A church community can be a blessing as well as a burden at times. Although Jesus meant for the body to be a vibrant and radiant bride that would be stronger than the powers of hell itself, we cannot discount the fact that the church is composed of imperfect, hurt and offensive people.
Nonetheless, God has called everyone to be part of a church community. We are not called to be part of an organization, membership or institution but a fellowship of believers. We are made to build relationships with the saints and build each other up. Although at many times there can be less building up and more tearing down because of the imperfection of believers.
Whether it's a church offense, a business deal between church members gone bad, gossip, problems working together in ministry or any other problem, these conflicts can cause a lot of pain. The church, which is supposed to be a place of trust and accountability, can be a place of offence.
Even the early church was plagued with problems. In the epistles, the apostle Paul gave numerous instructions on how to deal with believers suing each other, gossiping about each other, and judging each other.
Though the church can be imperfect and often inadequate, God calls for restoration and reconciliation amongst the members of the body of Christ, and for every member to make every effort for forgiveness and healing to come.
In Galatians 6:2, Paul gives the early church in the province of Galatia instructions on how to restore fallen believers: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Jesus clearly instructed us to love our neighbor as ourselves, even if they offended us or we offended them. So how do we restore a person who was offended by the church?
The only true and effective remedy to hurt is love. When a person leaves the church, it is often in an attempt to find something that would fill the hole that was left by the pain of church offense with love. More often than not, those people who leave the church try to fill that hole with improper things -- bitterness, substances, immoral relationships and vices.
When a person is hurt, the only thing that can heal that hurt is the love and acceptance of Christ. It can often feel like because they were rejected by the church that they are rejected by God. But the church is not God. That being said, people hurt by the church don't necessarily need to go back to church right away.
We experience the love of Christ in many other ways apart from organized worship service groups. We experience the love of Christ in relationships, in prayer and in fellowship. Just simply being a channel of God's love to the broken and hurt can make the biggest difference.
We need the gentle and loving Spirit of God to manifest through us with no expectations and no catch.We don't restore people to bring them back to the church, but to allow them to see that a loving God is reaching out to the hurt and broken. The message of the gospel has always been about a gracious God who reaches out to the lost and broken, and Christians -- the body of Christ -- were called to manifest nothing more and nothing less than that message, whether to the un-churched or the de-churched.
