In the minds of many who live in America today, “church” = stuffy and uptight.
Why is that? Plain and simple, the services in many churches throughout America ARE stuffy and uptight. What’s most troubling about that is that when you look at the life of Jesus (who should be the Author and Inspiration for “church” as we know it) His life was characterized by ANYTHING BUT “stuffy and uptight”. As you read through the gospels, Jesus was the life of the party quite literally finding himself amidst the craziest “party-ers” of his time (i.e. Prostitutes, tax-collectors, and those just generally tagged as “sinners”). Why was Jesus such a hit? Was He participating in the things that those around him were characterized by? No. The reason Jesus was so lauded and loved was because He possessed something that everyone around Him both wanted and needed; contentment and lasting joy. Simply said, JESUS LOVED LIFE and he exuded that love to all who were around Him. What gave Jesus the ability to love life? He was in the very center of the will of the Father; He knew what He was called to do and was doing it.
Which begs the next question…why then are so many church services stuffy and uptight? The logical answer according to the life of Jesus is…many people attending those church services are not are doing what they are called to do; simply put, they are not loving life thus love does not exude from them. In fact, quite often they exude the exact opposite; dissatisfaction and justification of their general dissatisfaction. What do I mean? When you are not doing what you were created to do, life becomes boring and leads to overall dissatisfaction with life in general. But because many are not willing to face the challenge of “what were you created for and what should you be doing with your life?” they have created justifications of why it is OK for them to just stay in the spot they are in. Such dissatisfaction with life and justification for why they should just stay there leads people to be critical of others; as “fault-finders” they begin looking for problems in everyone else’s life (i.e. what they wear, how they talk, where they come from, what their “sinful” issues are, etc.) thus leading to “stuffy and uptight” communities of people dissatisfied and afraid to let down their walls around anyone else lest they be judged.
What’s the solution? Find a church where people are continually asking themselves the question, “Father, what are you calling me to and what was I created for?” What you will find in places like that is a group of people excited about life because they love what they are doing for the Kingdom of God. Not about denominational lines or one individual church, these kinds of people are only concerned about doing what God has called them to do (which may lead them into some pretty crazy places!). All in all, life is too short to be dissatisfied and WAY TOO SHORT to justify dissatisfaction. Get out there and determine what you’re called to and surround yourself with people who are doing the same, and let’s determine to change church from a “stuffy and uptight” experience to one that exudes the love of Jesus.
