I have a couple friends who have written posts on the church lately. My friend and co-worker, Nathan Duvall, wrote a recent post titled “What is ‘Church’ to you?” in regards to a sermon that his pastor gave. Likewise, my Spanish teacher at North Greenville University, Burl Walker, often writes about church and church life since he is one of the pastors at 5 Point Fellowship. Josh Harris has even written an excellent book called Stop Dating the Church in reference to the misunderstanding of  the true church. They all do a great job at bringing us back to a correct understanding. However, recent events at my church have made me question a bit further. If the church is the people, what is the church when the people leave?

We have been going through several stages over the past several years. We have gone from having a pastor to no pastor (for about 1.5 yrs – I think…I may be wrong) to a pastor to change. Through all this many have chosen to leave the body for reasons from job transfer and ministry opportunities to family concerns. While they are all understandable, our church has completely changed in the three years that I have been attending. Many of the people who were there in the beginning are not there. The complete make-up of the body has changed. This leads me to ask the following questions:

• If the church is the people, what am I supposed to commit to if the people come and go?
• If I stay, am I not just committing only to the teaching elder and the doctrines that have been set up?
• What is the church now?

I have no intention of leaving at all. I believe that God is doing a wonderful work at Grace Bible Church. Sometimes things like this happen for us to refocus on Him, our true prize. I am very excited about the friends that God has led me to as new members, but the recent events cannot be ignored. I am not as concerned about the reason people are leaving as I am the implications of their leaving. What are we now? Sure, we still have a good body, but those who I committed to when I became a member are gone.

I am sorry that I do not have many answers on this post. Sometimes I write just to clear my head and try to provide fuel for the thoughts of others. I doubt that we are the only church going through such circumstances. I praise God for his work in our lives no matter how misunderstood his actions may be. Nothing that I have seen is wrong with our leadership, teaching, or practice. Just people’s actions leave me to wonder and reconsider the meaning of the church.

Trusting in the wisdom of God, our wonderful gospel

Josh

This is my first time trying to write anything since my concussion on Saturday so forgive me if I seem a bit less coherant than normal. Hopefully, I can get the details out briefly and thoroughly. Hopefully, my memory will serve me well to get the information out well.

As I already mentioned, I got a concussion on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Basically, a bunch of us at the church Memorial Weekend Campout were playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee. Our outnumbered team was not doing well. There was a low throw from someone on the other team. Josh Hurst and I both took a dash and dive for it. Unfortunately, we did not see each other and were both on the same team. From what I understand, I hit the ground with the right side of my face and my right shoulder. I believe Josh landed on me somehow with his left arm stuck underneath me. I ended up with a concussion and he ended up with a broken arm in three places. Josh was rushed off the scene to a gracious doctor who was with our church. He knew that is was broken and tried to brace it as much as possible. I walked back and was in a daze of what just happened. From what I hear from others, my eye looked like a black eye and I had a really bad look on my face. The people decided that I needed to go to the hospital with Josh.

The closest hospital was about 20-30 minutes away. Our doctor came with us and called the hospital ahead to get Josh’s information in. Josh and I were both admitted. They ran some x-rays on him and a CT scan on me. The verdict was a broken arm for him and a minor concussion for me. There was no bleeding in my head for me (Praise the Lord). They said that it would not take too much time before I was healed. For Josh, his arm might have to be reexamined to see if they need surgery for a little triangle piece that was “floating” around in his arm.

I have not heard anything since then about Josh’s arm. As for me, there has been a lot of pain through headaches and a lot of dizziness/dazing out for me. I think this last Friday was the first time since the accident that I have seemed “aware”, as my co-workers say. The headaches also seemed to be mostly gone. I asked my younger brother to come over on Saturday to help me with my yard work since the grass needed to be cut for a long time. In just the time time that it took for me to get the lawn mower going and the weed eater going, my headaches all started coming back. I took a pain killer that the doctors pescribed for me. The pain went away. Not realizing that it was the pain killer that helped my pain go away, I thought that I felt well enough to go help with the weed eating. I helped a bit but soon we had to leave. I could feel my headache coming back slowly. As I went to drop my brother off at a graduation party and go to my brother-in-law’s birthday party, the pain from the headache increased. When I got home that evening, I was in a lot of pain. I didn’t realize how much pain I was going through until the pain killer wore off. So, in the end I am doing well as long as I do not do much. It is a bit frustrating to me, but I know that it is good for me. While I am not normally that active of a guy, I do enjoy walks, working out, and other things like that. All of these start headaches back up for me. So, for now, I am just doing my office work and doing some household chores while I slowly heal.

Please keep the Hursts in your prayers as they deal with the results and bills from the accident.

I think the main thing that God has used in my life from this comes from my reaction and their reaction to the incident. When asked about the first reaction from the accident, Miriam Hurst (Josh’s wife) replied that she prayed. As Josh Hurst got into the vehicle to take him to the hospital, his reply to everyone was “God is sovereign, but you can pray if you want to.” Although humorous, he is right and yet different than my reaction. My reaction was more to the worry of the bills and if I really was going to be alright and what was wrong with me. God was teaching me a lesson of reliance on Him and not to worry. It is a lesson that Hannah and I have been learning since this spring. Read through Matthew 6 for me. That has been the passage that God has used most to teach us.

Well, I must get back to life here. I hope to be able to write some more on here now that I have more free time. We will see though. For now, may our good God bless you with grace and peace.

Josh Blaha