by Bohdan Rewko (Bo of T.O.)

Created on: July 07, 2011   Last Updated: July 16, 2011

The well known Victorian preacher Charles Spurgeon said we should not venerate the apostles as if they were somehow different from other believers. Doing so, he maintained, was tantamount to idolatry. Lately it has dawned on me that the temptation to do so, both past and present, relates to a false understanding of who God is.

Those who think that the apostles and other heroes of the faith were in any way superhuman and not subject to the weaknesses of normal people, effectively put their trust in human strength and ability and not in God. All too many self-declared Christians park their faith in an institution called church but are unwilling to put their complete trust in God as did the apostles. This perhaps is the greatest shortcoming of believers and the Church today.

For years the saying "playing church' has been tossed around amongst Christians and their detractors. Some say that the best humor is grounded in truth, but too often the sarcasm and mockery associated with evangelical and fundamentalist stereotypes have been viewed by believers as persecution rather than motivation for self-examination and reflection. The apostles were mocked and we can expect the same, but we need to discern between suffering for living out our faith and "playing church".

So what does the term playing church really mean? When we put our interests first and then seek God's kingdom in our spare time, we're for all intents and purposes playing church. The world around us is looking for the "real thing" and when they don't see it, all the words in the world can't convince them that truth is something Christians possess exclusively.

Now I'm a firm believer that if God does not open the eyes of people to see then they will remain in a haze. However, anyone who seeks to know God through simple reading of the Bible, will discover that God uses primarily His chosen people in wonderfully mysterious ways to convict people of sin and to bring them to the point of salvation or to allow them to continue on the path of eternal condemnation. This is a very sobering thought. It will always be a point of contention for non-believers, but this is the claim followers of Christ make.

However, when the truth Christians espouse appears not to be believed by its very promoters, how can it impact a world that is already hell-bent by natural inclination, at least according to the script of Scripture?. There is a mixed message we send out to the world when we are unwilling to hand

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