A Good Church

I started composing this whilst considering my frustrations with Church. This is unlikely to be an exhaustive list and yes, I have styled it on the closing passage of proverbs which talks about "A good wife". We are Christ's bride after all. I have deliberately not used the terms 'perfect' or 'ideal' on the basis of it not existing... & our ruining it if we joined.

Please feel free to add other lines as you see fit. Or to disagree. Or to improve.

A good church – who can find?

She has a culture of honesty about her failings

She desires to worship always. And in all ways

Her sung, corporate worship is an expression of her joy in serving God in the community she lives in

She values substance over style

She desires practice over theory

She is desperate to know God, to serve God and to love His people

She upsets the comfortable and comforts the upset

Her friends & allies are the poor, the outcast, the unlovely & unloved

She does not seek change for change sake

She is intolerant of pretence, preferring even the most painful truth

She loves those who hate her and seek her destruction

She cries at injustice, and poverty, and brokenness

She wants to understand God's Kingdom. And make it real – here and now

She is both admired and feared – usually by the same people

She frequently finds herself in trouble

She survives, even thrives, by seeking others needs above her own

She loves truth and will only sing truth

She makes friends of the lowly & is regarded as an enemy by the elite

She rejects earthly riches

She fails in most, if not all of the above

She carries on anyway – to stop trying would be the greatest failure of all

All God's children will rise up & call her blessed

Frustration

Round & round & round I go
Where I stop, God only knows
Wandering, spinning my plates in the air
Wondering if my slave-drivers ever really care

I work. And I tire
I return to my home
Bush soon rush out to do Church stuff
Just need some time alone

But why do I strive? and hurry? and rush?
Why do I not see my wife nearly enough?
If I were progressing It'd really be fine
But I'm running in circles
From ridiculous to sublime

My life breaks are failing
The cables have snapped
I see my life crashing
I feel hopelessly trapped

Trapped in a church and a job
With nowhere to go
Trapped by my "speech impediment"
I'm unable to say NO

They say I have potential
But I fear my wings have been clipped
Was it them or was it me?
I must break free soon

I see a hope
I see light
I see a better way
But it's not in my comfort zone

I fear I'll fail
I fear letting others down
- those that may be left behind
I fear disappointment
But my desire for change just will not be suppressed

I must move on
- but not let people down
I must change
- but not go back (maybe?)
I cannot carry on like this
I cannot stay the same


"Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."
What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.