“I've got to live my life and run around on the ground and realize that I'm nothing more than a grain of salt... the salt of the earth... and everything is grace.” - Mineral
I have friends who follow Jesus from all different walks of life. Each of them is at a different place in their faith. Each of them has different convictions, different passions, and different stories of how God’s redemptive love has been displayed in their lives. The ones that I connect most deeply with seem to be wary of church. I certainly fall into this category. As a pastor’s son, who grew up steeped in the American evangelical “church culture”, I know firsthand the damage it can cause. There have been points in my life where I have shut out the Christian community as a whole because of incidents at particular churches (some of them occurring over many years).
One of my newest friends also falls into this category. From what I can discern, he has both a powerful and profound theological framework. He also has keen insight into how Western culture has affected American churches and distracted us from the fundamental calling of community (among other things). His (com)passion for the Church to actually be what God has called us to be is contagious, and his gentle approach to invoke change is humbling. But, we do have a key difference when it comes to this topic.
My friend has abandoned church services because he no longer believes they are of value and he does not want to continue to promote a broken system that is so vastly different from what God intended. This thought process seems to be a recurring theme among so many of my Christian friends. As they seek to live out Christ to the world, they find that “church” is irrelevant, ignorant, and even irreverent toward the world, Scriptures, and God himself. I wholeheartedly agree. However, I want to propose a different – and I believe more Scripturally-grounded view of a proper response to American churches. Please understand that I am not attempting to prove any of the above points wrong. Also know that I could be mistaken on this (so feel free to respond), but my desire is to clear away as much of the pain, baggage, and bitterness we may bring to the topic and to try to let the Scriptures inform our thinking and actions on this matter. I am going to focus mainly on I Corinthians (for the sake of time), but I do think that there is much that could be said based on the entire Biblical metanarrative.
In the book of I Corinthians we are introduced to a church community that Paul is very concerned for. It appears that some of the pagan practices they were involved with prior to their faith in Messiah were creeping back into their lives – and even their worship. Paul begins the book by discussing what kind of people God has chosen and what he chose them to (1:18-31): God has chosen the foolish and weak things of the world to be a part of his redemptive plan displaying His wisdom and power. “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of
As Paul continues through the letter to the Corinthian church, he confronts various immoralities that are happening both in and outside of their meetings. At one point Paul states, “In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. When you come together it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing” (11:17-22) The Corinthian church was an example of all the things a church should not be. They were boasting in themselves (1:18-30; 5:6), immature and worldly (3:1-3) involved in sexual misconduct (5:1-5), divided against each other (1:10-17; 6:1-8), desecrating the Lord’s table (10:16-11:33), misusing their spiritual gifts (12-14), and dismissing the importance of their physical bodies as means of fully worshiping God (15:1-56).
At this point, Paul could very well have said, “You know what, I’m done with this. You all do not get it so I’m not coming back – and if any of you wants to join me in a new and different movement where people really get it, let’s go!” But he doesn’t. He actually does the opposite. As we have seen he begins by leveling the playing field and exposing them (and us) for the weak and broken vessels they are. He expounds how God has chosen them in their foolishness to represent His wisdom and power. Paul goes on to call them to unity based on their varied positions of foolishness and weakness, because of the work of Christ, and through the power of the Spirit (2:1-3:23). He calls them to be humble and unified (12:1-30) and to build each other up in love (13:1 – 14:40). He describes the hope that they have in and through the bodily resurrection of Christ (15:1-58) and he finishes the book basically saying, “I want to spend a good deal of time with you and I’m trying to get there, but for the time being let’s get on with it. There is work to be done” (16:1-24)!
Through I Corinthians, and much of the New Testament, we see a very messy picture of the church trying to find its way. And we find in the larger picture that somehow God is using the very foolish, weak, and broken community known as the Church to advance his kingdom and continue his plan of reconciliation. The modern American corporate gatherings are not the foundation for Christian community but rather are an expression of Christian communities coming together to celebrate and corporately express their love for and desire to follow Jesus the Messiah. Unfortunately, many of these gatherings (or church services) are influenced by American consumerism and Western culture as a whole. However, my question is would Paul – and more importantly, does God – participate in the burden of living within and challenging the brokenness of the present system? And the answer I am left with is YES! From what I can tell, Paul would argue that the grace that has been given to us, needs to be expressed and reflected into the broken structures of the church. Not that we embrace the whole system, but rather that we be the Church that brings renewal to the church and that we live in the tension of loving our brothers and sisters just as God loves us.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
John 17:20-23
