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:
2Ibid.
Cited websites last accessed on 20th April 2017.
