Where’s Waldo—Finding Jesus in the Church

By Tom Anderson

 

Years ago when my kids were small, I would to love to look through the Where’s Waldo? books. For those of you who may not be familiar with them, they were basically books of trying to find a needle in a haystack. The artist would create chaotic scenes—sometimes a city scene, sometimes a gladiator scene—it didn’t matter what the scene was. It was just always chaotic.

Somewhere in the midst of that scene, the artist put a skinny little man with horned rim glasses wearing a red-and-white-striped hat, and the object was to try to find him somewhere in the picture. It wasn’t always easy finding Waldo. There was so much to look at.

Sometimes my boys would just give up ask me to turn the page. I would say, “No, no, we are going to keep looking until we find him.”

One of the hardest parts about finding Waldo was that when I was looking for him, I would be distracted by all that was going on in the picture. My eyes would start to wander, and I would get caught up in the artistry. Before I knew it, 10 minutes had passed, and I realized that I had quit looking for Waldo because I had been distracted by something else on the page.

Recently I had an experience in the church that reminded me of looking for Waldo. I wasn’t looking for Waldo, though; I was looking for Jesus. After being in a church fellowship for 25+ years and serving there for 20 of those years, I decided it was time for me to leave. Our former pastor had left, and the church leadership changed. I did not agree with the direction they were going, so it was time for me to move on.

After I left I started attending a church in town. My son and daughter law we’re fellowshipping there also. My wife and I thought it would be nice to sit with our family, worship the Lord together and go to the same church. And so we did.

I had decided that after 20 years of ministry, worshiping with my family would be a nice break for me. I chose to take a year off, a kind of sabbatical. Unfortunately, that year turned into three years—three years of doing basically nothing in ministry or for the glory of God. Sure, I helped out, and I was somewhat involved, but only in a very superficial way.

I was getting to know the pastor and the people, but I was not getting any closer to God. In fact, I was drifting away. I take full responsibility for this drift, but it was a wake-up call for me.

To quote an old Amy Grant song, “I had decided to live like a believer,” and in doing so my wife and I felt it was time for us to start looking for another fellowship. We wanted a church where the Word was taught, where God was glorified, and where Jesus was exalted.

Our the journey to find a new church began. We started looking in the local area, but it wasn’t long before we were discouraged. One Sunday I said to my wife, “Let’s just go back to our previous church. We have friends there; we have ties there; let’s go back and get involved.”

That Sunday happened to be Easter Sunday—Resurrection Day.

We went into the service that day anticipating becoming more involved and serving the Lord there. Instead, both of our hearts sank, because the great resurrection message, the hope of our salvation, and the glories of the risen Savior were not even mentioned. Yet Paul had said,

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ haveperished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:17-19 ESV).

If the gospel was not taught even on the day celebrating the reason for our eternal life, we knew it was time to leave for good.

About the same time we were searching for a church, my sister and brother-in-law were also looking for a new place to worship. After many years of serving at their church, they also had made the choice to find a place where God was honored, the word was taught, and Jesus was exalted. We were four people looking for the same thing at the same time.

Together we visited many churches over the next year and a half—too many to count. Looking back I wish I would have made a list of all the churches we attended. Some of them we tried for several weeks to get a feel for the fellowship. But each time, at the same time, we would all look at each other and say, “This isn’t it”.

Our church visits were like “Where’s Waldo?” We were looking for Jesus in the midst of chaotic churches. He was hard to find. But we were determined; we were not going to give up or turn the page, so to speak. We were going to find a church where Jesus was.

We went to a number of churches that, in my opinion, could be considered the church of Laodicea. The name “Church” was on the outside of the buildings, but there was no Jesus on the inside. The words “God” and “Jesus” were used, but usually only in a passing sentence. They were referrenced, but not honored.

