The Church
November3, 2013
I want to read from an article which was written by a current pastor. His name is Jason Johansen.
“About 10 years ago, I grew disillusioned with the church I had attended all my life. I continued to attend, but I avoided the people there. I kept greetings brief and conversations superficial. I came late and left quickly after the service. It surprised me how easy it was to hide in plain sight in church, especially when I had been active there my whole life.
What has surprised me even more since then is how common this experience is. This Sunday thousands of people will arrive at church right as the music starts, find a seat in increasingly dim auditoriums, sing music that touches an array of emotions, listen to an interesting sermon, and leave having never really spoken to anyone.
These reclusive congregants neither give nor receive hospitality, share no burdens, do not assist the weak, receive no prayer for discernment over major life decisions, no repentance for grudges or grievances, no healing of estranged relationships, no rejoicing with another's joy, no sorrow in another's tears.
You cannot have intimacy with Christ and remain aloof from his body.
Sermon and songs will conspire to give the worshiping consumer an experience of having connected with Christ even while they ignore the very real members of Christ's body sitting right next to them.
For many this has become normal. In my case, this was a phase of anonymity and alienation (wasted months that still grieve me). For many, however, anonymous attendance is all they know of church. It is perpetual and permanent.
These days it is far too easy to go to church alone.
Now I'm a pastor, and this phenomenon is no surprise to those of us in ministry. It is, in fact, the result of our calculated efforts to never ever make anyone feel uncomfortable or pressured at church. Trying not to be intrusive, we dim the lights to make it feel like it's just me and Jesus. We plan out every moment of the service so there are no awkward moments where someone might feel obligated to make conversation with someone next to them.
And don't dream of asking folks to pray for one another! Leave no space for an uncouth congregant to burden anyone with their needs (we have proper channels for that anyway).
In short, we alleviate our congregants of the awkward impression that they might be obliged to engage another human being. Our format communicates that as long as you and Jesus are alright, you can go to church alone.
This is a dangerous game for churches to play. Dangerous because we pretend that people can connect with Christ even while remaining disconnected from His body.
At its ugliest, we teach congregants not only to ignore those who worship beside them, but to resent those who might distract from our well produced worship presentation — the elderly man oblivious to his squealing hearing aid, the mother and her fussy baby, the malodorous transient.
All these become hindrances to communion with God rather than opportunities to serve God. It's not long before everyone is an interruption to my consumption of a worship experience.
Whatever this amounts to, it is not church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained it well: "It is the fellowship of the Cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian."
REMEMBER what was just up on the screen . . . You cannot have intimacy with Christ and remain aloof from his body. We cannot worship God the Father and still assert — in word or deed — "I am not my brother's keeper."
This isolation, individualism, and consumerism are not unique to the church, of course. They describe American culture in general.
Just think of the common scene of a family driving in a minivan (perhaps headed to church) with the father listening to sports radio, the mother talking on the phone, a teenage daughter texting, an older son listening to his iPod, and a child watching a Disney movie on the back of his mother's seat. All of them together, but alone. Alone together.
In movie theaters, concert venues, and sports stadiums we sing, laugh, cry, and cheer powerfully together, and then leave without so much as a goodbye.
The outcome of this individualistic ethos: a society where intimate friendships are becoming rarer all the time.
Studies indicate nearly a quarter of all Americans (twice as many as two decades ago) have no one with whom they can discuss things they consider important. This trend is not improving. Boomers are more relationally isolated than their parents, and the children of Boomers more isolated still.
It does not surprise us when congregants find their iPhones more interesting than the person beside them. Are we content with this? Isolation and individualism are trends of the larger culture. Do we really want to mimic these trends in church?”
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Are these generalizations really true for FBC? Do you think Johansen is correct? Are we more and more isolated, kind of liking it and at the same time, kind of hating it?
What do we do with all of this? If I fully knew the answer, you would be reading my next book, but I have a couple of thoughts, and it’s really what we’ve been talking about for the past 7 weeks. Can you believe we’ve been talking about the church since September 8th? And I feel like we have not even touched the surface.
I’m going to digress to the scriptures I used last week. I can’t get away from them. They’re too important and powerful. In some ways I’m not really going to preach, I just want us to take in what the Scriptures tell us about the church and who we are called to be!
