The idea for this title belongs to my dear wife,
Debbie. As we went for a walk the other
day, we discussed the issues that will follow.
Just today, I was meditating on the content for this blog posting. The heart behind it was further stirred by
this Facebook entry from a friend:
“You know, I'm having
a hard time understanding why so many
people who have left our old church are so eager to jump right into another
one. Makes me think of that proverb about a dog returning to its vomit.”
Let me first say, this is not written
as a criticism of anyone. It is really
more of an exhortation . . . to SEEK THE LORD rather than repeat another round
of futility. I can speak from experience
on this, because I ultimately had to go through another round of painful
dysfunction (and drag my family through it as well). The reason:
institutionalization caused me to feel that I needed to find another
“thing”. My loving Father let me find it,
and the lesson this time was like the proverbial hot stove . . . hot enough to
keep me from touching it again!
The title of this blog post refers to ‘attractions’
or ‘entry points’ into more religious distraction and dysfunction. God clearly
loves His people and of course he also loves leaders. He uses men to deliver messages and He sometimes
works through meetings (though many times He does so despite us, not because of
our amazing meeting skills). Even though He uses these things, they alone are
not indicators of the health of a particular spiritual expression. I can say emphatically that if these are the
criteria that attract us to “joining” another religious franchise, we still
have some foundational lessons to learn.
A Message
I am continuously bombarded by emails
and Facebook messages about some “man
of God” who delivered some extraordinary message. Maybe the message is wonderful, but does that
automatically mean one should join an organization that person is connected to?
I have friends who have been
languishing in a “church” for years.
When I most recently asked why they’re still there, my friend replied, “We
like the preaching.” This is curious in light of the fact that my friend is
aware that the people doing the preaching have a history of abuse, control,
manipulation, and lying. The friend was speechless when I asked, “What good is
preaching when they don’t practice what they preach?”
Too many Christians believe there is
something spiritual about listening to sermons every week. There can be, but
there is no biblical evidence that it is God’s purpose for us to listen to
someone drone on and on, week after week, while a “congregation” passively
listens. Luke refers to his gospel as an
account of what Jesus “began to do and teach”.
And yet I’ve found few people preaching who even know how to “do,” unless
doing is simply defined as telling others what to do.
While there is a
healthy place for teaching, increasingly I see that New Testament priesthood
involves more effective body ministry of “one anothers” and less of the one-man-show
eternal lectures many of us have become addicted to.
A number of people I
know rejoice in “how well taught” they are. I acquiesce that Paul might say the
same, but only about his pre-Damascus road days which he came to view as
rubbish.
Hearing a good
sermon (or even a series of good sermons) is hardly a reason to throw our lot
in with another organization. The real test is BODY functionality:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching
and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16
ESV)
A Man
Those who have been
in religious organizations where leaders have a high view of themselves and of their
importance to the body should be especially on guard for what amounts to
idolatry.
I grew up hearing
people refer to “Pastor (Tom, Dick or Harry)’s church” or “Brother so-and-so’s
church.” Though not intentional, in most
cases, these words were literally true; the church belonged to that man. The
problem should be obvious. Any “church” built around a man is, frankly, an
abomination. Have we not learned the
error of “I am of Paul, I am of Apollos . . . ?”
This is putrid
idolatry. We Christians slam
unbelievers for their worship of music stars, celebrities, and Hollywood
actors. Yet we do the very same thing in the church world with our worship of
famous preachers, musicians and edifices. We allow those who treat us like
commodities to “make merchandise of us.”
And we permit selfish leaders to divide the body in the name of a
perverted view of pastoral authority.
Look at the way we
set up church meetings: the pastors are the center of attention. All the chairs or pews are focused in that
direction, not toward one another. Truthfully,
much of what we’re doing is relating to each other around self-appointed
leaders, rather than to one another in Jesus.
This is another bad habit that desperately needs to be broken.
A Meeting
If there’s one thing
that describes Christians in the western world, it is this: we are very meeting-centered. People judge a “church” by the “Sunday show.” Along with the music, the sermon is judged
much like a performance on American Idol.
We don’t seem to care whether Jesus has knit our hearts with others in
real relationship by “joints and ligaments.”
If we enjoy the meetings, we then attempt to build relationships within the
organization. Isn’t this backwards? Should we not first discover relationships
THE LORD has given us, instead of looking for a black cat in a dark room that
probably isn’t there anyway?
God is building A
PEOPLE relating to reflect His glory, not an organization to simply gather for
meetings. This requires we first connect to HIM, and then out of that union of
life with Him, we can move on to share His life with others. The problem is, I find that most people (for
a variety of reasons) don’t learn first how to relate to their Father. All too often, the result is we don’t
fellowship WITH GOD, but simply fellowship with each other, ABOUT GOD.
Running through these
three “attractions”; The Message, The Man, The Meeting is
a common current: spiritual immaturity. In
most cases, participation rarely requires us to operate in functional
priesthood. While we’re looking for “the
church that will meet our needs,” we fail to find our completeness in CHRIST,
leaving us orphaned, (assuming we are not actually spiritually still-born). As a result we go from one religious
orphanage to another, looking to others to “bottle feed us,” locking us into
what amounts to eternal infancy.
So what is our
universal call? In Matthew 6:33 we are
told to “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness . . .” But what
does this really mean? I sum it up this
way: the kingdom of God is the realm of
Jesus’s Lordship and authority, and it is not a one-time event. I am to be in a continual state of aligning
with the King. As I am, His
righteousness is released. Is that simply
being a “good person”, or mere moralism? Absolutely Not! It is humanity living
in relational sync with the living God.
The commandments are
summed up in loving God and loving others.
Did not Jesus say, “By this shall all men know that you are my
disciples, that you love one another?”
This sends us to “the better way” in 1 Corinthians 13. How is this walked out? We must develop deep bonds of love over time
with “one another.” However, our promiscuous floating about, looking for the
most charismatic men (people, not gender specific), messages and meetings
prevents this?
The real need today,
that hasn’t changed over two thousand years, is for us to learn how to love. In my thirty-plus years of church life, it
is more apparent to me than ever, that this is not the priority of our
religious systems, and if we are honest with ourselves, we will find, it is not
really our priority either. If it were, we would spend much more time learning
how to love our families, other believers, and neighbors closest to us, instead
of “compassing land and sea” to find some “church” or group that’s “doing it
right.”
In light of our
human proclivity to gravitate toward the path of least resistance and follow
the religious crowds, my appeal is simply this: try spending a month of Sundays
simply seeking the Lord ALONE. Don’t go
looking for “another church” during that time.
Focus on LISTENING, to see what your Father has to say about what is on
His heart. Take your cues from Him. I suspect He is unlikely to send you to
another franchise or organization, but instead put specific people on your
heart: people He may want to disciple you, and/or those He may want you to
disciple. When we begin here, we will
find the path of BEING the church rather than having, doing, or finding
church. After all, did not Jesus promise
that He will build His Church? Our call
is to seek the kingdom and let Him do the building. We simply abide in Him. In that place religious striving and “church
busy work” ends and “doing the works of God” commences. Otherwise, we simply remain what my wife
calls “NASCAR Christians,” going really fast, logging mile after mile on an
oval track equating speed with progress and busyness with spiritual growth.
So
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his
own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father
does, that the Son does likewise. (John
5:19 ESV)
We would do well to
remember the words of one prophetic voice who spoke to his generation words
that are no less true today:
"One
hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful
organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men
make a football team. The first requisite is Life, always."
- A. W. Tozer
