A Seeker-Searching Church

“When you search for me, then you will find me, if you seek me with all your hearts.” 

Jeremiah 29:13  The Message 

These were not the shallow words of a man untouched by suffering. Longfellow knew terrible grief. His first wife, Mary, died following a miscarriage in 1835. Her death profoundly affected him, and   A Psalm of Life, written a few years later, reflects his struggle to live with “a heart for any fate.” Years afterward, tragedy struck again when his second wife, Frances, died after her dress caught fire. Longfellow was badly burned while trying to save her and carried the physical and emotional scars for the remainder of his life. After many long years of sorrow, he finally awoke to the “Christmas Bells of new life and hope.

Longfellow did not write as someone standing safely beyond sorrow. He wrote from within it. His words were not a denial of grief but a determination not to surrender to it. His advice to the world shouts, “Act! Act now!” “Act, — act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’erhead!”

That is an important word for the Church today. Act. This is why I am preaching, as most pastors do, from the book of Acts. We want our church to grow. We hope to find the lost? We hope for people to come and join us and worship God to seek the lost and comfort the hurting.

We sometimes hear churches described as “seeker-oriented,” as though seeking belongs only to visitors, unbelievers, or people standing outside the sanctuary. But seeking is not exclusive to one style of church. Every faithful church is a seeker-searching church. At least I think it should be! We seek Christ because Christ first came seeking us.

Jesus said, “ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10) . Christianity does not begin with our successful search for God. It begins with the Good Shepherd searching for His wandering sheep. Christ enters the wilderness of our sin, sorrow, doubt, disappointment, and death to find us and bring us home. Christ places our feet upon a path, adds light, points us in the right direction and we seek His Kingdom, like a Pilgrim.

Yet, having been found, we do not stop seeking Him. The psalmist hears the invitation of God and responds:

“You have said, ‘Seek my face.’My heart says to you,‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’” - Psalm 27:8

Don’t’ hide it from me. Let me find you. And you will if you seek diligently. The Church is filled with people who have been found by Christ and who are still seeking to know Him more deeply. We seek His face in worship, His truth in Scripture, His mercy in confession, and His presence in prayer. We seek Him in our joy, but we also seek Him through our grief, our sorrow, and our frustrations and failings.

That search must begin within our own hearts. Before we look outward and ask what is wrong with the world, we must allow Christ to search us. This reminds me of the Fleetwood Mac song,

Oh Well

When I talk to God I knew He’d understand he said, “Stick by me and I’ll be your guiding hand. But don’t ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to.”

And the Psalmist says in that same manner:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” —Psalm 139:23

Seeking Christ within ourselves does not mean searching for some hidden goodness of our own. – it ain’t there! It means opening the locked and wounded rooms of our hearts to Him. It means allowing His Word to reveal our sin, heal our wounds, confront our fears, and redirect our desires. Redirect out desires to be his desires. And the search must never remain inward. The Outward mindset isn’t just pop psychology.

Longfellow imagined that the footprints left by one struggling traveler might give courage to “a forlorn and shipwrecked brother.” What a beautiful picture of the Church. Our scars, testimonies, prayers, and acts of compassion become footprints that help another hurting soul find the courage to continue. And even when we are hurting, Christ calls us to move outward. We do not need to be completely healed before we can offer someone kindness. Sometimes the wounded are especially able to recognize the wounds of others. Paul writes:

“Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” - Galatians 6:2

There will also be seasons when we are the ones who need to be carried. We must not be ashamed to let other seekers comfort us. The Church is not a gathering of people who have conquered every sorrow. It is a fellowship of people, a household, a family, learning to carry one another toward Christ.

A seeker-searching church therefore asks two questions: “Where is Christ leading us?” and “Whom is Christ seeking through us?”

Someone near us is grieving. Someone is exhausted from pretending to be strong. Someone is questioning whether life still has meaning – good Lord this sounds so difficult! Someone is standing on the shore, watching for footprints left by a fellow traveler. Or standing on the edge waiting to leap. Let them leap into the embrace of faith, hope and love. But the greatest is Love!

Let us be those footprints let us be the arms. Let us seek Christ within our hearts and then courageously move outward. Let us allow others to comfort us when we are hurting and let us offer that same comfort when they are hurting. Let us refuse to believe that sorrow has the final word, because Christ has entered our sorrow, defeated death, and risen from the grave. In Longfellow’s words:

Let us, then, be up and doing,With a heart for any fate;Still achieving, still pursuing,Learn to labor and to wait.

Life is real. Life is earnest. Our neighbors are searching, the Church is searching, and Christ is searching for the hurting souls of this life. May we have hearts that seek His face, eyes that recognize the wounded, and courage to join Him in the search.