The Church of the Apostles

I Don't Like Church Either

I hear the phrase all the time: "I believe in God, but I don't like organized religion" or the even more common "I believe in God, but church is not my thing." Why is it that God is attractive, but the Church is not? In our part of the South there are churches on every street corner and steeples between every two trees. How is it that people believe in God, but don't want to be around the people who claim to follow him?

People outside the Church are much more willing than those of us on the inside to freely admit that there is a great difference between the attributes of God and how those attributes are reflected by his followers. I think they're on to something. I am a Pastor, but I tend to agree with them: I don't like church either. Better put, I don't like what it has become.

We have developed such a strong tradition and subculture within our churches that we have become alien to the outside world. We are irrelevant. We must remember that our God wants to be known, he has taken great pains to reveal himself to us in a way that we can understand. Jesus told stories of sheep to shepherds and fish to fishermen. He has called the Church to engage our culture in the same way.

We have taught and lived in our Churchworld that we are some holy protected place and that when the bad people outside wake up then they will come in here with all of us good people. The problem is, those people know us. They know what we do the rest of the week, they know what we think about, what we say and how we treat each other. They know that we are screwed up just like everyone else. So, when we pretend like we are not, we are hypocrites. They know our poo smells too even if we won't admit it.

I think that instead of creating a whole new culture in our churches that is completely separate from the world, we are called to interact with the culture in which we live. We need to speak the language of our culture. I'm not just talking about style. I mean, we don't replace an organ with an electric guitar and think that we are all of a sudden relevant. I'm asking, are we thinking like our culture thinks? Are we speaking God into the issues and struggles of today instead of passing judgment because you didn't share these same struggles when you were growing up? What does God say about this culture? Instead of denying it exists or scolding it let's see if God is relevant to it. How does what he has to say affect a divorced mother of three kids trying to get by on minimum wage and living in a broken up trailer? What about a middle aged overly successful businessman driving a Lexus, with chest hair sticking out over his polo shirt and casual blazer, who is inwardly struggling with the guilt of the numerous affairs he has had and all the women he has used to try and fill the wanting that his money hasn't filled? What does God have to say to an over sexed, over stimulated, thoroughly depressed, rebellious teenager who finds her self-worth in technology and material things and in hooking hard sharp-pointed pieces of metal through folds of soft skin so she ends up looking like some strange tricked out, jewel studded, android that fell in a tackle box? What about the soldier who is heading off to the front lines of combat who doesn't know if he is going to come home or who could be getting into his bed while he is away? What about the new parents of a healthy child who are figuring out how to raise a kid in a world full of disease, crime, war, and injustice and are smothered with the responsibility of preparing their child for the future spiritually, intellectually, and financially without destroying him emotionally? What does God have to say to them? What are they hearing from our churches?

Unfortunately, they are hearing a lot from many of our churches. You might be having a bad day, but you smile at church. You might not have any money, but you better look like it on a Sunday morning. You may not like dragging, old, out of date songs written with words you do not understand, but you will sing them and enjoy them and pretend to love them here. If you went out on Saturday night and did things that your mother wouldn't approve of then you should pick up your guilt and get your butt in church the next day because that makes everything better. Your sense of style is different than mine, so God must not like your piercings and holes in your jeans. Six days a week we can be as broken, depressed, mean, greedy, self absorbed, and act like the biggest jerks that we want to as long as we show up Sunday half awake and check off the "good person" box for the week. There are certain things that we do not talk about at church because they are too dirty, or disgusting, or improper, or they make us uncomfortable. If any of those things happen to come to mind please conveniently pretend they didn't and we'll all be fine.

We have settled as the Church. We have settled for comfort over truth, laziness over pursuing wholeness, ignorance over learning, and being served rather than serving. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a set of rules that we can all break together and the Church a club where we can all pretend that we don't. The message of our faith is that we are messed up and that wholeness comes through Jesus Christ. This is what we should be teaching in our words and our actions.

Let me clarify a few things that I am not saying. First of all, I am not saying that we should compromise our beliefs in order to be relevant. We are not here just to tell the culture that everything it does is correct. It is not all right, but it is not all wrong either. We are here to affirm what is godly and help heal what is not. We cannot compromise our identity or beliefs in order to be relevant, because it is what we believe that allows us to have anything at all to offer this culture. My point here is just that we shouldn't remove ourselves so far from the world that we can't speak into it. The witness of the Church should not be hypocritical holiness and self righteousness, but rather we are to be a broken and confused people calling to other broken and confused people to tell them that we have found someone who brings healing and guidance.

I am also not saying that all churches are bad or that the concept of church is bad. There are lots of great ones out there and lots of great Christians too. So, if you are one my cynical friends who think that I am completely on your side with your dissatisfaction of church, think again. Church was not man's idea, it was God's idea. He started it and we should take part in it. So, don't give me the tired arguments of the Crusades, and more wars have been fought over religion than anything else, or all the church wants is your money, or every Christian is a hypocrite. Yes, the Church has made mistakes and I am sorry, but more wars have been fought over politics and power than anything else, if churches were only in it for the money we are in the wrong line of work, and not every Christian is a hypocrite any more than everyone who is not a Christian is a jerk. All I am saying is that churches and Christians should constantly be looking to make sure we are sharing the attributes of God and going about his work his way and that the role of the church is not to stand behind stained glass walls and yell judgment at the world to get it to shape up and come inside. Rather, we are to be people who truly live our lives within our culture as people who have been changed by God and help the wounded, hurt, searching, and lonely experience the healing, love, knowledge, and community that we experience in our faith in Jesus.

So, here is my challenge. If you are a Christian reading this, examine your faith. Are you a bridge between a hurting world and a healing God? Do your words and your actions jive? If you are not a Christian or a not a church goer, taste it again for the first time. A church might have made some bad judgments regarding you in the past, but you don't have church pegged right either. Bring your cynicism, your hurt, your anger and your questions and find a church that will walk with you through them. If you are looking for the perfect church you will never find it, and if you do, don't go in because you'll screw it up. You will, however, find faithful churches who understand their own need for grace and will be willing to help you along on the same journey of faith they are walking.

I believe there is a change taking place, a new day is dawning. Churches are coming around to see the gap that has grown between how the church is living and how God wants it to live. A new season is coming in which the Church will once again start to speak in a language that the world will understand and more people will see that being a follower of Jesus truly does make a difference in the world. I don't like what church has become, but I think I like where it is heading.

I want to be a part of that change. I will be here through this column to explore some of the issues that are facing us and to dialogue with you with any questions you may have. The title of this column is Engaging Christian Spirituality because I hope that we can explore Christian spirituality on a deeper level with all its virtues, vices, and all the implications of them. I think that in truly engaging it, we will find it to be quite engaging. Whether you are a Christian or non-Christian, send in your questions about God, the Church, faith, culture, and whatever else is on your mind. I'll try to get to as many of them as I can. I don't have all the answers, but maybe together in conversation we can work through some misunderstandings that are out there and see what God might be doing in our area and in our lives. Tell me what's up and let's get after it. I look forward to hearing from you and seeing where this whole thing goes.