Loving God When You Don't Love the Church , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Chris Jackson

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101 pages

English

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Many Christians who experience hurt in the church don't just leave their own churches; they leave the church altogether. Whether they have been wounded by pastors or people in the pews, these believers have had enough and are jumping ship in massive numbers.Pastor and churchgoer Chris Jackson is honest about his own failings as well as those of the church at large. He identifies with many of the hurts churchgoing Christians have experienced. In Loving God When You Don't Love the Church, he hopes to provide healing to wounded and disillusioned believers and restore the wonder of a genuine relationship with Jesus and his bride, the church. Jackson's humility, compassion, and practical advice for healing and restoration will touch those who have left the church and those who love them.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 septembre 2007
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441202659
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0202€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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What a great book! Loving God When You Don t Love the Church is an amazing expos that addresses critical issues of our day with wisdom instead of sarcasm, with truths that heal and with love that confronts. For once we have a book that speaks truth with grace. I applaud the valiant efforts of Chris Jackson!
Dr. James W. Goll , Encounters Network; author, The Seer , The Coming Prophetic Revolution , The Lost Art of Intercession and many more
I can assure you that you will experience the heart of God through the pages of this book. You will feel the Lord s love and passion emanating from each page and be refreshed in your personal relationship with Him. Healing will come to your soul in the places where you have been wounded by the Church. You will receive a fresh anointing and the understanding and commissioning to be the Church in the 21 st century.
Dutch Sheets , senior pastor, Freedom Church
Our generation is filled with those who love the Gospel but hate the Church, who cling to Jesus but who can barely tolerate His Bride. The wounds and the bitterness are killing our life in God. Chris Jackson shows us a path to healing by showing us the biblical path to Christlike character. How desperately we need what this rising voice has to say!
Stephen Mansfield , The Mansfield Group
What a timely message for the Christian Church! This book provides words of healing and perspective for those who have been wounded or who have become disillusioned with the Church, and it builds a bridge of understanding for both leaders and laity. Read it and pass it on. Someone you know needs this book.
Stan Fleming , Gatebreaker Ministries
L OVING G OD W HEN Y OU D ON T L OVE THE C HURCH O PENING THE D OOR TO H EALING
C HRIS J ACKSON
2007 by Chris Jackson
Published by Chosen Books A division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.chosenbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jackson, Chris, 1972- Loving God when you don t love the church : opening the door to healing / Chris Jackson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 10: 0-8007-9431-1 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-8007-9431-6 (pbk.) 1. Church membership. 2. Ex-church members. 3. Reconciliation-Religious aspects-Christianity. 4. Religious addiction-Christianity. 5. Psychology, Religious. I. Title. BV820.J33 2007 248.86-dc22
2007009667
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
For Jessica, The North Atlantic
C ONTENTS
Foreword
1. Have You Ever Been Hurt in the Church?
2. The Left Behind
3. Church Wounds
4. The Other Life
5. Troubled Waters
6. Snakebites
7. Tattooed: A Tale of Two Piercings
8. It s Hard to Be Beautiful
9. Healing Broken Relationships: The Essence of True Worship
10. Your Pastor
11. The Cup of Misunderstanding
12. Death by Religion
13. A Leader Who Lost His Cutting Edge
14. Mimicking God
15. Becoming Someone s Angel
16. Ten Times Better
17. Christianity Doesn t Make Sense without It
18. The 21 st -Century Christian
19. The 21 st -Century Church
20. The Life of a Puzzle Piece
21. Old People
22. The Abundant Life
23. Sleeping with Bathsheba . . . Again
Notes
F OREWORD
I believe with all my heart that God s passion is to pour out His Spirit all over the world. I believe He is coming to all the nations of the earth with the unstoppable force of His power and unconditional love. And I believe He is coming to you .
For the Lord to have His way on the earth and to establish the fullness of His Kingdom as He desires, He must have a Church who looks like Him and is able to work with Him to overthrow hell and conquer territory for His glory. He will have a healthy Bride who is prepared and ready to obey His commands.
