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Why I Don't Go to Church
I'm a God-fearing Christian, an avid Bible reader, and a believer in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. I've been a Christian for
over 50 years, and I've spent thousands of hours in Bible study, prayer, and church
service. I believe that Jesus Christ established His church
for the unity and edification of believers; yet, I don't currently attend church
on a regular basis. How can this be?
I'm not proud of the fact that I don't attend church
regularly. I lose the potential for enrichment every time I don't go, and I offer no excuses. This writing is as much of
an indictment against myself as against the church. I even
harbor a certain amount of shame, guilt, and embarrassment about
it. We have met all of our best friends in church, and it
breaks my heart to think of the blessings that I'm missing by not going
now. If you have found a church
that truly teaches the Bible, and edifies and encourages you, then God bless you--I could learn much
from you. However, I've decided to be completely honest here, and devote this writing to my sad predicament, in hope of encouraging
others who might be in the same situation.
(Skip
the theology and history, and just tell me why you don't attend church.)
Obedience
First of all, I believe in obeying God's commandments, especially those in the New Testament epistles. While cases can be made that
we need not obey certain Old Testament laws, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the entire Bible was inspired by God, but that
the epistles were written specifically by Christians, to
Christians, about Christians, and for the
benefit of Christians. When I read through these epistles, I can easily summarize Christ's
expectations of our obedience into ten distinct categories. In what seems to be the order of importance (as emphasized, repeated,
etc.), these are:
1) Grace
We are expected to understand grace (2 Corinthians 8 and 9), and we are to grow in grace (2 Peter 3:18).
We are to understand that salvation is by grace
(Ephesians 2:5)--one reason for first understanding what grace is--and
that salvation is through faith alone (Galatians 2:16).
3) Newness of life
We must realize that when a person believes the gospel
(John 3:16), he actually becomes a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:10) with a new living spirit (Romans 7:6).
4) Pleasing God
We must know that the purpose of our lives is to bring glory to God, and to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:9, 1 Timothy
6:16). We do this in a variety of ways, including:
faith (Hebrews 11:6), love
(1 Corinthians 13:13); truth (Ephesians 6:14); prayer (Ephesians 6:18); thanksgiving (2 Corinthians 4:5);
morality (1 Corinthians 6:18); doing good and sharing (Hebrews 13:16); being kind, patient, and gentle (2 Timothy 2:24-25); avoiding evil
(Galatians 5:19-21); and, offering praise and worship
to God (James 5:13)
5) Humility
We are charged to live godly, holy, and quiet lives (1 Timothy 2:2), actually considering others as being more important than
ourselves (Philippians 2:3).
6) Learning
We must understand the importance of Bible study (Ephesians 6:17). How can we obey God if we don't know what
His commandments are (John 14:15)?
7) Prayer
We must learn to pray, with both thanksgiving and supplication (Philippians 4:4-9), without asking with the wrong motives (James 4:3).
8) Evangelism (Matthew 28:19-20)
Again, how can we share what we don't truly understand? How can we expect Christians to evangelize
the world when they don't even understand the gospel message
themselves?
9) The Church
The purpose of the church is to equip the believers
through encouragement and edification (Ephesians 4:1-16, 1 Corinthians 14:31).
10) JudgmentWe believers need to understand that we will be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10, Romans
14:10). Although our salvation
is eternally secure, we will be rewarded in eternity
according to our deeds in this life.
Of course, this is subjective, but it's how I read the
Scriptures. Now, let's take a deeper look at the church.
The Purpose of the Church
We are fortunate to have a passage of Scriptures that clearly defines
the purpose of the church,
and gives us an outline for what a local church
should be and do. Ephesians 4:1-16 explains that the church
is all about unity and personal maturity:
Verse 3 tells us to "preserve the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace." Church is about unity, the Holy Spirit, and
peace. Verses 4 through 6 explain that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and
one God--who is over all, through all, and in all. The church
is supposed to be unified in a single body under Jesus Christ, consisting of believers who are indwelt by the same Spirit, but who, as
individuals, bring different spiritual gifts to the table (verses
7-11). Christ gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.
Now, when all of these unified believers come together in peace
amidst one Spirit under Christ, what is their purpose? Are
they there to learn the philosophy of the world? No, verse 12
says that they are there "for the equipping
of the saints for the work of service, to the building
up of the body of Christ." Verse 13 goes on to say that this equipping and building up is to continue
"until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of
the knowledge
of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Verse 14 tells us that we should no longer be like young children in the faith, "tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every
wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, craftiness in deceitful scheming."
