his people but when it comes to going to church i feel like i do not fit in. I feel like a wind up monkey at the circus, standing up, sitting down and clapping my hands at all the right times. I just think to myself is all this really the way that the Lord intended hos people to be like and were is God in the mist of it all. Please pray that the Lord gives me the desires of my heart thanks.
Hi Jackie,
I resonate with your pain as I am sure do many others. I also observe that some people are more than happy with the routine and find the discomfort you described as completely incomprehensible.
What would it take to make you feel at home?
IN my case since my gifting and learning preferences are experiential based, I get tired of talking about God and want to experience God. I don’t need more information. That is why a verb-centred approach to discipleship helps change the pattern. Where I get frustrated is that I feel I am told “That is fine but please do all our stuff first.” It becomes death by trivialization.
Jim