The Church I Dislike

There are days when I really dislike the church.  Not the church Jesus described when Simon Peter rightly identified Him as the Christ, but the church we’ve created.  The church Andy Stanley masterfully and simply describes evolving from Constantine through the Reformation in his latest book, “Deep and Wide”.  The church I dislike, or struggle with looks different in different places.  It’s not as much about geography and culture as it is about church as a place instead of a people.  

Sometimes it is the extension of a long-winded meeting debating, or setting policies and procedures that does nothing more than attempts to satisfy Robert’s Rules of Order.  Isn’t that funny?  Can we actually read the gospels and admit with a straight face that Jesus would’ve subscribed to parliamentary procedure?  This church is so concerned about what’s right/wrong and the list of do’s/don’ts for members that it has totally forgotten what it means to be caught in sin and smothered in God’s grace despite of our guilt.  It’s the church that is more concerned with hitting all the “right” notes than it is in making a joyful noise.  It is the church that spends far more on itself (facilities, personnel, publicity, etc.) than it does those Jesus told us to reach.  As Andy describes it, it is a church for the churched.   Easy this is not just the established church.

Then there’s the version of the church that looks cool, appears to be hip, but is essentially doing the exact same thing as the former description only with different window dressing, music and structure.  The pastors are cool and spend more on their custom t-shirts and jeans than pastors in the previously described churches spend on their suits.  Its gatherings are more like a concert.  Modern performing arts centers/concert venues have nothing on it in terms of technology, sound and feel.  BIG bucks are spent on the “presentation” and it is really good, even flawless.  But the message is still the same, “If we build it they will come.”  Even with multiple locations the focus is still on drawing people into the venue so they can join.  Nothing is done without thinking about “branding” and getting their name out.   Don’t be fooled, numbers are the banner in both kinds of churches.  Numbers translate to money, and money translates into the expansion of a physical presence. 

With the exception of David Platt’s church and a few others, how many of these churches do you know that send a significant percentage of their financial contributions directly to autonomous ministries/churches in 3^rd world countries trying to reach unreached people groups?  Not their denominational donation percentage, but the amount they are directly investing in “hands-on” global partnerships? 

 

And before you think this is a rant about big, established, or mega-churches hold off!  This applies to

the small “wannabe’s” in both kinds of churches.  This applies to every one of us who smugly claims to follow a Person and not an institution.  For it’s just when we think we “are not like them” that we forget our origins.  So many churches have forgotten that this is supposed to be an organic movement ushered into existence by a man who owned nothing, had no earthly power, influence, or credentials and died in a very violent way despite personal foreknowledge of the event itself!  And it was a very small band of devoted followers that spread His message after His death in the face of great danger and persecution.  

Most of them died violently, or imprisoned.  I shudder to think what Jesus in the flesh would think if He reviewed our church budgets, plans and strategies.  I wonder if our priorities would be His!   And I wonder what those early followers would say if they saw our lavish facilities and resources?  I bet they would say that we aren’t hungry and thirsty, but that we seem to be full and satisfied.  God help us when we are satisfied, or actually think we have arrived.  God help us if we think it can’t get any better than this because that means we have taken an organic movement and created an idol.  Perhaps therein lies the problem.  Whether knowingly, or unknowingly we have created idols expecting loyalty to a place/brand/system (both new and old) instead of calling for self-denial and loyalty to a Person, Jesus Christ. 

And now let me tell you why I am wrong.  If I absolve my personal responsibility to help the church recover her roots and become a movement for ANYONE & EVERYONE built around the words and actions of Jesus Christ by simply comparing my church to the one down the street then I have become that which I despise the most….A competitive fake more interested in earthly competition than heaven’s population.  God help us to rally around the Person and teachings of Jesus Christ.  Now that’s a game changer, no, that’s a life changer!