My Church is Uncomfortable

When your church is uncomfortable…maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s like muscles getting stronger (Heb 12:11–12). Maybe it’s like metal getting sharper (Pro 27:17). Maybe this is what it feels like to be “stirred up” in the context of the gathered assembly (Heb 10:24–25).  
 
Just as muscles are developed through pain and metal is sharpened through friction, so “love and good works” are cultivated by being “stirred up.”  
 
The Greek word for “stirring up” (παροξυσμός) in Hebrews 10:24 means “to provoke” someone to action. It’s actually the same word used to describe a “sharp disagreement” (e.g., Acts 15:39). In other words, it’s not a comfortable situation. Yet, it’s the kind of thing that is needed within the church to keep us from getting soft, complacent, and apathetic toward the Word of God. Nowhere in the Bible do we see the local church prioritizing comfort.

We don’t need to be celebrated; we need to be convicted.  
We don’t need to be affirmed; we need to be challenged.
We don’t need to be tolerated; we need to be transformed.  
We don’t need to be entertained; we need to be exhorted.  
We don’t need to be sedated; we need to be sanctified.  
We don’t need to be catered; we need to be called out.  
We don’t need more coffee; we need more Christ.  

What my flesh craves is the comforts of earth (Exod 16:2–3; Num 11:4–6; Phil 3:19; Rev 18:7), but what my soul needs is the comfort of Christ (Ps 23:4; Matt 11:28–30; John 15:26; 2 Cor 1:3–5; 1 Thess 4:18; 2 Thess 2:16–17). And the one is not like the other. The former is like a lullaby, lulling the soul to sleep (e.g., Deut 8:11–14); the latter is like a captain’s reassurance, steeling the heart for battle (e.g., Acts 4:29–31).
 
So then, you can have all this world (and its comforts), just give my church more of Christ.