First - I hear your heart and I feel your pain - truly. What I am about to say will only ressonate with a few - and that’s okay… but from my perspective, I see two basic groups of believers… off the bat, let me clearly state that BOTH groups of believers know and love Jesus Christ and are destined for an eternity with their Lord. I don’t believe for a moment that what I am about to say has anything to do with salvation - if you know Jesus, you ARE saved.

That said - there are believers who simply have their “fire insurance” (they are not going to hell, in other words) and for them, this is enough. They TEND to simply “go thru the motions” and usually walk the road of this selfish “me-centered” worship we have talked about here. I happen to think that most churches are filled with this sort of believer today.

The other group is made up of people who are so passionate in their desire to encounter the Lord with unashamed abandonment that they are bursting at the seams with delight and joy! I do not see many of this type of believer in most churches today.

Why is that? I have a lot of theories - but the main one is that we really don’t understand what worship is about - not really - not yet. Many believers still actually think that worship is FOR US. But it’s not. We are the worshipERS… God is the WorshipEE. (Yeah, those are not real words, but I hope they make sense.)

The ones who choose to remain more like Easter Island statues than exhuberant worshipers of God are still loved by God and, as I said, are destined for glory. They just have a sour time on earth and miss out (by choice) on ALL He has for them.

Hope this speaks to you -
Blessings,
Dan McGowan (not the Dan who runs this blog)

SIDE NOTE: I think from now on I will sign my posts as “DANNY” in an attempt to distinguish the two Dans…

I haven’t read any one person, but just sort of got in touch with the zeitgeist of those I’ve watched in church. Until recently, I was one of those people, having gone through about four years of meetings that left me cold.

You’re exactly right about Acts, too. That’s why this blog exists.

I’m thinking of taking the whole month of August off. Blogging can really set you back at times and I’m behind on a number of things.

I agree on the issue of not being obedient in what we already know, so why push for more. This is one of my pet peeves. People complain if they push a kid into the next highest grade even if he hasn’t met the requirements from the grade he was just in. Yet we do that all the time in the faith, especially in this country.

Sometimes there’s a dark night of the soul when it comes to attending church. Usually it’s because of a conjuncture of something missing in our church that we also find missing in us. We want things to get better, but our very source of community can’t see it because they struggle, too.

Thanks for sharing. I prayed for you just now.

I’m not sure I would use this example as an archetype for the dissatisfied. I think there are many very devout folks who are doctrinally right who long for more in their churches.

I can imagine being bored with the fellowship, actually. Our fellowship in the US is terrible, even in the best churches, because we no longer live in real community. Most people in a church only interact on Sunday, and possibly a Wednesday night or small group, but they’re not truly connected to each others’ lives.