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The Big Bad of Modern Day
Churches... A good friend once asked me what I thought the worst thing about ‘The Church’ was. My first thought was the pulpit politics or how every church seems to have cliques and no one seems to be united. Then I thought again. It’s none of those things, or that evil box of imagery, the Internet, or preachers who are more interested in their pulpit time than getting the Word of God to hungry hearts. My belief is the big bad of churches (denomination or organization aside) is the lack of love. And Here’s Why… My tale begins the day my parents bought a computer. I was 16, and we immediately connected to the three-lettered Internet Giant. After growing up in a medium-sized United Pentecostal Church (UPC) and attending a small Accelerated Christian Education school, the Internet chat room was a revelation to me. In a world where my peers and leaders were Apostolic, I was suddenly given access to millions of people who didn’t believe like I did; yet also to so many who did. The first chat room I entered was BornAgainBelievers, and I thought going in that they were just like me. How untrue! I did happen to meet a man who told me of a UPC chat room. I thought again, “I hit the mother-lode!” I was going to make friends across the nation, and I did—at first. I met wonderful people from everywhere and they loved me. We talked on the phone, wrote letters, sent pictures, and made plans for road trips that never quite happened. I met my best friend that year, and we’ve been close since that fall, almost nine years ago. My online friends helped me through the death of my parents and all the unavoidables that went with it. We laughed, we cried, we testified to each other, and we did it all together, a pseudo-family. Yet, one by one, we all lost track of each other. And Then, Brutal Reality After a multiple-year chat room hiatus, I decided to go back to where I knew I could find people like me—Apostolic, willing to talk, and looking for friendship. Just as time had changed me into an older, more mature woman, time had transformed my Internet refuge into a dark place. The chat room I use to run to had turned into a place where rarely a true Apostolic was found. It was full of curse words and people who sought others to hurt, instead of help. In the time I was there, I saw countless chatters torn down for no reason other than they were available. People were being verbally abused because of where they were from, what they looked like, or any other countless reasons. Abusers who claimed to be in their twenties were the worst offenders. Behavior like this makes me wonder: If they treat other Pentecostals like this, how do they treat those to whom we are called to minister? Do we have God’s love for others in our hearts? Part of the problem is the feeling of unaccountability that comes with the Internet. It’s not in real time, where saying something hurtful (or out-and-out mean) to a person can get you a right hook to the jaw. In cyberspace, it’s as if it’s not real since no one sees you or is there physically. If chatters only realized the pain they inflict on others is all too real. Scriptural Cyber-Chat I have heard that people become kinder as they grow older, and I think that is true. The older we get, the more we realize how our actions affect others. Most of us, growing up, were given the false impressions that by tearing someone down, we build ourselves up. Some people don’t grow out of it, or maybe they have convinced themselves that they aren’t being harsh. So many places in the Bible we are told to love one another. Jesus said, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). According to that verse, we are called to love the unlovable, to be a friend to the friendless and unfriendly and to pray for those who spitefully use us. We have all heard the Great Commission, “And (Jesus) said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). What if we are missing the other Great Commission—to love people as God loves us, without reservations or restrictions, as Jesus says, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15: 12). Not That I’m Immune Embarrassingly, I will admit that I have not always been the person I want to be. In high school, I was a smug little wretch who thought she had the world by the tail. Our teacher was my mother, and I got away with completely too much. I was popular and led the crowd without realizing it. I see now that, time-after-time, I may have hurt people without realizing it. I was absorbed in the world of me. Back then I was addicted to the written word—especially if it came in the form of a paperback romance. One day, my pastor lovingly took me aside to bend my ear about my reading preferences, and he told me something I will never forget—“Girl, the Bible is the only love story you will ever need.” And he’s right. From the beginning, there is nothing but love that pours from each word and chapter of the Bible. That love was culminated in The New Testament when Jesus died for our sins and then resurrected on the third day. That great love was shown when the Holy Ghost was sent down on the day of Pentecost. When I graduated from high school nine years ago, I thought I had my world together. So untrue, but that is the beauty of growing up—you see where you made mistakes and you can try to help someone else to not make them. I must remember to love until it’s part of who I am, to help someone see that mistakes are learning opportunities, and love is grandest thing you can give anyone. That’s my hope for my friends, my youth group, my family, and anyone who happens to read this: that you may learn to love like God does. And if you don’t believe me, or couldn’t care less—I love you anyway!
ninetyandnine.com © 2003, Tara Stickle --------- Tara E. Stickle was born and raised in Springfield, Ohio. In 1994, she graduated from her church’s private school—United Christian Academy, which likely explains her lack of interest in most current affairs or politics, and her inability to find Uruguay on the globe. |
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