Instead, verse 15 says that we are to speak the truth in love,
and are to grow up in all aspects into Christ. Verse 16 says that the church
came from Christ, "being fitted and held together by what every
joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual
part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Historical Overview of the Church
Through the centuries, the church gotten out of control, and it's still
evolving. I fear, however, that any evolution of the church,
from the first century model, is actually degradation--not
improvement. If the church
changed from the (perfect) first century model, then it got worse, not better. As it continues
to change, it keeps straying further and further from perfection.
The concept of unity somehow evolved into one of control.
Church leaders have forever been caught up with the idea that Christianity needs to be an organization with an official human
government of sorts, so that it can be centralized, controlled, and
monitored. As a result, the church is polluted with power
struggles akin to those around any corporate board.
This notion probably began with Ignatius of Antioch in 110 AD (probably due to a mentality of Greek philosophy that elevated the search for
"truth" above the search for God). Ignatius saw a need for centralizing authority over Christians; he distorted the meaning of the
Scriptures; and, he modeled the church
hierarchy after the government of the Roman Empire of his time. Bishops were given authority
over their own set of house churches, and the house churches had elders and deacons. Believers were expected to submit to the
authority of the bishops just like they would submit to God. They were to follow the leadership of the elders as though they were
apostles; and, they were to accept the leadership of the deacons just like they accepted the authority of the Bible. It is easy to
see how this hierarchy then evolved into the Catholic Church with a
pope yielding ultimate power.
In about 800 AD, Charlemagne expanded the control over churches. Bible study was dictated by an elite group, and
prepared sermons were delivered to the church leaders.
Throughout the centuries, popes, bishops, and priests remained very effective in squelching the priesthood of the believer.
One of the reasons that the Crusades were conducted was in order to
"unify" the church, and this resulted in killing Muslims, Jews, and
even Christians. Also, the terrible Inquisition "against heresy" was all done in the name of unifying Christendom.
The Reformation resulted in a solid break from this idea of control, and the reformers were somewhat effective in their movement to place
the focus back upon the individual. In the 16th century, with the aid of the printing press, Tyndale published the first widespread
Bible for non-clergy individuals, and Luther re-emphasized an individual
relationship with, and responsibility to, God, as opposed to a corporate/church relationship.
However, power struggles again quickly proliferated through the
leadership ranks of the Protestant church
as well. Churches began splitting over control and theological issues, and they were quick
to "organize" themselves into hierarchical groups again. One
group has their own "pet" theological issue, so they pool their money,
build their headquarters, elect their officers, and have their own conventions--all under the controls of state, national, and global
leadership.
I cannot help but see an analogy here between the nation of Israel and the church.
In 1 Samuel 8:5-6, the people of Israel told Samuel, "Give us a king to lead us, like
all the other nations have." Then, in verses 11-18, he warned the people what it would mean to be like other nations:
“This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his
chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign ... to plow his ground and reap
his harvest, and still others to make weapons ... He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He
will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and
give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth (a tithe)
of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. ... The best of your cattle and donkeys
he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth (a tithe)
of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have
chosen, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
Verses 19 and 20 say, "But the people refused to listen to Samuel. 'No!' they said. 'We want a king over
us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our
battles.”
The church wanted to be like "all the other nations," in that they
wanted to be governed like a nation. The church also asked
for a "king" of sorts, and they got what they asked for with the
succession of popes, etc. However, the church
is not like other organizations. It is a one-of-a-kind organism, governed by the Son of God Himself.
Why I Don't Go
I have identified ten reasons (from my personal experiences) why I
don't go to church:
1) Misguided Teaching
I believe that church has become a place where a person is involved in multiple activities that take his eye off of Christ, grace, Bible
doctrine, and prayer. The level of involvement in these activities have somehow made up the identity of that person. The
Christian community holds him in such great esteem for his "Christian service," much the same as his community would do in non-Christian
circles, so that people can see that he's a significant person.
In 1988, we had been actively involved in a church
for many years, but we decided to change churches because we believed that our pastor was not effectively preaching the truth. We didn't want
to become like some people who just hop from church
to church, so we were
determined to find the right church. We researched the
hundreds of nearby churches, and visited many different churches, week
after week. We finally found a church that we felt God was
leading us to--a Bible church.
