Hate The Church, Love Jesus!!

            A recent Barna research declares the death of the church in the lives of nearly half of America’s Christians, “…In this new age, religion is in retreat from the public square, and traditional institutions like the church are no longer functioning with the cultural authority they once held in generations past. Today, nearly half of America is unchurched. But even though more and more Americans are abandoning the institutional church and its defined boundary markers of religious identity, many still believe in God and practice faith outside its walls.”¹ (Emphasis Mine). This discovery is relevant to all parts of the world where the church exists; it’s not confined to America.

            Christians who do not attend the church cannot be deemed as non-Christians. Barna reports that genuine Christians do not attend the church, “Barna created a metric to capture those who most neatly fit this description. It includes those who self-identify as Christian and who strongly agree that their religious faith is very important in their life, but are “dechurched”—that is, they have attended church in the past, but haven’t done so in the last six months (or more). These individuals have a sincere faith (89% have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important to their life today), but are notably absent from church.”² (Emphasis Mine).

            If genuine Christians do not attend the church, then it’s worthwhile to ascertain reasons pertinent to this sorry state in Christendom. Adequate reasons for this malady have been provided in my previous blog entitled, “How Could Christianity Insult & Injure You? (Toxic Christianity)”³

            Churches are guilty of driving Christians away. Filth is in abundance in many churches. Typically the naive members of these churches, who have very high opinion of the church, would be nauseated by the filthy deeds of those in the church leadership (Pastors, Elders, Deacons, Worship leaders…).

            The church is made up of people - you and me. Irresponsibility of the leaders manifesting in poor and shallow, and at times, theologically incorrect sermons drive people away from the church. 

            Then the presence of selfish, obnoxious, and spiritually proud Christians demeaning their fellow Christians by abusing their powerful leadership status to drive the church into a spiritual dungeon is a heartbreaking trend in many churches.

            It is the Christians who compel their fellow Christians to steer clear of the church. When we blame the churches for being unchristlike, let us rightfully assign the blame upon Christians, who are the temple of the living God.

            Would Christians lose their salvation if they do not attend a church? No! The Bible does not say that at all. “No amount of church attendance will earn eternity in heaven. No lack of church attendance will result in the loss of salvation” says conservative Christian Q&A website, gotquestions.org.⁴

            Should those Christians who do not attend church be blamed for their lack of church attendance? What would one gain by blaming a Christian who does not attend the local church? Nothing!

            Instead of blaming the Christian who does not attend the church, the church, if it’s keen on serving / ministering to people, should invest it’s energy into getting the Christian back into its fold. If the Lord Jesus encouraged the search and recovery of that one lost sheep (Luke 15: 3-7; Cf. Matthew 18: 12-14), the church does not have any valid reason, whatsoever, to not invite the unchurched Christians.

            The Lord Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required” (Luke 12: 48b, NASB). This applies to the local church.

            The local church has been given much, for the local church is a powerful spiritual entity than an individual Christian, who does not attend the local church. Hence it is incumbent upon the church to graciously invite the unchurched Christian into its fold. 

            If a Christian does not attend a church, he / she could remain devoid of vital spiritual power essential to his / her existence as a Christian. Although the benefits of attending a church are immense, here are a few germane reasons for your consideration.

            Significantly, we will not lose our salvation by not attending a church, but by not attending a church, we are most likely to lose our salvation. How?

            The devil is constantly on the prowl to devour Christians. Hence spiritual attacks against Christians are always imminent. By not attending a church, we remain vulnerable to Satan’s attack.

            We could remain spiritually empty by not attending the church. Not being disciplined enough to study the Bible and pray [constantly] is a surefire recipe to bring forth a dangerous spiritual malady into our life.

            The antagonists of Historic Christianity are active. Not being in the community of believers is a surefire recipe to be vulnerable to the debauched ideas that strive to destroy Historic Christianity. Yes, if we are not in a church, we offer ourselves as an open house that entertains erroneous ideas that attempts to contradict the veracity of Historic Christianity.

            Here is a caveat. If we are in a painful situation of any kind (death of a loved one, sickness, joblessness, family problems, problems at your workplace etc.), it is imperative for us to be in a church. The church, potentially, has every spiritual medicine to treat us (assistance for various needs, wise Christian counsel, uplifting and encouraging prayers, shoulder to cry on etc.).