In Acts 2, Luke wrote ~ 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (DEVOTED - give constant attention to something / persevere / continue steadfastly)
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. (AWE - ‘phobos’ [phobia] fear / reverence)
44 And ALL who believed were together and had all things in common.
45 And THEY were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to ALL, as any had need.
46 And day by day, attending the temple TOGETHER and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with GLAD AND GENEROUS HEARTS
47 PRAISING God and HAVING FAVOR with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
What a church? I want that church!!! Don’t you? I want what they had! I want their power, their awe, their togetherness, their faithfulness, their commitment to God and one another. I want their passion for Christ, their passion to serve, their passion to worship. Really, they had it all.
But I believe they believed something that we don’t believe! It’s the other verse I used last week. Remember the passage from Ephesians 1 — where Paul told us 19 God’s INCOMPARABLY GREAT POWER for us who believe is the same as the mighty strength
20 He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,
This is the power God used to raise Christ from the dead, and used to seat Him at His right hand in heaven. This power is also the power available for us. God is willing to entrust you and I with that power.
But something stops us from using this power. We get caught up in ourselves more than anything. We are kind of like the people Jason Johanson is talking about. We want to be noticed and un-noticed at the same time. We reserve the right to be hyper-critical, but won’t lift a finger to make a real difference in the church. We desperately want to be known, and yet, not too well known. We want to be asked to serve on some committee, but we really don’t want to do too much.
When I look at our church, there are so many people who aren’t members, and there are some committees that you just can’t serve on, because you need to be a member. That’s part of the by-laws of the church. And I’m not criticizing them, I’m simply saying church membership, says you want a greater involvement. It says, I want to step up and serve in new and different ways. The other day we were talking about who would be great for some positions in the church, and we had to say “no” to a few names, because they aren’t members.
Now, I also know that some believe in what I call universal church membership. This is more of the Church of God view of membership, and I don’t necessarily disagree with it. They believe ‘when a person accepts Jesus Christ as Savior, God places that person in the church. Salvation is the criteria for membership in a congregation of the Church of God. You maintain membership by participating in worship and fellowship of the congregation.’
Now, I’m not saying what FBC and many other churches do is better. Simply that’s the way we do church, so if you want to be more active, and we’d love to see that, then join the church. We promise not to take a drop of blood from you, nor will we check on your finances and let you know what you can contribute, we won’t send you a monthly dues notice.
But, you will have the chance to get more involved in the church, meet new people, and have an opportunity to shape the future of the church — and I’m excited about the future.
Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4 ~
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
In Paul’s eyes, that is another microcosm of what the church is about. He calls us to live our lives in a manner which is worthy of the high calling we’ve received, and that calling is to be a child of God, a son or daughter of the Father and a brother or sister to one another. How we go about that really determines our community and fellowship. So, Paul tells us to be COMPLETELY humble and gentle, add to that — patience, as we bear with one another in love.
We strive to keep the unity, and that takes work. When Paul says, “Make every effort” he is referring to hard work. It’s not easy to keep the unity. And Paul is not talking about the unity of the flesh, that we will all be Cubs and Bears fans, that really doesn’t matter in the kingdom, BUT we are to MAKE EVERY EFFORT to keep the unity of the Spirit of God.
Why do we do this, because we can confess as brothers and sisters in Christ that ~
4 there is ONE body
there is ONE Spirit
there is ONE hope
5 there is one Lord,
there is one faith,
there is one baptism;
6 there is one God and Father . . .
of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
That is what is supposed to keep us together, to care and to love, to empower and encourage, to correct and rebuke, to celebrate and grieve, to know and be known, to serve and be served.
The church, the universal church and FBC is at the TIPPING POINT, we have the potential to move in a way which will impact more and more people in the name of Jesus Christ. Lives will be changed, transformed, and the world will be different and better because of it.
But we also have the opportunity to turn our backs on what God is calling us to do, and we can be the church of unrealized potential. A church which is similar to a sports team which has it all but never wins the big games. We have all the key ingredients, but . . . I don’t want that to be our church.
And it’s not about my glory or the glory of anyone person here, it’s about bringing glory and honor in the name of Jesus Christ. He’s the One who brings redemption, forgiveness, hope, peace and is the One, the only One who promises never to bail out on us . . . no matter what we do, no matter where we go. He’ll be there. We’ve got the people, we’ve got the power . . . but . . . what will we do with it?
Source: Going to Church Alone: How to stop doing church in a way that fosters individualism and isolation. By Jason Johansen