I was taken aback by our journey to find the right church. It
was almost unbelievable how most churches did not preach the truth. Indeed, it seemed as though most churches were
producing exactly what Ephesians 4:14 warns us about: being young children in the faith, "tossed about by waves and carried about
by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, craftiness in deceitful scheming."
Most people weren't attending church
in order to be edified. They just wanted to be pacified, and pastors were willing to feed their
hunger for secular, inspirational messages; cute stories; clever presentations; emotional appeals; and, salesmanship. The
sermons were usually a nice philosophical challenge like one would hear at a secular event, with a distantly related Bible verse thrown in so
that it could be called a sermon instead of just a speech.
Also there was usually an appeal for money,
because it seems that most churches have a perpetual cash flow problem--which would seem to put
the management of the leadership into question.
In fact, most churches seem to foster the idea of guilt. They make people feel guilty if they don't continue coming back.
However, guilt is a sin, and churches should not use this
ploy. They should instead cause people to want to come back because they're being edified and encouraged, and understanding the
Bible so well.
However, the pastors were also telling the people plenty of what they wanted to hear, and the people were keeping it coming by continuing to
give their money to the churches. However, the result was
that the dumbed-down messages were producing people who were still ignorant about God's Word, and what He wants us to be. The
pastors were even dumbing themselves down by preaching these false messages week after week. They had forsaken the Greek and
Hebrew skills they had learned in the seminary, and they were settling for presenting the inspirational type of messages that the people
wanted to hear--those messages that would keep them coming back, with their money.
These pastors were honing their presentation skills instead of their Bible study skills. They usually
organized their sermons by way of a clever acronym, and tried to include enough humor to make the congregation feel relaxed and
comfortable. Plus, many people had found that church was a
great place to make business contacts.
It would be common knowledge among believers that most people in most churches are quite ignorant about the Word of God, since most churches
don't stress this as a priority. However, it was very frightening to learn that this ignorance prevails even in Bible
churches that presumably teach the Bible.
How do I know that people are so ignorant? I've asked them. Here's a challenge for you: Walk up to some
long-time church
members (or some people in leadership positions) and ask them how to get to heaven.
You'll be astounded at the answers you receive--usually some sweet story about being good, living
right, loving people, or improving the world, but seldom just the
simple gospel
message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus
Christ and His work on the cross to save us from our sins.
Now, back to our "Bible church": On one occasion, I had a specific
concern, and I communicated the issue to the board of elders, along with supporting Scripture references. After a review by the elder
board, one of the elders told me, "We don't accept those Scriptures."
Say what? A Bible church doesn't accept Scriptures from the Bible?
Now, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that he just used a poor choice of words. Perhaps he meant, "We disagree
with your analysis," or, perhaps, "We don't believe that you've applied those Scriptures appropriately." Still, I believe that his quote
was quite telling.
I also see the ignorance of church members because visitors to my web
site send me Bible questions. Here's a recent one:
"Are there any babies or old people in heaven,
and if not where are the scriptures to back it up? I asked this in my Church, but no scriptures were given to back up what they told me."
(FYI, although this isn't the point here, I explained the doctrine of the
imputation of sin
in Romans 5:12; salvation by grace through faith
alone, as taught in Galatians 2:16; and, and King David's experience with the death of his newborn son in 2 Samuel 12:22-23.)
Another recent question said, "I had an abortion... Will God ever forgive me?" (I explained temporal and eternal forgiveness, the plan of
salvation, and eternal security.)
Here's the point: How well are our churches teaching the Bible if the pews are filled with people like these poor ignorant
women? They're understandably concerned about an issue close to
their heart; they're directing questions to their church leaders;
they're unable to get their questions answered; and, they're too distracted by these specific issues to go on learning any deeper truths. Time
after time, I receive questions from long-time church-going Christians
who haven't been taught the Word of God, and this really bothers me. In general, people are more concerned about mystical
things, miracles, and the end times than they are about living the Christian life to the glory of God. Hebrews 5:12 says,
"Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need
milk, not solid food!"
A recent Barna Group survey revealed:
- 46% of churchgoing Americans say that their life has not changed a bit due to their church attendance.
