Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Less is More: Less Church Can Be More Too

I really LOVE Tony Morgan's blog post: The New Traditional Church !!!(http://tonymorganlive.com/2009/02/27/the-new-traditional-church/)

He expresses what I have felt for quite some time now about church. I feel as though our Christian culture has placed way too much importance on church. Please don't get me wrong, church is very important and I fully support it. But I just feel as though we have placed it almost as high as salvation....as though our salvation completely depends on church.

These days is seems as though to attend church is equivalent to being a Christian. If you miss church, people start to wonder about your faith's strength. If you bring up the idea of not attending church EVERY SINGLE Sunday, many Christians around will respond as though you have just uttered complete blasphemy.

But church attendance and being Christian aren't irrevocably linked. And the person who lives and sleeps at church is not more holy than the person who only attends one program a week.

It seems as though the mindsets of most Pastors and most Church Leadership is that it's vital for the faith of the members that people become more involved in church activities...Sunday service, then Bible Study, then Small Group, then volunteering, the list goes on....the more the better. It seems as though the general idea in church offices is that one of their greatest responsibilities is to get more people to do more church stuff or to get them to replace "other stuff" in their lives with church stuff.

I don't think it ought to be this way. Church isn't equivalent to our faith. Church simply aids it. And church isn't life. Again, it simply aids it. I believe that too much church CAN hurt one's faith.

Often times if someone is good at something, such a softball, for example, and this person plays for a local softball league....its seems as though the general idea is that if that person started playing for the church softball league instead it would be better for that person.
Or if someone can play the drums really well and plays for a local band, church people seem to always want that person to spend less time playing "out there" and more time playing in the church.
Or if a teen is dedicated to a sport, say, cheerleading so that she has to go to practice after practice and event after event, it's not unlikely that the Youth Leaders will express frustration and disappointment that the girl can't attend more youth functions. While I appreciate Youth Leaders wanting to see discipleship in student's lives, I'm addressing a different issue...the idea that church is at all times of greater importance than secular activities, and the mindset that God is not being glorified unless people are in church.

Why do we put this type of pressure or thinking in people?
Perhaps God wants that softball player to stay in his secular league because he is a Light for God to his team members, and perhaps those team members will never know about Christ unless he is there.
Perhaps God wants the drummer to stay in his band and not play for the church because he can reach the world there, and God has a purpose for him that will not be fulfilled if he is at church every night of the week.
And perhaps God wants the teenager to excel at Cheerleading so that she will become a professional at it, and be a Light for God through it one day!

But we seem to think narrow-mindedly that church is the only place for Godliness to occur. We live in fear of the world, as though God can only impact us when we are involved in everything-church-related.

I spent most of my life, schooling and extra-curricular activities in the Church and I honestly feel a little gypped...that I never interacted with non-Christian people enough to be a light for God to them, that I missed out on opportunities to excel personally, and became narrow-minded staying so isolated...and thus missed out on opportunities to be a vessel that God could work through.

Jesus didn't just isolate Himself to the temple and to the "righteous" people. In Mark 2:16, the Pharisees questioned about Jesus, "Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?" In other words, the Pharisees noticed that Jesus didn't act like they did: only interacting with "good" people and spending most of their time at the temple. I believe that when we only hang out at Church and with other Christians, we're more like the Pharisees than like Jesus.

Jesus heard the Pharisees' question and answered, "...I have not come to call the righteous but sinners" (Mark 2:17). Jesus came for the sinners so He put Himself in a place to reach out to the sinners.

Please also note that Jesus didn't just use the method of "witness night" where He created fun events at the temple to attract people there so He could then talk to them. Nor did He first plan to meet a bunch of "righteous" people at the temple steps so they could all go out and do official "outreaches." No, Jesus simply lived in the world, allowed Himself to interact with the world, purposefully got to know people intimately, went to their houses, got involved in their lives.

He didn't just do this as "official" outreach, He lived His life this way. I believe we should too. We should not limit our interaction with the world to official church outreaches or to the "witness events" that we plan at church. We need to go to church, but then we also need to simply be part of the world and allow our lives to mix with the world, to know people intimately and eat, live, walk with non-members on a regular basis. This is what Jesus did. I believe we should too.

Not only did Jesus set this example, but He called us to the same Commission. To go into the world and make disciples. When all we do is go to church and live at church, we're not fulfilling the Great Commission. Just going once a month to do 30 minute "outreaches" on the street is OK but I honestly don't believe this is all God called us to with His Great Commission. He called us to follow His example and be members of the world, to live beside "sinners," and be a light this way. First and foremost. And then to ALSO go on outreaches. I believe that to follow Jesus' example is to simply be in the world and not spend ALL our time isolated inside church walls.

I would love to see a church only have services every couple of weeks.
I would love to see a church community explicitly encourage families to find the "best fit" for them with regards to how often and how many church programs they attend...a combination that honors God the most in their lives.

I would love to see Pastors and Church Leadership understand that church is not the highest good in the lives of their members.
I would love to see a Pastoral Staff promote that God be glorified through members being "sent out" into their community - not by doing outreaches, but simply by individuals, families and friends joining in the community groups and activities that they're naturally inclined to - instead of through church participation.
I would love to see a Church Staff that understood, fully, how God's work in people's lives extends beyond church activities and into every cipher of life. Not just that God needs to be in every cipher, but that God IS there, and that church is not the only source of God for the individual.
I would love to see church evolve with this type of mindset!!!!

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