Let me put it this way.
You and I are friends. Each week we meet together. After we meet and greet each other, I sit down, and my friend stands up. My friend then begins to speak, and I am not allowed to interrupt, even if I don't agree, or don't understand. My friend speaks for a long time, sometimes an hour or more. I just sit and listen. When my friend is done speaking, I get up, shake her hand, and leave.
We do this each week, sometimes several times a week. I consider her a great friend. She speaks her heart to me each time. Yet, I never get to say anything to her. She does all the talking. Yet, I believe that we are the best of friends in the world.
Does this scenario sound familiar anyone? How could I consider this friend... to be my true friend, if I never was allowed open communication with her? What kind of fellowship would we be having? It is simply a one-way monologue, of which I learn nothing, because I can neither ask, participate, or say what I think. I just simply sit and listen.
You see... this is not a friendship. This is not fellowship. This is not communication. This is not the path to growth.
No one desiring true friendship and fellowship would hang around for that kind of fellowship/friendship very long. If I had a friend who never let me speak, never let me share my thoughts about the issue at hand... I wouldn't hang around long at all. Because that is not a friendship. That is not fellowship. It is a dead end one way street.
Basically what I have just described is what happens each Sunday/Wednesday in churches all across the world. We claim that we come to have fellowship at church, but really, all we are doing is sitting in on a monologue, of which we can not participate in. You sit, you listen, and when they are through... you leave.
So.... all you folks who go to church faithfully, and listen to a monologue each time you go.... are you growing? If you cannot communicate, ask questions, share your own thoughts.... is this really helping you grow in your relationship with Christ?
No... it is pure entertainment, and emotionalism at times.... but growth is not taking place.
If I have a friend who I can communicate with, share ideas with, debate, cry with, laugh with, and interact with... that is a friend that is going to help me grow.
That is why the church system as it is set up now is failing men and women everywhere. There is no room for growth. You can only be entertained so long before you begin to die a slow spiritual death. The only room for growth is when each member of the body is allowed to function and play their role in the body.
When "church" is just a monologue from the pastor with no interaction from the rest of the body, then parts of the body begin to shrivel up and die.
And Paul says this in
1 Cor. 12:12-31 Read it for yourself, and see God's true plan for the body... it certainly does not line up with how we see the body of Christ functioning today.
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