How much do we almost continually hear about the Church! With many it is a matter of daily conversation. And yet how few understand what they talk of! How few know what the term means! A more ambiguous word than this, the Church, is scarce to be found in the English language. – John Wesley, 1765
As part of The Story’s Ask Me Anything message series, Story members submitted several questions that were not selected as sermon topics through our weekly online polls. Instead of letting all those great questions go unanswered, we’ve tried to address many of them in other ways, including through these Friday reflections.
A few of the questions we received had to do with the nature and purpose of the local church. Questions like this:
What has you convinced that serving the local church and inviting others to join in that ministry is the most effective way to minister to the world? In other words, what convinced you to dedicate your life to it?
And this clever question about tithes and offerings:
If God no longer requires our sacrifices, why does the Church still want my money?
When I was a kid growing up in the Bible Belt, attending church always felt mandatory. Obligatory, you know?
Do you imagine, as Jesus died on the cross, that he thought to himself, “I’m doing this so, one day many years from now, parents will drag their children to church against their will”? Not likely. Obligatory church attendance should be repulsive to Christians and non-Christians alike. When going to church is just what good people do, then anyone who wants to be good will feel obligated to go. But nobody ever wants to do anything obligatory, do they? You’re obligated to pay taxes, so by this logic, every Sunday should feel like Tax Day.
But that’s not how the Lord works, is it? The next person who comes up to me and says, “Jesus changed my life at a mandatory event,” will be the first.
It was never Jesus’ intention to start an institution people feel obligated to attend; he came to give people a life that we’re free to live (John 10:10). His audience gathered around for his sermons because they wanted to, not because they had to. When Jesus was finished preaching, the people didn’t simply go home with a gold star for perfect attendance. They either enlisted in his movement, or they walked away from Jesus. There was no such thing as a casual member of Jesus’ movement. There were disciples, and there was everybody else.
These days, Christians attend churches for all kinds of reasons. Believers often go to church out of respect for tradition, for social reasons, to feel better about themselves, or to find ways to serve the needy. These are all perfectly understandable reasons for going to church, but let’s be honest: none of these reasons for going to church would be remotely compelling to any of our non-Christian neighbors and friends.
They can do charity work at any secular non-profit.
They can feel better about themselves by going to yoga or a Spin class.
They can make friends at the club.
They can find tradition at a football game.
We need better answers to the question, “Why do you go to church?” Thankfully, those answers exist, but we have to go to the original source material – the New Testament – to find them. Let’s compare some New Testament descriptions of the Church with some of our modern-day misconceptions.
Misconception #1: The Church is a building.
Truth #1: The Church is a gathering of sinners saved by grace.
“Of course the Church is not a building,” I hear you saying, “The Church is the people!”
Of course…but that’s only in theory. In reality, everyone still thinks the Church is a building. I’ll prove it to you. Next time you drive past a large, rectangular building with a steeple on top, point to it and ask anyone, “What’s that?” and you’ll never hear them say, “That’s the building where the Church gathers.” No matter whether or not they’re Christians, one hundred percent of them will look at that building and say, “That’s a church.”
One night, Jesus sat around a campfire and asked his disciples what people were saying about him. They said, “Some think you’re John the Baptist reincarnated. Others think you’re some kind of prophet.” And Jesus looked at Simon and said, “Who do you think I am?”
Simon said, “You’re the One we’ve been waiting for.”
And Jesus replied, “Your name doesn’t do you justice, Simon. From now on, your new name is The Rock (Peter)…and upon this Rock I will build my…” (Matthew 16:17)
You know the word, right? Church. The word that conjures thoughts of buildings, committees, denominations, and institutions. But what if I told you Jesus never used the word Church? What if I told you the word Church wasn’t introduced into the Bible text until 1611? What if the word Jesus used meant something completely different?
