Church: Like it or lump it
December 22, 2010
I’ve been a bit disturbed by some of my close, Christian friends abandoning church over the last few years. Many of them are still professing Christians, they just don’t like “Church”. There are usually 3 arguments why people who love Jesus don’t like his church.
1. Christian people are judgemental. Or at least, they are perceived to be by some. In many cases I’m sure this is true; Christians aren’t immune from judging people. But in just as many cases I’m sure genuine care and concern for your Christian character is probably what this “judgementalism” is. And the fact that it isn’t tolerated says more about said church-leavers desire to live in their sin uninhibited than it does about those “judging” them. The irony here is that people who leave church for this reason are very often passing judgement on the Church for being judgemental, hence completing the cycle of stupidity.
2. Hierarchy and establishment aren’t cool. Anarchy is the new black. You can’t be cool and be seen to believe what other people believe; what a terrible reproach to your own freedom! People want to be “spiritual” without being “religious.” Imagine someone else preaching and telling you what you should think and believe. There are layers of irony here, not the least of which is that it’s our society that tells us that we should be individuals and be non-conforming. And that our society itself is a structured hierarchy. I call that the dual cycle of stupidity. In my head, the diagram looks kind of like the yin-yang symbol.
3. Offense and hurt. This is sometimes related to the first point, and sometimes it’s different. I think of people who were physically, emotionally or sexually abused by church members, perhaps when they were younger. I do not wish to trivialise a very real and very damaging situation, but in my experience these situations are usually the minority. And even in these circumstances, though I can understand the resistance to Church based on traumatic experience, love and forgiveness should always prevail. Christ was put to death by the very people he came to save, and the very people who ended up becoming the early Church.
Don’t mishear me. I’m not suggesting that we should stop using our brains listen to everything preached. That’s silly and isn’t a biblical idea. Nor am I suggesting that we should all wear silver-skivvy jumpsuits so that we all look the same. God made us all different for a reason, and we should celebrate those differences. I’m not even suggesting that Christians should be able to act judgmentally towards other Christians (depending on your definition of “judgemental”). And I’m hopefully not making light of very serious and potentially devastating life events that have occurred in and around church.
What I’m suggesting is this: if you profess to love Christ, you must also love his Church. You must love it for all of its warts and blemishes and all of its wayward ways. You must love it because Christ loves it. God is aware that the church isn’t perfect; trust me, he is far more aware of how sinful the church is than we are. But he loves his Church anyway, and he loves you as part of his Church. (Which if you’re a Christian, you are part of the Church; like it or lump it). God has written the names of all those judgemental people in the Lamb’s book of life (if they trust in Christ as they profess). God is the one who established the Church; it was his idea. It isn’t a construct of man. “Spirituality” isn’t a pure way of understanding God; most of the time it’s an experiment in how well one can be convinced of their own moral superiority.
The Church has done some wonderful things. It’s also done some horrible things. I’m betting you have done both too. God loves the Church, and he loves you as part of his Church. You can’t be a Christian and not be the Church. You can of course choose not to attend Church services, but to be a Christian is to be the Church. So if you’re out there smoldering in disdain for God’s Church for whatever reason, stop. Ask God for the strength to love and cherish a bunch of rotten sinners who have been saved by God’s grace. In the same way that he loves you.
Amen. I would say that another reason why people leave church is pride, people taking sides and “my way or the high way” kind of thinking. Which is good if it’s a salvation issue, but otherwise useless. I hate that the church isn’t free of politics.
This bothers me too. The judgmental thing gets to me. If a Christian who leaves the church does so because “Christians are judgmental”… aren’t they calling themselves judgmental? And if they say “well i am different” – then what’s to stop that applying to many of the Christians within the church?
I really just can’t get my head around the concept that someone believes they can be a God-honouring Christian but reject the church. Jesus makes it pretty clear that the church is vital to a Christian’s spiritual life and health, going so far as to compare the church as a bride for himself. How can someone reject that and think they are still making God happy?
Joel, I like your comment,
“Christians aren’t immune from judging people. But in just as many cases I’m sure genuine care and concern for your Christian character is probably what this “judgementalism” is.”
It’s just that being the flawed individuals that we are, our expressions of concern can often be tainted with an air of moral superiority.
It’s ironic, because society is just as judgemental as the church. Still, the contemporary ‘there is no truth, there is no ultimate right and wrong’ means society is more likely to be ‘accepting’ of others, but would you prefer to be surrounded by people who are concerned about your spiritual wellbeing, even if they don’t always express it as gracefully as you’d like, or people who couldn’t give a stuff about what you do because they believe it doesn’t amount to anything anyway?
Would you rather be surrounded by