Last week, a quote I shared by Rick Warren about the importance of commitment to a local church rubbed a few people the wrong way. I think some read his phrase "spiritual adultery" as a statement that you can never leave a church once you join. I don't think that's Warren's point and I certainly don't believe that myself. Though there can be bad reasons for leaving a church, I believe it's perfectly acceptable and sometimes even important to leave a church if the teaching and practice isn't shaped by scripture (not to mention practical issues like moving to a new town, etc.). The point I wanted to make by sharing the quote is that commitment to a local church is a vital part of growth as a follower of Jesus Christ. If we're hopping around or attending with no real commitment of our heart, time and gifts, we're cheating ourselves and other Christians. That's the big point of my book Stop Dating the Church. The following is a quote from that book that I hope will stimulate some thought:
Is belonging to a church really just a formality? When asked what church she belonged to, one Sunday-morning visitor told a pastor, "The universal body of Christ."
Technically, she may be right. As we saw in the last chapter, every authentic Christian does belong to Christ--and that's wonderful! But is it either wise or right for a person to be linked spiritually to the universal Church yet have no connection to a local church? Is it even possible?
Wouldn't that be like telling your new bride that while your love is true, you have other priorities? Your heart of course is all hers, but as for the rest of you...well, you'll be in and out.
I propose that for sincere followers of Christ, the Bible allows no such disconnect. If you and I identify with and love the idea of church, we must consider how we can identify with and love an actual church.
A local church is a visible, tangible, real-world expression of the body of Christ. "Of course every believer is part of the universal church," writes Chuck Colson. "But for any Christian who has a choice in the matter, failure to cleave to a particular church is failure to obey Christ."
Charles Spurgeon agreed that for a Christian failure to join a church is disobedience. He combined piercing truth and humor when he compared such disconnected Christians to "good-for-nothing" bricks:
I know there are some who say, "Well, I have given myself to the Lord, but I do not intend to give myself to the church."Now why not?
"Because I can be a Christian without it."
Are you quite clear about that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord's commands as be being obedient?
What is a brick made for? To help build a house. It is of no use for that brick to tell you that it is just as good a brick while it is kicking about on the ground as it would be in the house. It is a good-for-nothing brick.
So you rolling-stone Christians, I do not believe that you are answering your purpose. You are living contrary to the life which Christ would have you live, and you are much to blame for the injury you do.
Only by joining a local church can Christians avoid "kicking about on the ground" like a brick. It's in the local church that we are attached to God's work around the world.
Authors Brian Habig and Les Newsom, in The Enduring Community, make a helpful recommendation. Borrowing from the bumper sticker, they recommend that Christians should "Think globally, love locally." "All of us should concern ourselves with the challenges that face all people everywhere," they write. "But that concern cannot be expressed everywhere. We demonstrate our concern by acting and living where we are."
We see this combination of a global mindset with a local focus throughout the New Testament. The apostles weren't just caught up with the universal Church--they were busy planting and caring for individual local churches. Most of their epistles were written to specific churches in cities like Galatia, Ephesus, Corinth, and Philippi. Almost every time the word church appears in the New Testament it means a particular gathering of Christians.
They saw the big picture, but they understood that you could never separate God's big-picture plan from everyday service and involvement with people.
Excerpted from Stop Dating the Church.
2 Comments
Ah... sorry, Josh -- I just saw your comment in response to what I wrote previously on your other blog post. :P
With all due respect, I don't think these messages are very full of grace for those who are missing fellowship in their lives. I think that most people do want to be involved in a local church.
Personally, I love church. I will stay as long as I can, helping to stack chairs, gather Bibles, pick up trash, clean the kitchen and serving things, asking around and finding whatever I can do. I love meeting the new people and making them feel welcome in the family. I love discussing the sermons with my friends and asking deeper questions of the speaker. I love worshipping with my brothers and sisters. I love church.
The thing is, in Scripture, we're told to not neglect to meet together -- not commanded to attend a formal church. So if we simply fellowship with Christian friends, but do not attend a church, is that wrong according to Scripture -- or just not ideal?
The reason I do not attend the local church I was attending is because someone spread rumors about my family. The pastor's family attempted to defend me, but apparently some of the people the rumors were spread to don't believe the defense of me, and have basically told me they are shunning me -- asking to send back to me the theology books I gave them as a gift, using abundant verses to accuse me of things I didn't do and tell me their treatment of me is justified, pulling involvement and funding from my pro-life ministry, telling me that because I won't admit to crazy things I didn't do I am unrepentant. I can't figure out why they are doing this. I want to attend this church. But I am afraid if I attend, people will wonder why some people are shunning me and guess something is going on, or for one reason or another this family will spread the rumors further, and I will lose more friends. Until the pastor's family can work this out, I think I have to resign to simply fellowshipping with my friends outside of church. I'm not sure it will ever be worked out, but it's my church and I'm hoping it will be so I can return as I had my heart set on this being my home church.
Sometimes there are very good reasons for people not being in fellowship and they need true Christian compassion -- someone to listen, care, help, offer exhortation regarding how to handle common reasons they may be outside the fellowship -- not more religion. Via your blog, people who don't attend church have not only been accused of adultery, but have also been called "good for nothing bricks." I know you are trying to provoke, but isn't it more important to just be Biblical and exhibit the love of God? I think your purpose is to help and encourage, but I'm not seeing it in these posts -- regarding a subject that really does need to be addressed with God's Heart towards those outside the church who might neglect fellowship, but also towards those inside the church who turn away those wanting fellowship by their self-righteousness, judgement, accusations, lack of desire to seek truth, hypocrisy, lack of love, lack of grace, lack of living what they preach.
I would have emailed this to you, but I no longer have your email address. I know this gets caught in moderation anyway so I hope this method of sending it will work alright.
Thanks for listening. And thank you for your previous response.
In Christ,
Nicole
Josh,
let me start off by saying how much i enjoy reading your blog. i would have considered myself to have been a christian for most of my life starting from childhood but fell away from my faith and church during my teenage/young adult life. it wasn't until i recommitted my life to Christ and rejoined the church that i was fully able to engage my faith. joining a church was a very intragral part of deepening my relationship with Christ and connecting with fellow believers. a couple of years ago we left our church because it lacked church discipline and was starting down an "emergent church" road that i was very uncomfortable with considering that i had started to realize how much i leaned toward the calvinist/reformed theology. since then we have "church dated" trying to find a good church with sound theology and FINALLY found an acts29 church that we LOVE. the only problem is that it is in the city {we live in the suburbs} and takes about 45 min. to get to. we have found it really difficult to muster up the desire to pack our 3 young children up and drive 45 min. during one of the worst winters we have ever had to get there every sunday and unfortunately it has become a once a month event for us and just listen to the podcasts the other sundays. because of this we have felt very disconnected from our fellow believers and feel like we are at a loss right now. how is it that out of the hundreds of churches in this area we are unable to find a scripturally/biblically/theologically sound church to become members of?!! this is so disappointing! am i just being too picky and critical? a member of the acts29 church that we love also took a very long time to find that church home and he also drives about 30 min. to get there. do we just need to suck it up and make the long distant drive or what? thanks for the help!
God bless,
Jennifer
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