Today, I’m thinking about church and there are two well-founded beliefs about the church that live in constant tension in my mind:
1) I believe that the local church is the hope of the world—seriously I do.
2) I believe that “doing church” can become something that sucks the life right out of you—and I have plenty of experiences, my own and that of others that can back this up.
By the grace of God, I’ve somehow managed to hold on to belief #1, while acknowledging the power of belief #2. Many have ditched belief #1 in light of belief #2, and I can’t say that I blame them. Others have somehow managed not to adopt belief #2 at all. It’s hard to discern which one of these two groups to worry about most. Honestly, I worry more about the second group, because I feel like they’re on their way to an unfortunate crash—the kind that happens when you’ve thrown caution to the wind and let your boundaries down.
The truth is that church, like any good thing, can become an ultimate thing in our hearts—an idol. That’s a rather odd thing to say, I guess—but it is true. We need look no farther than Jesus himself and his interractions with those whose lives were all about religious observance—temple, synagogue and observing the rules. These were good things that they had given their lives too, yet had somehow blinded them to the heart and purpose of their faith. I know that, out of balance, church life can do this to well-meaning folk today as well.
Church, by the way, is a lousy idol—not nearly as satisfying as some of the other key idols, like success and money. “Church as idol” tricks us with all the talk of benevolence, service and self-sacrifice. It plays on our sinful tendency for self-righteousness and self-justification. And, when we realize that it’s not working for us, we have all kinds of reactions. Some experience intense guilt, because they know they “shouldn’t” feel that way about church. Others, get angry because they think they’ve been sold a bill of goods (perhaps at the price of 10% + of their income). Still others just get burned out, or become emotionally distant from it.
Now, what do you do with all that? First, a brief warning—God doesn’t seem to let us off the hook here—church isn’t something we can blow off. God doesn’t—it’s his bride, for which Christ layed down his life. Believers can’t—because its us. On top of that, like any other idol that we might get rid of, if we don’t surrender its place to the real God, another idol will come along and fill the emptiness.
Back to the question; knowing what we know about the potential for church life to be something destructive, how do we relate to it in a healthy way? Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a really good textbook for a healthy church life. Like any group of people, there are tensions in the Ephesian church, but they haven’t become pathological like they did in Corinth. The apostle sets forth a magnificent vision for it in these six chapters. Here are some brief snippets of that vision:
“…the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills everything in every way.” (1:22-23) “…God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).” …Members of God’s household (2:20) …a holy temple in the Lord (2:21) ... a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (2:22)……members together of one body and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus (3:6).
Key to the Biblical vision is that the church is not here for itself—it’s here to accomplish God’s redemptive purposes in us and in the world He loves. Ultimately, it’s when the church (that’s us, by the way) lay down it’s own life and self-interest so that God’s desires are fulfilled, that the church becomes life-giving. These next few weeks, by God’s grace, will be a time of discovery, and of preparing us to be instruments of God’s purpose. And, it is my hope that we look at the church, not as something that potentially takes life out of us, but that restores life to us.
Yours for the Journey,
Pastor Tom