What Bothers Me About the Church in America

For the last two Sunday mornings, and for who knows how many Sundays in the future, Rachel and I will be spending time in different churches looking for a church home. I hate this. For a couple reasons. First- it gives us this impression that finding a church is like finding the right pair of shoes. Or the right computer. There are so many options out there, all we need to find is the one that fits us. Consumerism America tells us that if we’re not happy with something, go find something else.

One of the unfortunate side effects of this process by which people find a church after re-locating is the changing of churches without re-locating due to unhappiness of some kind. I am not going to hold this discussion today of what are the good and bad reasons for leaving a church, and when is too much too much.

I’m going to have two main topics to this rambling rant, I believe. The first is the current church hopping/shopping state that we find so prevalent. Joshua Harris wrote a book called “Stop Dating the Church”, a book that I bought and found to be worthwhile reading for any Christian. It is worth reading because too many Christians are not plugged into a home church. They drift around, going from one to another. The youth ministry I worked with while in college would see kids in and out- later to find out that our youth pastors talked with other youth pastors and found the teens drifting from youth ministry to youth ministry.

God’s plan for reaching the world is the Church. Not as an institutional structure, but as a living body focused on reaching the world and discipling the believer. And ultimately, it is for the good of our own souls, argues Harris (and convincingly) that we dedicate ourselves to a single local church. I know it’s hard for so many people because instead of seeing the positive of the potential of a church, we only see the negative. It is important that we move beyond that.

I think the problem comes in looking for a church based on what it offers us. While it is important to plug into a place that you can call home, basing a church decision simply on what we can get is selfishness. Instead of what it offers us, perhaps we should look on what we can offer a church. Our talents, gifts, ideas- even our age or connections with non-believers could be a huge benefit to a church!! Not that we should feel we are saving a church of that it could not survive without us, but the call of the Gospel on our lives should be service!!

Case in point- Rachel and I visited a large church this morning. I have been in both large and small churches and know there are positives and negatives of each. But what I have found myself wondering today as we consider this church is what we may be able to offer to the church.

But ultimately, beyond what we can get or even what we can give- is God’s calling to a church! I know, though- I can hear it now- ‘how do I know if God’s calling me here?’ or even worse, someone using ‘God led me to a different church’ as a excuse when leaving a church for a less than Biblical reason. And of course, no one can argue with it because then we’re not saying that the person is wrong, we’re saying that God is wrong. So, the way we hear God is through this process of evaluating some of these more natural things we can see around us as well as discerning the Holy Spirit speaking to us.

Sometimes, we can misinterpret. Sometimes we can interpret or understand differently than others do. Rachel and I just experienced that with the church in Shippensburg where we felt led, didn’t feel a variation in the calling, yet the board felt it was not destined to be for us to be there. So, we must pull all of these things together and ultimately take a leap of faith. And when we take that leap, when we break our comfort zone, we must be willing to give it time. Just like a marriage must survive fights, disagreements and more, plugging into a church must survive doubts, unhappiness and disputes. If God has led us there, then either He must have changed His mind or led us differently if we are to leave.

I suppose this has become very long. So the second part of what I was going to talk about I will post tomorrow. But to give everyone a preview, it will deal with, for the most part, the practical things of finding a church- and the experience Rachel and I are going through in the middle of this now. Consider this the ideological or the “theological” and tomorrow I will be posting the “practical”. Stay tuned.