For the past year or so, my wife and I have been
churchless. In fact, it could be argued
that we’ve been church shopping for fifteen years. Yes, we’ve been actively involved in several
churches, from being worship leaders and teachers in a mainstream
denominational church; to counselors and pre-marital coaches in a
non-denominational church; to being members of a church-planting team which
included moving 1,400 miles to Oregon with 25-30 other church-planting
enthusiasts; to finally joining a small group or home church in an attempt to
avoid all the bureaucracy.
Most of this time, even in our most active times, it could be
argued that we have been in search of a church home.
Do you think it is possible to be an active member of a
church and still feel disenfranchised? Unfortunately,
the answer for hundreds of thousands of people is a resounding YES!
So the question has to be asked. Are we, the disenfranchised, failing the
church or is the modern American church failing its people. (The word “calling” could be interchanged
with the word “people” but let’s stick with the idea of failing people for now…
Failing God will come later). Since
there are hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised Christians walking the
streets of America, let’s assume that the failing is that of the modern church.
C.S. Lewis discussed this failing in 1952 in Mere Christianity when he wrote: “In the
same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to
make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals,
clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.”
Please take the time to reread this passage. In many ways I believe this speaks volumes of
truth about the modern church. And,
sadly to say, there are many comparisons we can draw between Pharisees and
church organizations in Jesus’ time. Jesus’
focus when he overturned the tables in the temple was simply to tear down the
barriers that had been erected to keep people from gaining access to God.
Let’s look at the barriers to people today in our modern
churches as they attempts to approach God:
“1. “The
Inerrant Word of God” – Martin Luther fought this battle and it continues
today. People are not supposed to think
when it comes to being a Christian.
Everything you need is in the Bible and if you get confused by some of
things you read, or if you decide you don’t have time for thousands of hours of
study to become a Biblical scholar with the ability to study the original Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew texts, you may have to struggle with how the Truth applies to
your life’s situation… Or just listen to the opinion of your pastor and do what
he tells you.
Maintaining the
Bible as the inerrant word of God builds a barrier to those whose see that
conflicting passages do exist and that letters written in an era 2000 years ago
to people of far different cultures than our own may leave some room for
interpretation… interpretation that may leave more questions than answers.
The modern
church does not want questions. It wants
us to accept the mainline view of Truth and apply it without question or
hesitancy. This is a barrier keeping
tens of thousands of people out of the modern church.
2. “Sin”
– Do people really want to constantly hear how bad they are? Yes, Salvation, Redemption, Grace, Mercy,
Sacrifice…. these are all wonderfully beautiful aspects of what God and Christ
has done for us. The Gospel Message IS the Good News. I get it.
I know its importance. However,
Sin is not the entire Gospel Message. Wholeness
and Relationship with God is the purpose of everything God has done for
humanity. He desires a growing, living
and intimate relationship with his people.
The Modern Church is stuck firmly in the grasp of the sin-repent-forgiveness
do-loop. Round and round we go,
constantly reading Romans 1-11 and never getting on with Romans 12 where we are
to live life and grow closer to God.
If you doubt
what I say, then talk to a pastor of a modern church and ask him what is the
number one goal or purpose and what is the most important measurement of his
church activity. I’m betting he’ll say “Baptisms”
or “Saving Souls”
Our modern
churches teach sin-salvation and nothing else.
No one grows in their faith. They
simply relive their sinful nature. How
many people in today’s churches are baptized repeatedly? Why?
Because they have not grown from their point of conversion.
This is a
barrier keeping tens of thousands of mature Christians from being involved in
modern churches.
3. “The
Role of Women” – Dare I say it? Women
can lead. Women are spiritual
giants. Women belong at the forefront of
modern Christian churches. Where are
they? They are systematically funneled
either into children’s ministry because they have a womb so it must make them
good with children or into music ministry, as long as they are good looking and
sing on key.
Much of this
male chauvinistic thinking comes from the writings of Paul. This is a great example of where our society
has improved over the millennium to recognize that men and women, not to
mention blacks, Hispanics, Asians etc., are created by God to have equal rights
and to be equally responsible for sharing the news of his love for all man and
womankind. Woman are capable. Women have
been created by God to lead. The church
stands firmly in the way.
As long as
modern churches continue to grasp tightly to the male-dominated mindset –
hundreds of thousands of people will be barred from having an active and
important role in the church.
4. “Righteousness”
– This stems from number one or simply from an attitude that “I’m right and you’re
wrong, so do it my way.” God forbid that
something might come along that is different.
We see Righteousness in our churches lived out in many ways. The things I’ve listed below are only an
example of the hundreds of “righteousness” barriers that are keeping people
from joining or attending modern churches:
a.
Rules pertaining to Baptism: The Bible has many examples of Baptism
including baptism by the Holy Spirit.
Setting rules that a person must be immersed at a certain age or that
any baptism in another space, time, or church doesn’t count. This is not
Biblical and it creates barriers that I’m guessing Jesus would overturn just as
he did in the Temple.
b.
Premarital sex: This Puritanical approach to modern marriages
is so out of touch with reality that it is laughable. Apparently 90% of Americans today have had
pre-marital sex. Oh my God. What are we
going to do? Let’s preach against
it. Let’s brain-wash our children,
filling them with fear and self-loathing. Let’s
refuse to marry people until they rid themselves of this sinful practice. “He who is without sin…” Does this sound familiar? Did anyone you know, while in ministry,
demonstrate the pattern of meeting people where they are without criticism or
judgment to simply to draw them closer to God? (hint: the Sunday School answer
is always Jesus). The woman at the well?
The Tax Collectors? The woman
being stoned? When you turn people away
based on judgmental righteous, why would you expect them to come back?
c.
Money: The number one answer people offer
when they are asked why they stopped attending church is money. Yes, learning to depend on God’s blessing and
thanking him by tithing in a generous way is an important growth
characteristic. However, there are two
things stopping this message from getting through.
i.
Churches waste tons of money with a very small percentage
of it getting through to the ministries they support and
ii.
(see number 2 above) We are not growing people
to the point where they get what tithing and generous living means. They are still living in fear and doubt.
d.
Politics: This may be wasted on the conservatives in the
crowd and I know it may sound strange but God loves Democrats too. And yes, to
the wonderful Christian I met in a hotel parking lot in Colorado, I can be a
Christian AND vote for someone other than a person named Bush. It has been far too long of a time since
Democrats have felt welcome in a modern church.
e.
Prejudice: Martin Luther King may have a National
Holiday named after him, but God forbid if you should walk into a modern church
and look different in any way. Our
society is learning to mask our prejudices but when you get into the meat of
the issue and ask people to give their lives to something bigger than
themselves, you better have put prejudice to rest. I’m not only talking about racial prejudices,
even though they are strongly prevalent in nearly every church. In addition to
our well-document racism, there is prejudice of wealth/poverty, or dress codes
that exclude homeless people from entering a church gathering, or the most
obvious, a prejudice, if not hatred, towards LGBT. Name one person you see walking the street in
today’s cities that Jesus would not invite into his church. Be honest – what are the prejudice barriers
in your church?
I wish to close this letter with
another C.S. Lewis quote:
“It is right and
inevitable that we should be much concerned about the salvation of those we
love. But we must be careful not to expect or demand that their salvation
should conform to some ready-made pattern of our own.”
