food for fish

That is what we are learning here as a ministry team. The last few weeks we have been battling a lot of “bad religion”, lots of legalism, and disappointment (them in us, and us in them). It all started after the “Halloween” party we had, it was designed as an outreach, there weren’t any witches, there weren’t any skeletons, and their wasn’t any nasty “demons”. But a leader in our church said his children were not coming because he “knew what we do at those kinds of things”, as if we were worshiping Satan, give us a break, where is the trust? Since that day, we have been putting out the fires he’s been starting with other members, we even had one person tell us she didn’t like that we had witches, and skeletons at the party, WE DIDN’T! So, either this is coming out their heads, or someone is spreading rumors, either way it’s dividing people in the church, and causing a lot of hurt feelings and harm. But we are just letting it go.

We are not going to sit here and argue to the ends of the Earth… we don’t need to; we worship only Jesus, so why do we need to defend ourselves? Most of this thinking comes from a very messed up Pentecostal movement in Poland (Poland only, and only here in Poland, not Pentecostalism in general) which constantly calls the Catholic church the “cult of Mary”, and is always praying for revival, but won’t mix with “sinners” because it will taint their “holiness”. This “churchtian” attitude is so strong, and it is driven mostly by fear – if you don’t live a “holy enough” life, you’ll go to hell. So, in order to stay “holy” they don’t celebrate ANYTHING, no birthdays, no Halloween, no Christmas, nothing; “We should be celebrating Jesus everyday, and nothing else” – I say NO, we should be worshiping Jesus everyday, and doing as he said and bringing his light and hope to those who do not know him – that means going where they are!

So, we are letting it go, if they want to think those things, that’s okay, but they won’t be a part of the leadership anymore, because it doesn’t fit our vision. It is too much for us to try and discuss our ideas, they are stuck in their own ways. We came to each of them and asked “Where is God leading you to serve?”, only two out of the eight were able to say where they thought God was leading them; the rest said “You’re the leaders you tell me”. We will be presenting a “church” vision series over the next couple of Sundays, and really establishing our vision. After that period, they can decide to come under the vision, or simply leave, start their own church, we don’t care, worship the way you want. We love each of them, and we really wish they could be free of their religious rules and regulations. It may take some time for some of them, but we believe in the end they will discover the wholeness of living a life with out religion, and being in a dynamic relationship with God.