            We may have very genuine reasons to not attending the church. The church may have acutely hurt us. Hence we may have lost faith in the church and may need time to heal (maybe months or even years). Alternatively, our work situation may have forced us to not attend the church.

            Let’s face another fact here. None of us are primed to attend any church. We need that particular church that offers us the peace or the comforting ambiance to worship God in spirit and truth. In this regard, there may not be a church in our vicinity that appeals to us. In other words, our reasons for not attending a church could be exhaustive and rather valid.

            What do we do in this situation?

            We need to, very minimally, be in the company of spiritually mature Christians. If our family does not offer us that spiritual support for valid or invalid reasons, we need a spiritual mentor. We need to be completely honest with our mentor about the problems we confront.

            If we do not have a spiritual mentor, we need to humbly and prayerfully seek a spiritual mentor. We should acknowledge that we need help and prayerfully search for that help. When we honestly and prayerfully seek, God will provide. Ask and it shall be given.

            Being in the company of spiritually mature Christians and not a church is a not an everlasting remedy. Our prayer is to locate a church that would serve us.

            But that’s not it. Our prayer is also that the church fulfills the need of its members and even the non-members. The onus is more on the church than it is on the Christian who is seeking a church. So we pray that the church leadership leads the church in a godly and a Christlike manner that invites and serves both the churched and the unchurched Christian.

            So may the unchurched Christians find a church that satisfies their spiritual need. May God answer this prayer of ours.

Endnotes:

¹https://www.barna.com/research/meet-love-jesus-not-church/

²Ibid.  

³http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.in/2015/05/how-could-christianity-insult-injure.html

⁴https://www.gotquestions.org/church-heaven.html

Cited websites last accessed on 20^th April 2017.

The Dirty Church

The church is to be a beautiful community that worships the only living God, nurtures the seeker with the truth, fellowships in the loving community of saints, and encourages the brokenhearted with Christ’s love. In other words, the church looks ‘upward’ in worship, ‘inward’ to edify, and ‘outward’ to serve those in need.

However, the church, from Christ’s time on earth, has been losing these components slowly yet steadily (cf. Mark 11: 15-17). A church can profess her allegiance to the Lord Jesus, yet be corrupt in her core values and expressions. In other words, the church, from the surface, could seem adherent to the biblical teachings, but avoid being truthful, loving and gracious, and thus corrupt.

When resolving a situation, the church could opt to enforce law or grace. Here is a rather dense situation to highlight the church’s corruption. A church rejects the marriage proposal of a couple because one partner has had multiple divorces. Not only is the church ungracious, but she could be successful in driving away the couple from her precincts. While rejecting the proposal, the church may have even cited a few scripture passages (e.g. Malachi 2: 16). But is this the only viable or the most biblical option for the church? If you say yes, please allow me to contradict you.

I submit that the church should have married this couple, of course, with bible-centered pre-marital counseling. If this couple were married, it is possible that this marriage would survive and the past sins of divorce, repented. By rejecting the marriage proposal, the church eliminated a magnificent opportunity for the person to repent and establish a family. More importantly, the church may have even driven these two away from Christianity. (You could argue that the multiple divorcée, as in the past, would reject/divorce this partner as well. This, however, is an ‘argument from ignorance’ i.e., one cannot predict if that marriage would result in divorce.)

Now then, why should the church not be radically gracious in solemnizing such a marriage? The church may have either rejected this proposal to avoid unnecessary criticism (for the leadership to have their job intact) or because she is profusely legalistic (so to abandon grace into oblivion). In both these instances, the church abandons the minority. This is in total contradiction to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. (If the church leadership claims ignorance on this matter, then they are inadequate for leadership.)

It is good to err on the side of grace, than on the side of law. But only strong and courageous leaders (Joshua 1: 9) would dare to err on the side of grace. The selfishly fearful, corrupt and theologically impotent leaders would cite the law to evade being gracious. They defy the Lord’s act of running after that one lost sheep, leaving the ninety-nine. Losing one sheep is insignificant to these leaders. They satisfy the majority, even at the cost of one sheep and the gospel! The Lord is the epitome of grace (John 1: 14-17); when the church adheres to the law and abandons grace, the church becomes corrupt.

