Acts 10:34 "...God is no respecter of persons:"
Churches have them. Youth groups have them. Christian schools and Bible colleges even have them. What are they? These little, exclusive, close-knit phenomenons called cliques.
Often it is hard to explain how they work...but cliques are interesting to observe. I have personally seen young people brought to tears by being excluded. (This happened to my children in fact). Church people have dropped out because they felt like an outsider never really fitting in with the inner circle of the congregation. Preachers and pastors have their cliques as well.
What clicks for a clique? Exactly what do you do or how do you look to be a clique-ee? How does that potential "clique-or" apply to be a "clique-ee"? I believe some people become part of or get involved in cliques without even realizing they are. We have to become aware that we are in danger of being guilty of this. I also believe that every church is guilty of having these in their midst. Some churches are more guilty of them than others.
Even at preaching conferences it's true. One guest speaker or missionary gets the Hilton with room service while another gets Motel 6 and the light is burnt out. Surely this appears to be "respecter of persons". Granted there are budgets, limitations and constraints that have to be considered. But churches must be careful not to treat any one preacher any differently than another.
There is no excuse for cliques!!!
In some churches it seems that the stranger is not welcome. The attitude is "Who are you and what are you doing here"? Granted...not all people are out-going people who are comfortable with talking with people they don't know. There are some loners among us who make no effort or have any desire to fit in or fellowship with the people in the church.
We as God's people and His church must never be the obstacle to a soul coming to Christ or another believer in need of encouragement connecting with brothers and sisters in Christ for help.
So click off on cliques for there should be no place for these in God's House.
***Taken from an article in a "The Voice in the Wilderness" publication.
9 comments:
Mrs Julie I agree on this. I have seen this happen and have found myself involved in one at one time. This is damaging to the cause of Christ. Thanks for sharing this article.
Bro Tim
Good post sister Julie,
I hate cliques,I have been through that, standing wanting to fit in but never did I am so glad to have a church where it's not like that
Cliques are immediately evident to the visitor at any church. Not a good thing to be known for as a church. Good post, Sis!!
Dear julie,
This is a subject that should be brought more to the light. It does hurt familes, friend and mostly church members. I have seen so many folks that have been hurt by cliques. I remember in school it was the worse I seen of it. If you didn't belong you were made to feel like a looser. I think to myself, we were kids back then, you would think as adults we would be different and most importantly we are christians. I have seen some adults at churches worse then school age children. It is very disturbing.
Thank you for putting it on your blog.
Cristina
I really liked your blog. This was one of my big problems, because I never seemed to fit in. But I finally made up my mind that I would serve God no matter what group I was in or not in.
I hate cliques as well. I know it even exists in small churches which should be like family.
I just read your remark about the ugly comment left on my blog a few posts ago. Whoever it is also left one on Rita's but she moderates and didn't post it. I left mine on out of curiosity more than anything. I was curious to see how my true *godly* frineds would respond! Of course, my mom and dad have no knowledge of this happening, but the rest of the family members are racking our brains trying to figure out if it could be someone we know or not. I think it must just be someone from one of those fringe, religious groups that march and cheer at our soldier's funeral!
A great reminder. I have even seen this at times among "full time" workers in a clique that leaves out those who work secular jobs.
A clique is one of the most destructive things in the Body of Christ. If you want your Church to stay small and insignificant, allow cliques to flourish. The truth is, we must combat the cliques. How? Well, sometimes cliques are not formed out of maliciousness. My daughter has her little circle of friends. I can see when some girls get left out. I inform my DD and some of her friends of the problem and ask them to consciously include the others. Working with grownups is a different story. Truth is, Jesus was exluded from the "in group" thank Heaven! Jesus seemed to seek out those who had been left out or even cast out. One person can make a difference against the cliques!
Rhonda
Sis Julie, great post! I am so glad posted this blog I just can't stand cliques that is a big down fall in our chruch and we have people come and go like a revolving
door it is very awful.When people are visited to see why they haven't been coming to chruch and are told because of cliques just felt like they couldn't fit in.
God bless you!
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