- 60% said that they could not recall an important new religious insight from their last church visit.
Clarence Thomas wrote that he found the church to be hopelessly irrelevant on social issues. Regarding racial issues, he
said, "Yet the Church remained silent... I parted ways with the Church."
2) Ignorance of Grace
In addition to the prevailing ignorance of church-goers in general,
it's even worse when the basic fundamentals of Bible-believing Christianity are missing. The doctrine of grace sets
Christianity apart from all other faiths, and yet I don't hear much
grace being preached in our churches. Ask the average church
member what grace is, and then get ready to fall out of your pew, because they have no idea. As previously referred to, ask
them what "salvation
by grace" means, and again prepare for disappointment. The answers, whether referring to salvation
or to living the Christian life, will more often than not reflect (the very opposite idea of)
legalism--salvation by works, or at least
partially by works, or trying to do good deeds instead of living a Spirit-led life.
When we're hung up on legalist issues (like drinking, tithing, honoring certain days, Catholic rituals, and countless others), we're unable to
carry on with the important facets of Christianity, such as bringing glory to God by living the Christian lifestyle. Isaiah
1:11-15 shows us what God thinks of such legalism:
“'The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me?' says the LORD. 'I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of
rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before
me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is
detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed
festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your
hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!'"
Likewise, Colossians 2:16-19 says, "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a
New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in
Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and
the worship
of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle
notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by
its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow."
3) A Relaxed Attitude toward Prayer
I'm unaware of much prayer going on in most churches, although I could
be wrong about this. Yes, quite often a church service starts
or finishes with a brief prayer, directed more toward the congregation than toward God, but I just don't see a truly effective ministry of
prayer. Yes, I hear verbal pleas from church leaders for
prayer requests, and I hear the congregation adding to the list, but once the list is established, I hear hardly any prayer for those
items. Yes, I see a full page of prayer requests, in small print in the bulletin, but I'm still almost unaware of the prayer.
E.M. Bounds said, "Lazy, heartless, feeble, and indifferent praying by us mars and hinders the effects of Christ’s praying."
4) Use of Finances
I see our churches collecting a lot of money from well-meaning members,
but how is most of that money used? Most of it (almost all of
it) seems to be used to simply keep the self-feeding organism of Christendom alive, by paying staff salaries and building new
buildings.
What happened to Paul's example of tent-making? Why do we insist on the model of "professional" staff members (as in any other
"profession")? Why can't our leaders have other jobs that fund their own lifestyle, like everyone else, and then serve God with
their time and money, like everyone else?
Why do we insist on the finest buildings, etc.? Are Protestants trying to rival the fine cathedrals of
Catholicism? When we do find a church that's smart enough to
rent weekend facilities from a school, we usually discover that it's only a temporary situation until they can start a building
fund.
Perhaps this is because most people believe that our current system is serving us just fine. The staff members earn a good living from their
ministries, and the church
members are satisfied because they've made a sacrifice by contributing their money
(thus, perhaps, freeing themselves of further responsibilities, such as making sure that their money
is put to good use.)
There are plenty of opportunities for giving outside the local church.
I know that I may be wrong, but I don't see how it glorifies God to give to a church
that spends 95% of its money on buildings and salaries, and only 5% on real
missions.
5) Loss of Integrity
Here's a personal story from that (highly respected) Bible church that
I mentioned. As with previous churches, we became quite
involved in that one--attending regularly, and faithfully, giving our money
and time--teaching Sunday school, serving on committees, etc. One of the committees that I served on was the Missions
Committee. The church
was still relatively new, and one of the things that had initially impressed me about it was its commitment
to missions. The church was so mission-minded that it had
made the following commitment: Within five years, 50% of the money
collected by the church would be spent directly upon missions;
i.e., funding its own missionaries, on both foreign and domestic mission fields.
I was still serving on the Missions Committee toward the end of that five-year period. By that time, it was still spending only
about 5% to 10% of its money on missions. I was praying
expectantly about the transformation that God was about to work in that
church
when it suddenly honored its commitment and shifted its focus onto missions. So what happened? The elders simply
changed their minds, and the church reneged on its word, while most of
the congregation remained quite oblivious to all of it. (Unfortunately, I couldn't partake of this blissful ignorance since I
was privy to this otherwise secret information, because of my participation on the committee.)
