Please forgive us !
The Church has been Social Distancing for a long time already, and it is time to come out.
The Religious Spirit makes people mean & judgmental & has inoculated so many from the real Love of God.
Sadly so much damage done through the Religious Spirit, well intentioned ones driving people away from God with self-righteous attitudes, like we have it all together, when in fact we are all broken to one degree or another with our own pain and hurt to work out.
Please forgive us were we have been insensitive assholes.
So often as the Church we have missed the point and have not kept our love on.
We have walked in our own sin, selfishness and brokenness hiding behind a thin veil of Religious activity.
We have gathered in buildings social distancing ourselves from the world like we were going to be infected rather than out doing life together with our community bringing love, hope, healing, deliverance and restoration life to our friends and family. We have looked like a social club and not the vibrant church that we were created to be. Please forgive us where we missed it.
Forgive us where we have operated in that Religious Spirit & misrepresented the Love of God and brought judgement, pain and hurt.
Forgive us where you felt judged, brushed off, rejected and abandoned by us. Forgive us where we simply have not walked in love, honor, integrity, purity, grace, mercy and kindness.
Please do not abandon or reject God based on our brokenness, hypocritic ways and how we have misrepresented Him and His Kingdom.
You have seen the church splits, backbiting and infighting, theological arguments, power struggles, Pastors and leaders running things like a corporation, controlled many times by heavy budgets and obligations taking offering after offering putting pressure on you to give and turning you off even further. Green rooms where leaders are at times separated from the flock and relationships are controlled and isolated. Leaders working through their own life challenges under the microscope of a judgmental flock while overlooking the speck in our own eye. So many have left the faith or have withdrawn from God at the hands of spiritual abuse, control and out right attacks. We have killed our own, and have blood on our hands.
God have mercy and forgive us.
Congregations and church boards treating Pastors with control and a political spirit treating them like hirelings not as the gifts they are to be. May God have mercy and forgive us. May the world forgive us for the damage we have caused in our brokenness.
I pray that during these crazy days, we would find ourselves shaking off this Religious Spirit, and becoming the beautiful body of Christ that he has intended us to be.
May we have the humility to walk in unconditional love for one another and may we turn our hearts back to God now like never before. We simply cannot go on as we have. May we come to be a safe place for gathering however that looks to bring hope, life love, healing grace mercy and help to those that need it.
You are loved and may we will come out of this reset closer, stronger and more united than ever.
