I grew up in a non-denomination Christian church. At the time, I did not understand how important one’s spiritual foundation was and is. As with anything; a structure without a solid foundation will soon begin to fall. Being a pastor’s kid came with a lot of struggles, ones that cannot all be expounded upon in one blog post. I took whatever I was told by “leaders” in the church at face value and never searched the scriptures for myself. I fell into “church culture” and the religious routines of serving self. I did not know at the time that corners were being cut in the structuring of my foundation and that one day, I would begin to crumble.

Thankfully I serve the Reconstructor of foundations; Jesus Christ. It was not until I got pregnant with my second son, that He began to show me my faulty foundation. As I let Him in, He began the reconstruction process, and let me tell you, it has not been pretty; but then again, what construction site is? I am jumping ahead of myself though. Before I get into the restructuring, I want to speak more on the former foundation. As I spoke of previously, my former foundation was constructed in “church culture” and the religious routines of serving self. So first, what exactly is “church culture”?

While I cannot give you an exact definition on “church culture”, I can for a fact tell you that the way church is being done is not right. If you look at statistics, at least for the United States, people; especially young people, are not going to church. Why? Well in my experience, it’s a litany of things. I would like to clarify that when I speak of the church, I am not speaking of the ecclesia; the bride of Christ. I am speaking of the practice of going to a building every Sunday and/or Wednesday, and going through the religious motions of what is being called “church”. Honestly, it is now just a big show with performances, schedules, and lots of acting. For years, I went to church and never left feeling convicted of my sinful ways. I never felt changed or compelled to change; I was never given the tools on how to be delivered from things and stay delivered from it. Worst of all, being a pastor’s kid, I saw things that most of the congregation would never see; I saw how these “leaders” that the congregation worshipped (which is idolatry) really behaved when not on stage. I did not know how much this would affect me later in life. I began to equate Jesus with these leaders and started making an unconscious decision to not follow Christ. It breaks my heart to know that so many have made this same mistake; and even worse, so many have not sought to correct this mistake.

Lastly, as this post is getting long, I want to explain what I meant by religious routines of serving self. Have you ever heard a preacher use scripture to back up their motivational pep talk? I can guarantee you, that you have. Maybe it went something like,“You deserve that new car and house, God said He would supply all of your needs according to His riches and glory!”. Statements like these are giving half truths; which in turn is a complete lie. Scripture does say that God will supply all of our needs according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19), but it’s being used out of context. This is why it is important to test the spirit and read the Bible for yourself. This passage of scripture is not telling us that we will get all the worldly possessions we desire. Paul was speaking to the Philippians about how they sent him aid during his traveling and preaching the gospel when no other church would. He was blessing and reassuring the Philippians that because of this, they would not go without what they needed. It is important here not only to understand the differences between needs and wants, but to also understand the context of what is being said, who it is being said to, and why. Many times promises in scripture come with conditions; conditions that too often, “leaders” like to skip over. Do not take this as a reason to distrust your church leaders and leave the church, take this as an opportunity to begin to test the spirit behind what is being fed to you, and searching the Scriptures out for yourself.

I will do another part on foundational reconstruction. I do not want these posts to be too lengthy. I have so much to share about my life and what I have learned, and I am excited to form a community of believers that just want to please Jesus and live a holy life as He commanded us. I pray this post has given you the push you needed to ask Jesus to inspect your foundation, and whatever He finds that would sooner or later cause you to crumble; that He reconstruct it until He sees it as good.

Until next time, Jesus loves you and there’s nothing you will ever be able to do about it!