We All Need People

Recently, on a trip to Minneapolis, I had reason to visit an old business acquaintance, Since it had been over a year since I last saw him, we chatted for a while and caught up on all the latest stuff going on in our lives, He announced that he and his family were going to a new church . . . one in their living room.

Oh! Well that aroused my curiosity. Had they started a house church?

Then he explained that on Sunday morning, they would log on to an online service from a church in Florida.

“We love our church!” he said.

On the way home, I couldn’t help thinking about my friend’s new church. Of course, going online to watch a live church service is definitely a growing trend. Just a few years ago, George Barna, the church researcher, predicted that more and more people would attend church at home via the internet.

A good friend of mine pastors a large church in Indiana. He recently told me that they now have as many people watching their service online as are actually present in the church building. So attending church online is definitely a trend that is here to stay.

However, there is an important element of Christianity that is missing in this scenario. Attending church online is a one-way conversation. You listen, but you cannot answer or talk back to those in the service. Why is a two-way conversation important in Christianity?

Well, we are social creatures, designed to have real conversations. It is how we are created. We are supposed to talk to one another. When I go to a church service, I look forward to reconnecting with friends and acquaintances as much as I look forward to the music and the message.

The CBS news show, 60 Minutes, recently reported an emerging trend among Millennials . . . depression!

Why! Because they don’t talk much. They text!

Talk is good. Talk is healthy. Just yesterday, Lorraine and I were discussing someone we know who has to a large extent withdrawn from society. It’s not healthy. We all need people. We need conversation.

Okay, so where am I going with this?

Proverbs 11:14 says, “In the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

When I was in the thick of youth outreach events, I made sure I had several trusted counselors around me . . . five, to be exact. There was my regular pastor, three other pastors and a trusted board member.

“Why?” you might ask.

I had to make heavy duty decisions nearly every day. I felt the importance to be right in what I was doing, because those decisions not only deeply affected my own life, but also the lives of many other people around me. To have four pastors and a board member to talk to about what I was doing was a safety net. It was a healthy practice.

I have witnessed over and over again, an individual or a couple withdrawing from the public, staying to themselves, praying and reading the Word in their home, trusting the Lord to guide them without input from other Christians. It is unhealthy and it is contrary to what the Bible teaches.

Getting alone with the Lord for a period of time, like a planned fast, is a good thing, something we all should do from time to time. Withdrawing from people as an extended lifestyle, however, is not only unhealthy, it can be very dangerous. An extended period of withdrawing from people can really get you messed up. I have seen it, and in deep sorrow, I have seen people run off the tracks this way.

As I was writing this article, I went online to check a scripture. On the same Google page was a talking head video on the same subject, so I clicked on it out of curiosity. The speaker, a young man probably in his late twenties, spoke on the scripture and took it in an odd direction. There were several videos by the same person on the same page. The second seemed credible because it was his testimony, except that he said the Lord had told him to leave the church.

The last video I opened, I couldn’t watch. It was bad. By this time, the fellow had gotten very obnoxious and authoritative, because obviously he feels that he has gotten special revelation. He knows the truth, but the entire church is wrong. This fellow didn’t give his name, a web address or any contact information. You don’t know who he is or where he is, and I’m sure he probably wants it that way.

Satan is just too clever.

He has had thousands of years in the practice of leading people astray and into error.

He is just too good at it.

The will of God and His excellent plan for a person can be totally derailed just because the person has withdrawn from the people around him or her on an extended basis.

That’s why the Bible says,

“Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together (Hebrews 10:25).”

There is a reason.

When I was in the outreach event mode and had gathered the five advisors around me for protection, I would talk to them on a regular basis about what I felt the Lord was telling me. If I was getting off the track in any area, they would tell me. That’s safety. The practice can save you from getting “picked off” by the devil.

You should seek to have mature Christians around you to advise you and help you in your decision making process. A group of baby Christians trying to advise one another might turn into a pool of individuals sharing their ignorance, or the blind leading the blind.

The Bible is balanced. Does God want to speak to you individually? Of course He does. But you should bounce what He is saying to you, at least the more major things, off of your safety net, those mature individuals you have gathered around you to advise you. If do that, you will be in a place of safety.

 

Photo was designed and taken by Lorraine.

The little people in our photo above were Christmas ornaments that Lorraine gave George this last Christmas. They are George and Lorraine.