So you’ve been doing some church shopping, looking around and attending some services. You picked up brochures for visitors. You’ve asked a few questions of the greeting teams. You’ve seen some congregations you think you like. How do you know when you’ve arrived?
“I will feel it,” you might say. “I will
know when I see it.” But what is it that you feel, exactly? Is it a feeling of
comfort around socially compatible people? Is it a feeling of companionship
around friendly people? Is it a feeling of contentment in an atmosphere that is
appropriate to your tastes regarding music or the level of formality or the
order of service? Or, is the Holy Spirit actually speaking to you?
Feelings can be an important “gut
reaction.” Baseball provides an illustration. The distance from home plate to
the pitcher’s box is 60 feet and six inches. The bases are 15 inches square and
are spaced out 90 feet apart. The baseball weighs five ounces and is nine
inches in circumference. The bat is a solid wooden piece, not more than 2.75 inches
in diameter at the thickest part, and not longer than 42 inches. If the pitcher
can throw the ball at 90 miles per hour it takes half a second to reach the
plate. The normal human reaction time is two-tenths of a second. So when the
major league batter eyes the pitcher, sees him wind up, and then must choose to
swing, step back, bunt or let it go, he makes a decision almost
instantaneously. However, that instinctive decision is made based on many
measurements and known facts. The batter does not tell you that he logically
thought the process through, did some math in his head, pondered his options then
made a solid decision. No, the batter reacts in a split second and works
entirely on instinct. (See infoplease.com and exploratorium.edu on the Web for
the source of the technical details above.)
So a “feeling” about a church could be the
subconscious accumulation of facts and observations that by-passed the logical
decision making part of the brain and went straight to that instinctive
feeling. Or, from a more spiritual perspective, that “feeling” about a church could
be the whisper of the Holy Spirit, speaking in that still, small voice. God
created our amazing brains that absorb and respond to information faster than
we are consciously aware, and He uses it to speak to us if we let Him. But are
feelings always reliable? Is it possible to have some red herrings?
There may be times when your feelings
delude you. For example, when you know that
you should do something, but don’t feel
like it. Or, when it is more comfortable to stay where you are than to step out
in faith. I am not suggesting that when we get that “this is wrong” feeling
that we should ever go against it. However, we might get a “this is right” feeling,
and be entirely wrong! Part of it might be right, but we might be missing a
major piece of the puzzle if we aren’t able to look at things objectively
before making a solid decision.
Decisions cannot always be made
emotionally. Recent research has shown that the human brain uses conflicting
areas of the brain to make decisions: the logical part and the emotional part.
(National Institutes of Health) A logical decision might be to save for the future.
An emotional decision might be to buy something now for immediate gratification.
Emotions might not always be steered by the Holy Spirit, and they might steer
us wrong. If a church tends to be filled with people in our age bracket or
socioeconomic level, we might feel more comfortable. But is this enough to
choose a church on? Is uniformity that is aligned to our preferences the same
as the presence of the Holy Spirit?
The Bible says to search God’s Word
“precept upon precept, line upon line.” (Isaiah 28:10) This text suggests that
searching for a church should be just as methodical. Acts tells us about a
group of people who used a responsible mix of emotion and logic: “Now these
were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with
great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things
were so.” (Acts 17:11) They were excited about the message, so their emotions
were definitely engaged. However, they didn’t stop there. They investigated the
very thing that excited them before accepting it.
If we agree that emotions can deceive us,
then what should we base our decision on? Emotion, of course, should not be
ignored. Our emotions tell us a lot about certain aspects of life. However, our
emotional experience must be backed up by our logical experience. And what logical
foundation is necessary?
Many people believe that the logical,
doctrinal platform of an organized church does not matter so much as “the
Spirit moving” within the congregation. This sets them up for dangerous
disappointment. Waves of emotion do not necessarily denote the presence of God.
In fact, Christian evangelists have used the emotions of their audience to send
in money, then misused the funds for their own affluent lifestyles. (Belle)
When the foundation of a church is based on one idea from the Bible (such as
the “prosperity gospel”) but not founded on the entire Word of God, the
positive emotional experience of the parishioners could be misleading.
So how important is doctrine when looking
for a church? Doctrines define a church’s approach to Scripture and its belief
structure. If a church believes that the parishioners
should be lining the pockets of the
minister in order for God to hear their prayers, then
you should be highly suspicious! But when
the church’s belief system can be logically laid out for examination and when
the doctrines reflect the Bible honestly, then your decision is based on
something more substantial than a feeling. It is based on a foundation that was
built “line upon line, precept upon precept” from the Word of God.
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