God in a box

I would like to point out, though it has nothing to do with this post, that if you read the comments left on the previous post you will see a girl clearly demonstrating my point.

And now to the matter at hand.

I would like to stand up for the Big Guy. By which I mean established church, and also God. These are two entities that can get by without my endorsement, but I will give it to them just the same.

It is very popular now a days to rag on the church, or a specific church, for letting us down, for missing something, for over programming and missing the point, for being inauthentic blagh blagh blagh... thank you for your opinions super edgy emergent Christian who really "gets" God and has a tattoo of your favorite Starbucks drink. Donald Miller would be proud.

Despite my sarcasm, the unconventional Christians who cry out for change ARE right. Yes, they are. But that doesn't make anyone else wrong. In some peoples efforts to take God out of the conventional box they have blinded themselves to just how big He is. Example:

"I hate worship services that are just planned right down to the minute. There is no room for the Holy Spirit to move. I like a more free-flowing, living service so that God can really enter that place. You guys put God in a box"

As if anyone COULD put God in a box. Don't imply that the Holy Spirit cannot accomplish in 60 minutes the same amount as you would expect him Him to accomplish in 90. I don't think God has ever has his cosmic plans thwarted because he needed more time. I believe God can do as HE pleases just as well when a pastor uses an outline and a PowerPoint as when he "says what God puts on his heart."

When we assume that people are "limiting the Holy Spirit" all we are doing is showing how limited our view of Him really is.


So in the same way let us not throw stones at people who are "blowing" or "missing" an aspect of Christianity. I'm NOT defending any establishment as having it all together, nor (despite my sarcasm) am I condemning the anti-establishment trend setters of my generation. I honestly believe that the church IS missing something. Every church is missing something. Because no matter who you are or what you are trying to accomplish You have a box. And try as hard as you can but you are never going to completely get rid of the box, and you are never going to fit God inside of it. We can't encapsulate eternity. In one sense no one has ever put God in a box

In another sense, everyone has. The beautiful thing is that even though we can't fit all of God in a box we can take a look inside people's boxes and see that part of God is, in fact, there. And different communities, establishments, and people are all going to have different sizes and shapes for their boxes.

This Blog is just one of my boxes, and right now you are looking inside. And as Christians we need to be looking in as many boxes as we can in effort to make our own much bigger, and not to be threatened by the shape of some one elses box.

God is in the slums, he is in the lives of the prostitutes and homeless. He is in back-alley coffee houses and hostiles. BUT he is ALSO in little churches with populated mainly by Sr citizens, he is in mega churches with flashy stage presentations, and he is in all things in between. We are all on the same team here, and try as hard as you will NO ONE can put my God in a box.