Where we are and where we should be

Note: This post is in response to something Jules at Everyday Mommy wrote. I was going to leave it in her comments, but it grew too large :)

Jules talked at length about what she sees as a growing trend in churches today, having vistited many of them in the last four years and found them to all to be almost identical in that they seem more wrapped up in activities and functions than in teaching The Word and doing what it says. I agree with Michelle (a pastor's wife and one of the people who left a comment on Jules' site) that a lot of churches seem to be using these non-worship activities to lure non-churched, non-saved people into their "safe camp." But therein lies the problem with that philosophy: Jesus commanded us to go out into the world, not bring the world to us.

"But Geek, we're supposed to be fishers of men and fishermen in those days cast out nets and drew the fish into the boat." Yeah. But first they had to go where the fish were. You can cast your net into the sand as much as you want, but you won't catch nearly as many fish as you would by going to the water. And you'll catch more by going out into the water than by standing at the edge of the water.

The outreach pastor in my church has openly disparaged "churchy stuff" saying that's not what the world flocks to. The pastor at my old church in Charlotte, NC (H. Loran Livingston at Central Church of God) threatened to shut down all activities when he felt they were getting in the way of what we were supposed to be doing.

For centuries, churches, cathedrals and other holy buildings have been used to provide shelter and sanctuary, protecting those within from that which was outside. Today, we as Christians do not case persecution (In North America) like the Christians of old did, but we have still turned our churches into fortifications, providing the facade of protecting those inside from The World, outside. Only instead of ramparts, balustrades, palisades, portcullises and other strategic architectural accessories to make those within feel safe, too many churches today resort to alternatives to public schooling, alternatives to the Boy and Girl Scouts, alternatives to civic groups. They rally to help the elderly, infirm and destitute within our ranks while providing not even one tenth of the same support for those who are not.

The American Church (for I cannot speak for those churches of other countries with certainty) has become self inclusive. It has become isolationistic. It has reverted to the strategy of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church of essentially trading favors for salvation. "Yes, we will help you, but as we do not wish to step outside of our comfort zone, you must step in, first."

Does this mean I think churches should not have activities and groups outside of worship services? No. Not at all. Some of them, many of them serve a great purpose in developing new and young Christians, training each other, providing each of us with an opportunity to serve God in the way in which he mades us to serve Him (and others). But not to the point where activities become, as Everyday Mommy speculated, 75% (or even 100%) of our Christian life.

Essentially, it has come down to this: The church today (at least in America) is exactly where Satan wants us. He has backed us into a corner and made us cowardly and ineffective. He has made the ground around us so muddy, we are afraid to step out and face him lest we get our shoes dirty. So we stay in our nice, clean church with our nice, clean Christian friends and celebrate ourselves and how Godly we think we are while Satan is having his way with the rest of the world and worse, the people in it. We have to leave the compound. We have to walk out the doors. We have to get our feet muddy and our hands dirty.

So does that mean we should stand up and rail against pornography and gambling? Do we attempt to ban books and put warning labels on records and CDs? Does it mean that we should defend ourselves against the crippling tide of Secular Humanism and other anti-Christian schools of thought? Should we fight evolution and abortion and the right to sing Christmas carols?

Yes, but only after you’re done with your primary job. These crusades (or as the 80’s Christian rock group Petra called them, Witch Hunts) have their place but can also be tools of the devil. Yes, Satan can and will entice and encourage Christians to fight against his own work (remember, a house divided…) because if we are focusing on all of these witch hunts, we are not focusing on what Jesus called us – no, commanded us to do: “Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you.”

That is the ball the American church needs to keep its collective eye on. Stop worrying about having bookstores and coffee houses on your “campuses.” Instead, go to the bookstores, coffee houses AND campuses (as well as everywhere else). You don’t have to preach or proselytize. Just let them see Jesus in you. To quote a saying from several decades ago: “You are the only Bible some people may read.” Don’t judge, don’t condemn and by all means don’t persecute. Remember God’s grace that He gives unconditionally and that we are supposed to also. To quote from an old church camp song “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

The church I attend now has the motto of "Know, Grow, Go." We've got to know Jesus. We have to grow as Christians (on many different levels) and last, but certainly not least, we've to to go.