A Church That Is Just a Church

A Church That is Just a Church

Paige and I typically eat out on Wednesday evening; it’s just easier as we get ready for Wednesday night Bible classes. Cracker Barrel is usually the eatery of choice. Now, you need to know that I love watching and listening to people and Cracker Barrel, even with all its noise, is a great place to engage in both. I learn a lot about the nature of people and what they like and do and, most of the time, it is quite amusing. A few Wednesday nights ago, as we were exiting the restaurant, something happened that gave me cause to reflect.

A grandmother, mother, and two unruly children are exiting the store. Mother was frustrated; grandmother was silent. The children were running ahead to the car and mother was trying to contain them. Warning them, she asked, “Do you want to go to church and play soccer and volleyball?” The message was not lost on the children. They knew clearly what she meant. “Unless you listen to me and stop this ugliness, I’m not about to let you go to church and play soccer and volleyball.”

There is a lot to say about her methods of discipline and use of the term church that I’m going to pass over for now. But what I do want you to consider is what church meant to this mother and her children: it was a place to play soccer and volleyball. This is what church has come to mean to a lot of people- a place of social interaction, entertainment, and recreation. To most Americans, church warship is fog machines, special lighting, loud (Christian Rock) music, and praise bands with a little Jesus thrown in to make it sound spiritual. Church work is sports activities, camps, and encounter groups, classes in making pottery, physical exercise, etc. There are all kinds of ministries, such as “Family Dynamics” ministries, “Kitchen” ministries, “Loaves and Fishes” ministries, “Recovery” ministries, “Christian Health” ministries, and “Self Defense/Martial Arts” ministries. All referred to as “ministries” to make them sound spiritual. All done “in the name of Jesus” by people who have no idea what “in the name of Jesus” really means.

This is the modern version of the social gospel. This is giving the people what they want in order to attract them- and it works (at least from a human standpoint)! Some churches have even conducted market analysis to determine what people in their community want in a church and have redesigned church accordingly. Whatever the world wanted, they provided and called it church. This is the mega- church model and it is not surprising that, wanting to be like the world around them (cf I Sam. 8:5-7) some of our brethren have followed suit.

In the New Testament, church is simple. It is people saved by the grace of God upon their faith and obedience (Eph. 5:23;Acts 2:38-47). Saved people gathered in local churches to worship “in spirit and truth,” (Jn. 4:24) and to “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” (Heb. 10:24_25). To put it succinctly, “they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and prayers(Acts 2:42; ASV).

The work of the New Testament churches was simple. The church is “the household of God.... The pillar and support of the truth” (I Tim. 3:15). Their work was to sound forth the word of the Lord (I Thess.1:8) wherever they could, and they did. Working together, joint by joint and piece by piece, each did their part for the “growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Eph. 4:16). They were accountable to God, but they were also accountable to one another and often exercised discipline when one stepped out of line (I Cor. 5:1-13; II Thess. 3:6-13).

Church, according to the Bible, should not be about doing my will, but His. I’m no different than most folks. I like to feel good about myself. I like to be entertained and to laugh or cry at good story lines. I like to play golf and have friends who loves soccer and volleyball, etc. But aside from conducting myself in all things according to His image these things have nothing to do with the church.

Let’s encourage people to let the church just be the church, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. Let’s address the part of man that soccer and volleyball cannot touch- the spiritual part of man that will live forever. As far as attracting people are concerned, “God is looking for them who are looking for Him.” Doing God’s will in God’s way will attract the kind of people God is looking for, however many or few that may be. And if that is good enough for Him, it should be good enough for us. - Jim Deason