In that year and a half I realized something that I knew in theory but had not experienced: the Church is in disarray. There are many huge congregations filled with people who think they’re right with God because of an easy belief system. They don’t really come to terms with who God is or why Jesus died. Sin and repentance is rarely mentioned. Church has become cool, fun, a free concert on Sundays. Rather than preaching the gospel and reading from the Scriptures, many pastors in the pulpit use jokes and silly stories that have nothing to do Biblical truth. Worship has become a show filled with fog and laser lights devoid of any true worship.

One church we went to had beautiful stained glass so that the sun could shine through during the service, but the congregation decided to cover the windows during worship so that the fog and laser lights would have more effect. How sad. The music got louder and louder, and older people in the congregation would have to put cotton in their ears to muffle the sound. Church leadership was well aware that the elderly were uncomfortable, but it appears they didn’t care much—because nothing changed. Out of love for one another, a change should have been made. In fact, Scripture says that believers’ love for one another is the mark of belonging to Jesus:

Another church we went to had the strangest communion service we had ever seen. After the message the pastor announced the communion part of the service. He gave no instruction on the procedure. We were visiting and didn’t have a clue on what to do. We could only follow what every one else was doing. The congregation stood up and made their way forward to a table set up in front of the pulpit. On the table was a basket of bread and one cup of grape juice. Each person took one piece of bread, dipped it into the cup, took the soggy piece of bread back to their seat and ate. There was no giving of thanks, no reference to Jesus. Rather than taking the simple instruction of Jesus at the Last Supper and using that as an example, they decided to make it cool by changing everything about it. This is how Scripture records Jesus’ example for sharing His Last Supper:

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:22-26 NKJV).

I guess Jesus example wasn’t good enough for them.

We visited another church because we were invited there by someone we knew. Not one person made eye contact with us, I know this for a fact because I purposely tried to greet people as we walked in. The only person that greeted us was the person that invited us. But that’s not the sad part. The message was so convoluted that when we got back in the car we both looked at each other and said, “What happened here”? We never understood what the message was about. I have been a Christian for over 30 years. If a 30-year-old Christian cannot figure out what the message was about, is it possible that the message wasn’t a Christian message?

Paul wrote these words to Timothy as Paul was nearing the end of his life. Timothy would carry on the work of shepherding the church after Paul’s departure, and in these instructions, he left the pattern for all shepherds of the church to follow:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV).

An acquaintance of mine invited me to his church, and I asked him if he liked it there. He said he did. I asked what he liked about it, and he told me he liked being able to bring coffee into the sanctuary. Is that a good reason to go to that church?

I have heard other people say they like their church because of the children’s program, the worship style, the comfortable seats, the wonderful programs, there are people there my age. Are these reasons to go to that church?

I did not decide to write this blog for the purpose of being critical. Rather, I’m writing from a desire to shed light on what I consider to be a problem within the Church.

 

What is that problem?

The problem I found is that Jesus is not the central reason for gathering at those particular places. They say He is, and they may think He is, but when I hear the sermons, Jesus’s centrality is not apparent.

It would have been a cruel joke if the artist in the Where’s Waldo? books never put Waldo into those chaotic scenes. Readers would continue to look literally for years and never find him.

The artist did include him, though. He was always there. One just had to diligently seek him out.

The good news is that Jesus is still the head of the Church. After all, it is His church. We are his bride. We are his sheep. He longs to have fellowship with us, and all true believers long to have fellowship with Him. He said He would never leave us or forsake us.

And so it is true. There are still churches out there where Jesus is honored and glorified. There are still churches were God is glorified and His Word is taught faithfully. They are out there; we just have to continue to look and to refuse to settle for a substitute.

After a year and a half of looking, we found that church: Redeemer Fellowship in Loma Linda, California. Jesus is truly honored here. The word of God is taught faithfully, and God is glorified. The people of this church have a true desire to have fellowship with Him. He is the center of this fellowship and the reason that we gather each week. The fellowship we share around the Lord and His word reflects the description of the early church in Acts 2:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common (Acts 2:42-44 ESV).

If you find yourself discouraged by trying to find a church where Jesus is the central theme, don’t give up. Don’t settle. Continually and diligently search.

Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually (1 Chronicles 16:11).