Yes, the elders (an insiders' group of young (?) rich guys) just
changed their mind, and decided that the church would not be spending
50% of its money on missions. Apparently they had received a
message from God that the current 5% to 10% would do just fine. (I sometimes wonder if they didn't owe a refund to all
of the church
members who had been giving their money for five years,
based upon false pretenses.)
We knew a couple in a church who had financial trouble, so they repeatedly asked for prayer. When their situation became so dire
that they were going to lose their house, several of the men from their "Life Group" asked the husband of that family to meet them for lunch.
They asked him and his family to not come back to their church, because his troubles were too big for them. They had preached prayer to God,
and grace from God, and community, but this man's troubles were too big for God.
If we can't find integrity in the church, then where can we expect to
find it (1 Timothy 3:4-5)?
Mohandas Gandhi once said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
6) Confusion about Church Attendance
I understand the desire to measure a pastor's performance by the number of people in his congregation, but there are other and better measures, and that
can be a scam.
When pushing church attendance, why is it that Christendom always refers to a single scripture?
Hebrews 10:25
Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "... let us consider how to stimulate one another to love
and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another..."
You know how some verses are often taken out of context. Well, this is one of those verses that is often "taken out of
priority." It suits the church-goer so well, that its truths
are elevated above others.
Hermeneutics on a Single Scripture
One problem with "assembling together" in this verse is that it's isolated. One of the principles of hermeneutics is that we can't
build a doctrine on a single verse, and it's difficult to find other examples of this teaching in the Scriptures. I'm not saying
that this verse isn't valid. It is valid, and we need to
obey it. However, we have taken this verse and built upon it whenever we have a drive for membership or funds. We act like
all of Christ's other commandments for us are secondary to this
one. In fact, this passage is also telling us to love
others, to do good deeds, and to encourage each other (Ephesians 4:1-16), and all of these things are adamantly reiterated throughout the
Scriptures.
I'm just saying that, if one had to quantify these commands in order of importance, the "assembling together" would be lower on the list than
most of the others--not higher. In other words, the Bible
isn't very adamant about church
attendance. In addition, it doesn't give any details about assembling together. The first
century Christians were completely autonomous--just meeting in homes, without reporting to anyone, and they probably didn't even meet on a
truly "regular" basis. They just got together, ate a meal, sang songs of praise, and read God's Word. In addition, this
verse says that this was "the habit of some," implying both that it was the habit
of some believers, as opposed to a command from God, and that it was not the habit of all believers.
Many different churches have built many different (and conflicting) doctrines from this verse. Some say they have to meet on Sunday, and some
say they have to meet on Saturday. Some insist on having all kinds of buildings, altars, and accouterments, and some condemn such things. So
all we know for sure is that some of them are wrong.
We don't have a lot of guidance on this in the epistles, but perhaps we can use the Jewish synagogues and temples of Jesus' day in an
analogy. In Matthew 6:2 and 5, He cited the hypocrites in the synagogues who lusted for attention. In Matthew 23:6, He
noted the pride that was fostering competition for "the best seats" in the synagogue. In Matthew 21:12, He drove those from the
temple who were buying and selling there (using it for business purposes). Also, Isaiah 1:13 says, "I cannot bear your
worthless assemblies."
Canonicity and Authorship
So, why is Hebrews 10:25 so isolated? I think that it has to do
with our tests for canonicity. This means that when the church fathers met to decide which books constituted the Bible, they
considered certain criteria. One of the criteria that was used was authorship. For the New Testament books, the author generally had to
be an apostle (or a close associate of one), and it had to be one who knew Jesus Christ on the earth. So, the author of most New Testament
epistles is identified by the very first word of the letter, such as: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ." However, not only can the author or Hebrews
not be verified to be an apostle, but its author is absolutely unknown, and many believed that this made it impossible to include it in the canon.
Some believed that the author was Paul, but it differed from Paul in both style and vocabulary.
Another criteria was the audience, so most New Testament letters begin with the audience named right after the author is identified, such as, "Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus." The audience of the book of Hebrews seems to be Jews who converted to
Christianity. It refers to the Mosaic Law more than any other book in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews begins with, "God, after He spoke long ago
to the fathers in the prophets." It speaks specifically of Jews (as its title "Hebrews" suggests), namely: high priests; Melchizedek; and the heroes of
faith such as: Abel; Enoch; Noah; Abraham; Isaac; Jacob; Sarah; Moses; Rahab; Gideon; Barak; Samson; Jephthah; David; Samuel and the prophets; and, Jesus
Christ.
