I have been in the church scene my entire life. I have seen healthy churches, unhealthy churches, and even dead churches. I have been hurt terribly by church people and I have been loved my the people of the church. I have experienced it all. The joy and heartbreak can be overwhelming. I remember saying to my husband more than once, "I will never walk away from God but I am done with His people!" After years of struggling, I see how wrong that attitude was. God has given us people to help us through life. We are to assemble together, worship together, praise Him together and help one another. However there is one thing that is stopping this from happening for some people. Cliques and stigmas! I want to keep my focus right now on the stigma. There are just some things that people of the church will not allow to be deal with. This is very wrong. It is time that we as a church body stop choosing what is ok to talk about and what is not and just help each other deal with whatever is bothering us. We need to be there for each other in love and acceptance no matter what the issue, the very same way Jesus hung on the cross for every one of our sins.
There are many things that are acceptable in the church for people to discuss. For example, when someone is ready to divorce their spouse and God steps in to do a miraculous work saving the marriage the people rejoice. They should be rejoicing, this is a wonderful thing! But there are certain issues that the church will not touch as far as letting people know that they are willing to help them. Two things in particular that I am referring to is mental health issues and abortion.
For mental health issues, the church (I am speaking in general, there are healthy churches who are doing a wonderful job helping people.) tells its people that they just need to trust in God more. If someone was having a heart attack the pastor or leaders would never dream of saying "Just have more faith, read your Bible, pray more and you will be fine!" Of course they would call 911, escort the saint to the hospital, sit with the family and pray as the doctors did their work. However if that same person was having a mental breakdown, the church would tell them that they are not trusting in God enough. They honestly believe that since its a problem within the mind, the only help must be to have more faith.
What we need to see is that the brain is a part of the body just the same as the heart. Mental health issues as just as real as heart or lung issues and need dealt with professionally. We cannot just push a person aside telling them that they would be fine if they would just pray more. Mental health issues can be anything from chemical imbalances, hormonal issues, or many other things. We as a church need to show love and compassion. Additionally, we need to let them know that they can be comfortable coming to us with these problems. Talk about it often; bring it up and let the people know that it is common, it is a health issue and that it is ok. Stop making these people feel as if they as less than!
The second issue that I want to discuss is abortion. The church stands pretty firm on their belief on abortion. Generally, the people within the church will tell you that they are (at least mostly) pro-life and against abortion. But it can't stop there! I have seen people say (and share on social media) gruesome photos and shout "HOW COULD YOU KILL YOUR BABY?!" While it is true that abortion is killing a child, when these comments are being made it is not being considered how hurtful it is to the women who have already made this disastrous choice. Where are we for her? She is desperate for hope, yet no one is there. All she sees is judgement. The post-abortive woman knows that she is not welcome in the church to tell her story. How could she ever admit that she's done this horrible thing when the people constantly scream that she's a murderer! She finds no peace or forgiveness anywhere. So she remains in her silent prison. The sad part is, a lot of times she's already serving in the church, but she is keeping her secret because surely no one would ever love her or let her work in a ministry if they knew.
We as a church have to get past this. No one should ever be afraid to talk about their sins because we are all guilty. All sin is equally bad and all sin is equally covered by the precious blood of Jesus. Who are we to pick and chose what is acceptable and what is not? It's all unacceptable!! The only thing that makes any of us worthy is Jesus. We as a church must bring these things out into the forefront. We need to do whatever is necessary to make these people (and others!) welcome. We need to show them that we have open arms to love them and show them the way to forgiveness and healing. This is vital!
While I have much more that I could say on this topic, I will end with the Word of our amazing God in James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."
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