The first entity to take responsibility for the church’s corruption is her leadership. Christ showed the way for mankind to follow. Similarly the church leadership ought to be role models for the flock to follow the Lord. If the leadership is legalistic, the essence of the church would be legalistic.

However, it could be healthier to have a legalistic leader than a weak leader. If the leadership is weak, then the church would travel the way of the powerful group in the church, and the powerful, if biblically correct, will remove the weak leader (so to resolve the problem). If the weak leadership remains, the church is bound to be sold to the devil in one form or another. If leaders are ruled by fear, they will inevitably succumb to the temptations of the evil one.

The elaborate description of Jesus cleansing the temple in Mark 11: 15-17 presents an instance of a ‘dirty church.’ The Lord’s house was transformed into a house of business instead of a house of prayer. The Lord cleansed the temple by driving out the offenders (15). Wait! Did HE really drive them out? I don’t think so! Verse 17 fascinates me, for the Lord taught ‘them’ the true intent of the church. ‘Them’ refers to those who abused the temple precincts and the spectators. Hence the Lord not only cleansed HIS house off its filth, but taught the abusers the truth. Isn’t this what today’s church leaders ought to do and isn’t this where they fail?

We take pride in proclaiming the church as a congregation of sinners, and truly so. Sin is inevitable in the congregation of sinners. When sin is encountered, the sinful act should be eliminated by the power of God, and the sinful actor cleansed by the Word of God. 

Today’s church seems more intent on driving out the sinners; not the sinners who sin against God, but those who disagree with the leadership. The formula of today’s church seems to be if-you-don’t-agree-to-my-agenda-you-will-be-fired. Thus, instead of church multiplication, church division seems to be the order of the day. Where is the fault? It’s obviously in the insecure arms of the weak leadership.

I am part of a ‘facebook prayer group’ of a certain church. One day, I realized I wasn’t a part of that prayer group. Upon digging for clarity, I discovered that the church leadership had me removed from that group, because my blogs seemed to implicate that church. Thus far, I have not received a response as to what unholy or unbiblical content from my blog merited such an ungracious decision. If I am a sinner, where is the teaching to correct me? If there is no teaching, does it imply I am correct? If I am correct, why should I be removed? Or am I a terrible sinner beyond correction? This is not a personal rant, but an illustration of what I see as a failure of the church.

The church seeks easy, or evil, solutions today. Quite a few AGM’s (Annual General Meeting) of the contemporary church present a sad yet hilarious scene. The powerful oppress the powerless and the seemingly-more-spiritual oppress their brothers and sisters. If you speak the truth, you are mandated to shut up. Is this the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? Laugh-out-Loud! It is the case of weak and unbiblical leadership. Weak leadership manifests in several ways. You are fired if you disagree; you are disciplined if you speak the truth. Both situations were a reality in the life of Martin Luther and many others who stood firm for truth. Welcome to the dirty church.

George Barna and Frank Viola expressed this sentiment as they dedicated their book, “To our forgotten brothers and sisters throughout the ages who courageously stepped outside the safe bounds of institutional Christianity at the risk of life and limb. You faithfully carried the torch, endured persecution, forfeited reputation, lost family, suffered torture, and spilled your blood to preserve the primitive testimony that Jesus Christ is Head of His church. And that every believer is a priest .a minister ... and a functioning member of God's house. This book is dedicated to you.” ¹ Weakness hides behind law, discards grace and Christ out of the church. The church then is sold to the devil.

I think it was Malcolm Muggeridge who ridiculed the church to say, “they have taken that which belongs to the soul and institutionalized it.” Do you belong to a dirty church that destroys a soul, or do you belong to a grace-abounding, Christ-filled, Spirit-anointed church?

You can for all you want shout at the top of your voice that you are anointed. But if you discard grace from your life, you are discarding Christ. If you are abandoning Christ from your life, are you a true disciple of the Lord Jesus? You need to answer these questions as much as I need to. Amen.

References:

¹ George Barna and Frank Viola, Pagan Christianity, 2007.