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Church Shopping A Discussion of the Problems Around Churches Today The Evangelical Shuffle By Michael S. Beates A friend at church recently expressed concern for a coworker who claims to be a Christian but who never attends a local church. While he is an extreme case, we commonly find Christians who, consistent with their radical individualism, attend church on their terms, showing more loyalty to the cola of their choice than to the church of their membership. Centuries ago towns had one church. All believers worshipped there and were a part of that community. Just a generation or two ago towns had just one church of each denomination. Today however, there is a supermarket from which to choose, and frankly the historical and doctrinal distinctives don't seem to matter. If a church offers what you are looking for, you stay. When it no longer does, or when a problem occurs, you find another church. As we have moved to a pluralistic "anything goes" culture, many churches have surrendered their confessional foundation, opting instead for the marketplace mentality. Rather than proclaiming, "This is what we believe and here we stand," churches have said, "We need to sell ourselves to the masses so let's emphasize felt-needs rather than doctrine." The results are seen in the revolving door syndrome of most Evangelical churches. People come and go with no commitment to a creed and or to other people -- the commitment is first to the self. The felt-needs are met through programs. But the real need is for deep and abiding community achieved only through commitment to a local body -- through the good times and the hard times -- just like a marriage. The church is after all family, and like the old saying goes, "you can pick your friends but you're stuck with your family." When you join a church you are making a commitment to a body of people. While this commitment is not a marriage, it is close to it. And just as our society, enamored by short term disposable, non-committal relationships moves from marriage to marriage, so many believers frivolously mirror the culture, moving from church to church. There are at least two reasons for this "Evangelical shuffle." The Fear of Community Flimsy commitment to the local church is a problem of discipline -- poor discipline by the professed believer as well as by the local church. Discipline is not always negative. It also encompasses positive strengthening and training, hard but healthy. One clear sign of trouble in Evangelicalism is that we lack the discipline of community and all it demands. Church for many does not exist ultimately for God and service to His kingdom; it is there to meet personal needs and help people with the struggles of life. Such a perspective is lamentably selfish and undisciplined. Romans 12:5 says "so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." In Christ we do not belong to ourselves; we belong to the community. To keep your own needs before your eyes is to live out of kilter with God's intention for your place in Christ's body. In our day of polite anonymity and suburban isolation, the prospect of honest community is frightening. We would rather keep brothers and sisters at arm's length and remain comfortably self-contained than to risk becoming known more deeply by a larger community of people. This is why we so quickly walk away from church commitments and relationships rather than stay to work through whatever conflicts and disagreements may arise. Community is scary -- loneliness and isolation are easy. Everything in our culture works against the former and helps us effortlessly toward the latter. David Wells in his books No Place for Truth and God in the Wasteland, says that our culture has created a consumer mentality even regarding the church. "It's my choice after all. I'll choose whatever church suits my needs right now" we tell ourselves. Says Wells in Wasteland, "We all have needs....But God does not want us to interpret the meaning of these needs ourselves because, being sinners, we resist seeing such needs in terms of our broken and violated relationship with Him. Christ's Gospel calls sinners to surrender their self-centeredness, to stop granting sovereignty to their own needs and to recognize His claim of sovereignty over their lives." When perceived needs are not met, people leave churches for inconsequential reasons with no biblical or ecclesiological defense. Meanwhile, other churches contribute to people's propensity to leave by welcoming them to willingly -- usually no questions asked -- whether the newcomer is from a sister church or a church doctrinally distant. The Fear of Accountability Though many drift from church to church for unbiblical, selfish, and subjective reasons, others do so to avoid discipline due to their sin. A family may leave because the pastor is unwilling to marry a child who already co-habitates with a partner. Another may leave because the church leadership tries to help them correct a sinful pattern of borrowing money without repaying. Rather than submit to the church and work through the problem, they leave to join another church. And once again, there are plenty of churches willing to accept them no questions asked. In our culturally-handicapped thinking the church carries no authority. Yet Augustine likened the church to a mother -- one that nurtures, corrects and trains. When we leave because of correction, it is like a child rebelling against his mother, deciding instead to go live with an aunt. We move on again when the aunt also exercises discipline. To keep members (and dollars) and not rock the boat, many churches simply don't exercise discipline. They allow believers to dwell in their sin. Said Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin. It is a ministry of mercy, and ultimate act of genuine fellowship..." (Life Together). What Do We Do? The local church is not an organization that you join or quit. It is an organism of which you become an integral part. Believers are living stones in the Temple of God (1 Peter 2:5), members of Christ's Body (1 Cor. 12). When we pull out to go to another church, that action leaves a hole in the wall and a wound in the body. To build the Temple and strengthen the Body, we must carefully choose where we can best serve Christ and then commit ourselves to submit humbly to that body. Part of this submission is working to build and maintain fellowship. One key ingredient often missing is the necessity of keeping short accounts. We are prone to avoid even the smallest conflicts in our evangelical politeness. But the sum total of years worth of minor frustrations, conflicts, and unresolved disappointments will amount to substantial hurt--often to the point where people are beyond reconciliation. The only problem is the leaders in the church never knew reconciliation was needed because they never knew of the frustration until the member left the church. Your church commitment should not be based on where your needs are met, or where you like the music, or where your kids have a "happening" youth group, and certainly not on where the church leaves you to live in your sin. Rather, be committed to a church that exhibits biblical fidelity to the marks of a true church: faithful preaching of the Word, administration of the Sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline. It shouldn't keep you comfortable, but it must keep you growing in Christ and in service to His body. (This article first appeared in Tabletalk, September 1996 - UBP.) |