Unfortunately, many people in His Church have been isolated and wounded-not just through the firepower of the enemy but from friendly fire within the Church herself. And the Church of Jesus Christ today is often not a bastion of love, healing and Christlikeness but of pride, performance and lifeless religious activity.
In His quest to revive the world, the Lord wants to start with His Church. He wants to heal and restore her and bring her back to her primary calling of looking like Him and making Him famous in the world. He is looking for sons and daughters who will displace hell and bear His image with passion and excellence in every sector of society.
I have had the privilege of mentoring and serving with Chris Jackson, and I can assure you that you will experience the heart of God through the pages of this book. You will feel the Lord s love and passion emanating from each page and be refreshed in your personal relationship with Him. Healing will come to your soul in the places where you have been wounded by the Church. You will receive a fresh anointing and the understanding and commissioning to be the Church in the 21 st century.
So please, journey on and experience on a personal level the inescapable promise of Jesus from Matthew 16:18: I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. He is building you and He loves you, and nothing will stop His plan in your life!
Dutch Sheets, senior pastor, Freedom Church; president, Dutch Sheets Ministries, Colorado Springs, Colorado
1 H AVE Y OU E VER B EEN H URT IN THE C HURCH ?
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the road less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
Y ou re reaping the consequences of your sinful life. He broke her heart that day, and she s still recovering from it.
He was a pastor, and she went to him expecting to catch a glimpse of Jesus, but instead she was judged. She called me recently from another state and told me that no matter how hard she prays, she can t feel clean.
I did my best to tell her that Jesus specializes in removing our sinful pasts. I shared with her how the word mercy in Scripture literally means a compassion that alleviates the hurtful consequences of wrong decisions. I tried to tell her that God loves her and that there are churches out there that will accept her and love her for who she really is-a beautiful daughter of the King.
Unfortunately, the church has already told her otherwise.
Oh, how I wish hers was an isolated incident. I wish you were shocked to read about it. I wish you had never even heard about the experience of this woman. Realistically, though, I know that you, too, have heard your share of horror stories like hers. I m sure you know this woman. In fact, you may even be like this woman.
I know that I am.
Many of us are.
We are the woman at the well. We re looking for life. We re carrying a thirst that can t be satisfied. We know that we were destined for more than the way we re living, so we set out in search of real life. We go to the only place we know to try to draw living water.
We go to church.
What do we find there? Not what we expected.
I have mixed feelings as I write this because I ve seen so many contradictory things in church, and I ve experienced so many contradictory things in church. I love the church-but I hate certain parts of it. I adore the people of God-but I ve also been hurt so deeply by some of them that I almost lost my faith. In church I ve met some of the sweetest saints to ever grace the planet-but I ve also been lied about and slandered behind my back.
I ve experienced true, covenant friendship in the church- but I ve also experienced Judas kiss in the church. I ve encountered God in the church-but I ve also been nearly killed by religion. I ve tasted the presence that s brought me life-but I ve also been suffocated by legalism and control. I love God. But for a while I wanted to say forget the church.
I met my wife in church. My children were dedicated to God in church. The greatest and most loyal friendships I ve ever known were formed in church. I discovered my calling in church. Throughout history, the Church has been one of the greatest agents of mercy that the world has ever seen. The Church is the Bride of Christ, and He loves her passionately! I love her, too.
Thus, my mixed feelings.
For as wonderful as she is, the Body of Christ is filled with wounded sons and daughters who came to church looking for life, but were disappointed. Instead, they encountered a religious system that left them lying on the road to Jericho right beside the man in Jesus story. Instead of meeting Good Samaritans who would tend their wounds and bear their burdens, they were left to bleed as pious worshipers looked the other way.
Am I being overly dramatic and critical? I probably am. I know that there are incredible people in church who lay their lives down for hurting humanity. It s just that I, too, have lain in the ditch of despair, and I was shocked to see that hundreds and thousands of Christians were lying there beside me.
But just as I am about to point my own righteous finger at this hypocritical element in the church, it dawns on me. I am the Church.
I have been hypocritical and judgmental. I ve lived in a spiritual frat house. I ve