Furthermore, Martin Luther was opposed to allowing the book of Hebrews into the canon. Also, the Muratorian, in 190 AD or later, provides us with the
earliest accepted list of New Testament canonical books, and it disputes the book of Hebrews.
Here's what I'm saying: There is no commandment other than Hebrews 10:25 that commands our "not forsaking our own assembling together." This
is just as we should no longer expect tongues of fire like those in Acts 2:3. If Hebrews 10:25 is a high priority, then we would expect it to be
repeated hundreds of times, like salvation by grace through faith. It was directed to the first century Jews who became believers – not to
we 21st century believers who can worship in so many ways, such as by using the Internet. Consider this contrast: The other epistles were written
by Christians; to Christians; and, for the benefit of Christians. However, we don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews; and, it appears to be
written to Jewish believers, and for their benefit. So, again, let's not devote so much of our energy to an isolated verse.
The book of Hebrews, as well as the book of James, may well be inspired and canonical, but unfortunately, it is misplaced. Its early writing makes
it more of a transitional, historical narrative, like the book of Acts, instead of a doctrinal book, like Romans. With this in mind, it would probably
be more appropriate if the books of Hebrews and James appeared directly after our other transitional, historical book of Acts, suggesting a possible
reordering of the 27 books of our New Testament as follows:
- The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
- Acts
- James
- Hebrews
- The other epistles
- and, the Revelation
This is fully explained at Should the book of James be in the Bible?
We should read the books of James and Hebrews as we do Genesis through John; i.e., we learn God's truths and principles from them, but usually not applications
that we can apply to our daily lives today.
By the way, in my own case, I truly have trouble knowing how to justify (quantify) "regular" attendance. I do attend regularly, just
not every week. So, even though I've stated that I don't attend church
regularly, maybe I actually do. However, you might say that I'm oddly "spiritually insecure" at church.
C.S. Lewis wrote (as the devil in The Screwtape Letters), "Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades matter
more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours – and the more 'religious'... the more securely ours."
7) Confusion about Worship
We have just drifted into communities who just "feel good" about
offering praise and worship
to God (James 5:13) on Sunday
mornings. We don't bother with offering praise and worship
to God individually, during the middle of the week. This is
probably just as well, because the average church
member has no idea what worship
is anyway. They think it's the time between the announcements and the sermon.
The Bible clearly and explicitly tells us what worship is.
Romans 12:1- says, "... offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this
is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to
test and approve what God’s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will." Worship is simply
continually sacrificing ourselves to God; resisting the world; renewing our minds through Bible study and prayer; and, then having the wisdom and
maturity to discern God's will in daily matters.
A worship leader at one church recently told me that too many worship services are "attractional," letting human talent get in the way of
worshiping God.
8) The Hierarchical Structure of the Church
Perhaps my personal experience in this matter leaves me with my most
bitter taste of the local church. There's much debate about
the proper hierarchical structure of a local church. Again I
offer a personal illustration from that Bible church:
This church was ruled by a board of elders, and those elders decided
that it would be nice to gather input from the members of various
committees concerning the concept of authority in a local church.
As an officer on the Missions committee, I was apparently privileged to be a part of this meeting of the elite inner
circle of church leaders. The idea was for each person to
voice his opinion about whether a local church should be ruled by a
board of elders, or by a senior pastor, or by (a democracy of) the congregation, etc. Each person at the meeting was asked to
write down what he thought was the Biblical model of hierarchical
authority within the local church.
When this assignment was completed, the senior pastor first shared his list with us; then, we each shared our own list with the group.
It was no surprise that all of the elders placed the authority of the elders (themselves) above the congregation. Then, a couple of
others had placed the senior pastor above the elders; some had placed the congregation above the elders; etc.
Then I shared my list. From bottom to top, it went something like this: the congregation; the deacons; the elders; the
senior pastor; and, Jesus Christ. As the senior pastor heard those last two words, he suddenly realized that, so far, there had been
no mention of Jesus Christ in the entire discussion of the authority in
His Church. Well, the senior pastor immediately made a joke out of it, citing that he had just assumed that everybody's lists had
included the implication that Christ was the Head of the Church. Yet, I remained unconvinced. This is like entering
someone else's house and failing to acknowledge the home owner--only worse, because, in this case, the owner is God.
