I Don't Like Church
I have a confession to make: I
don't like church. I've been a Christian
for thirty years (since I was six years old) and have attended services at
churches that were Southern Baptist, Independent Baptist, United Methodist,
Free Methodist, Presbyterian (both PCA and PC[USA]), Pentecostal, Assembly of
God, and various denominations that call themselves 'non-denominational.'
I've been in some churches were the
preacher spoke in dulcet tones and others where he'd speak in tongues. I've been in churches were the congregation
sits in the pews and others were they roll in the aisles. I've been in churches where people raise
their hands in praise and others where they keep their hand on their
wallet. I've been in everything from
mega-churches in California to house churches in Japan. In other words, I'm no stranger to church.
But no matter where I go there is
always one idiot who ruins the experience for me. They think they know more theology than the
pastor or believe they would do a better job leading worship than the music minister. They are invariably unfriendly, judgmental,
hypocritical, and more than a little bit smug.
Every church I go to I find a fool like that and so I shop around trying
to find one that won't let someone like that join their ranks. But he's always there. No matter what I do I can't shake him. Because that guy is me.
So I have to admit that I don't
like church. I'd rather sleep in on
Sunday mornings. I'd rather follow my
own path. I'd rather excuse myself from
public worship until I can "get right with the Lord." But I can't do that. Church is where I belong.
In a recent interview with
CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Eugene Peterson explains why the church is necessary:
“ But many
Christians would look at this church and say it's dead, merely an institutional
expression of faith. What other church is there besides institutional? There's nobody who doesn't have problems with
the church, because there's sin in the church.
But there's no other place to be a Christian except the church. There's sin in the local bank. There's sin in the grocery stores. I really don't understand this naive
criticism of the institution. I really
don't get it.
Frederick von
Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There's no life in the bark. It's dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree
within. And the tree grows and grows and
grows and grows. If you take the bark
off, it's prone to disease dehydration, death.
So, yes, the
church is dead but it protects something alive.
And when you try to have a church without bark, it doesn't last
long. It disappears, gets sick, and it's
prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism.
In my writing, I
hope to recover a sense of the reality of congregation - what it is. It's a gift of the Holy Spirit. Why are we always idealizing what the Holy
Spirit doesn't idealize? There's no
idealization of the church in the Bible - none.
We've got two thousand years of history now. Why are we so dumb?”
Why AM I so dumb that I expect the
church to be something it's not? Why
can't I recognize that the trouble with the church is that it accepts sinners
like me? If they excluded the people who
could ruin it church might be a better place.
But it would also be empty.
As Peterson says, there's no other
place to be a Christian. I may not like
church but it's where God wants me to be.
And though I may be nothing more than deadwood in the pews, I'll still
be there, doing my part to protect the life of the Church within.
From www.evangelicaloutpost.com;
2/28/05; Joe Carter
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