The Church a refuge for the world

     The title of this post might catch you by surprise, because many consider the church a refuge from the world.  It is a place where Christians can come and escape the realities of the world around us.  It is a place where we can be safe from everything that the world hurls at us.  It is a safe haven for our children.  It is a safe haven for our marriages.  It protects us from the evil that is all around us.  It is the one place where we can come and find protection from the world around us. 

     It is not difficult to understand why people consider the church as a refuge from the world.  The world can be scary place.  If we can be protected from the world then the temptation will not be as great.  If we can find refuge from the world, we may not become tarnished by the corruption of the world.  The church is the one place where the unbelieving world cannot get to us.  Too often the church becomes our secure place, our haven from the outside world.  As a result we have turned our churches into monasteries, places that become a spiritual refuge for us, focusing on our spiritual life, caring for our spiritual needs and nurturing our spiritual health.  In other words the church is all about us. 

     But the problem is that the church was never intended to be a monastery.  In fact, God intends that there be no place that we can hide, except in His presence.  When we use the church as our shelter from the world we fail to turn to God and make Him our refuge.

     In the words of one writer, instead of the church being a monastery, we are to be a place of refuge for an unbelieving world.  The church is to be a place where seekers finally find the God they have been searching for.  The church becomes a place where the broken find restoration, the weary find rest, and the hurting find rejuvenation.  It is a place where the lonely and the outcast are finally embraced and loved by the community of Christ.  I heard of one lady who said the church was the first place that she ever felt the love of God. 

     When the church becomes a refuge for the world and not from the world, guess what, it might not look like the church you remember.  There will be worldly people in the church.  They will have worldly values and their attitudes and actions will not be the same as yours.  In other words the problems of the world will be brought into the church.  But the good news is that the church will be there to provide Christlike love and godly wisdom to the problems that people face.  Perhaps we need to be reminded that Jesus told us that it is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick.  Jesus has called us out of the world, but we often forget that He sent us back into the world to transform the very culture in which we exist.