Jesus said, “Upon this Rock I will build my ekklesia.” (Matthew 16:18)
Ekklesia was a fairly common Greek word meaning “a gathering of people called out for a specific purpose.” When Jesus said, “Upon this Rock I will build my ekklesia,” he predicted the rise of his movement of people called out specifically for the purpose of spreading his gospel.
The New Testament makes one thing crystal clear about the Ekklesia: Jesus believed his movement would change the whole world. Matthew’s gospel closes with Jesus telling his disciples to go make disciples in every nation. When the Church’s mission is simply to show the love of Jesus to the world, the world will pay attention.
Misconception #2: The Church is a safe haven for Christians.
Truth #2: The Church is a rebel base camp.
For as long as I can remember, churches have gone to great lengths to make their members feel safe and comfortable. It seems like a noble goal, but all our efforts to create safe, comfortable churches have resulted in some unintended consequences. In recent studies, more than two-thirds of young non-Christians, as well as a huge number of Christians, describe the Church as “predictable,” “boring,” and “sheltered.”
These words do not describe the gathering Jesus had in mind. When the first Christians gathered for the first time, it wasn’t to feel safe with people who looked and talked like them. In fact, the miracle of the first church was that people who spoke different languages and had different values somehow learned to understand and love one another. The first Christians put everything on the line. They gave all they had to make sure no one ever wanted for anything. They died for their faith – on crosses, in fires, on whipping posts, in the mouths of hungry lions – even though they could have renounced Jesus and lived normal lives.
Acts 2 tells us the first Christians gathered for worship and to receive instructions on how to live as a rebel force in the midst of the Evil Empire. This was the work of the Holy Spirit. The Church should never be sheltered or safe from the outside world, and God forbid it should ever be boring. It’s a training ground for every man, woman, and child who enlists in the movement of Jesus, where we learn together how to stand on the Truth of God in the face of our own doubts, the world’s scrutiny, and other competing factors.
Misconception #3: The Church exists to meet the needs of Christians.
Truth #3: The Church exists to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world.
Somewhere along the way, Christians decided it’s their church’s job to “feed” them. You’ve probably heard someone say they left their old church because they weren’t being “fed,” and they went shopping for a new church that would feed them.
Occasionally, leaving a church that’s not feeding you is a thoughtful, rational response based on your church’s lack of biblical substance. When a church pivots noticeably away from sound Christian doctrine and biblical teaching, I can respect a person’s decision to move on, especially if they’ve exhausted every other resource to find reconciliation.
Too often, however, when somebody says their church isn’t “feeding” them, what they mean to say is their church isn’t telling them what they want to hear. This behavior reflects the materialistic consumerism of secular culture, which convinces us that we are the most important people in the world. If you’re not getting what you want, you owe it to yourself to go get something better – whether it’s a new marriage, a new house or car, a new look, or a new church. You deserve better, or so you’ve been told.
In an article for Relevant Magazine, Tyler Edwards writes, “A church community can and should provide resources to help you pursue spiritual growth, but it’s your responsibility to take advantage of those resources. I don’t let myself starve if my wife doesn’t cook. I’m a grown man. There is only one person responsible for me not eating and not growing. It’s not my wife. It’s not the Church. It’s me.”
So then, what is the purpose of the Church? Jesus told us, in no uncertain terms:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20
Occasionally someone will ask me, “Do I have to go to church if I want to be a Christian?”
My answer? “I suppose it’s possible to be a Christian without going to church, but why would you want to?” The Ekklesia is the most powerful, most exciting movement the world has ever seen, and when we get it right, there’s just nothing like it. Wherever the Ekklesia of Jesus has gone, empires fall, cities change, families stay together, discrimination gives way to equality, world-class hospitals and school follow, poverty disappears, and lives are transformed.
The same can still happen today wherever Christians remember the Church is a gathering of sinners saved by grace, a rebel base camp where disciples are trained to stand firm on the Truth of God, and where we exist to share the hope of Jesus with the whole world.