Until that moment, I had had the utmost respect for that senior pastor and the rest of the elders. However, in that moment, I lost
that respect. I also lost the respect for my own service to
the church.
What had I been doing all of my life if serving a church
that didn't understand Christ's role in itself? Was this just like any power struggle in any corporation? Was I
as much of this problem as everyone else? Did I think that I
was quite a personality in the local church because of my service as a
deacon, a Sunday school teacher, an officer on various committees, or a faithful giver of my finances?
9) Community
If church is all about unity
and personal maturity, then how can we
expect the church
to function properly if its individual members are broken (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)? Pastors love to remind us
that "celebration is best done in community." Well, this is a man-made statement, not a Biblical one. The unfortunate
result has been that we have confused "community" with
"corporation." The idea of operating the church as a
corporation is similar to that of operating it as a governing
body. The church
has evolved into a place where people can be involved as a community, but it has lost the intensity expressed in the
Epistles for personal, individual spiritual growth and
maturity. As a community, we can just let church leaders run
things, and we don't have to get too involved with it. In fact, we can just let them study the Scriptures for us, and teach us
the parts that they want to teach. However, we also incorrectly believe that we can then claim ignorance on Judgment Day,
and just plead that we were just doing what the other guys said and did.
We must be careful not to let the dignity of the group overshadow that of the individual. We must be careful not to let socialism
be incorporated into Christianity. We must be careful when we teach children to grow up and be group-oriented rather than to be
individual-oriented. The Bible says that we accept Christ on an individual basis, and we are to make our way on the basis of the
gifts and the talents that God has given us.
We must also be careful not to allow ourselves to blindly follow our community through the modification techniques of John Dewey.
Be aware that we can be conditioned as an individual or we can be conditioned as a group (peer mentality). Churches (and church
services) can set up a fertile environment for peer group responses. Without individual judgment and restraint, we can find ourselves
being forced to act in a certain collective way, and not dare to step out of the pressure of the group.
I remember hearing one pastor (who I truly respected) say that one can grow spiritually only if he sits in
an authorized church,
under the authority of its pastor-teacher. I'm not sure whether or not this is true. I hope that it isn't. I feel like I'm
growing spiritually, but I know that it's sometimes easy to deceive
oneself. I tend to feel that spiritual growth, like salvation,
is an individual event, between a believer and God--not a corporate
one, and needing no additional priest or mediator. The church
should assist believers in spiritual growth, but I'm not convinced that a local, authorized, and organized
church is a necessary
part of spiritual growth, without which the believer is unable to grow spiritually. Even if it
is, we've certainly added a lot of man-made stipulations about making a church
authorized, controlling it, and dictating its actions. This is how churches are treated in China
today. At least there, everyone is aware of what's going on.
I have come to believe that it's not possible for me to attend church without fracturing the unity of the body.
10) Minutia
Churches seem to be able to encourage trivial things. One church recently added a couple of lady singers to its online worship group. I
enjoyed the group for about two weeks, then, suddenly, the lady singers were gone. There had been people in the church who had become upset
that certain other ladies had not been included. This created such a problem that they just decided not to have ladies in the worship group
any longer.
A friend of mine recently told me that his church (which had a church split three years ago) has a pastor that doesn't even reference the
Bible in his Sunday sermons.
I recently heard of a church whose pastor wanted to go from two Sunday services down to one. Before the decision was even finalized in a
business meeting, the traditional worship leader got mad and quit, along with several church members (another church split). I predict that
within five years, that pastor will leave, and the new pastor will say, "We have no older people in our congregation." He will take some
corrective action, and the church will split again. Churches just thrive on church splits, which, in the end, occupy most of the time of
most of the people.
Mike Huckabee once said, "In my early years of ministry I was idealistic, thinking that most people in the congregation expected me to
be the captain of a warship leading God's troops into battle to change the world. As the years passed, I became increasingly convinced
that most people wanted me to captain the Love Boat, making sure everyone was having a good time. Too many people seemed unconcerned about
how many marriages were salvaged, how many kids got off drugs, or how many teen pregnancies were prevented. Rather, the chief concerns seemed to be
whether the menus for Wednesday night dinners were appetizing, what color the softball jerseys would be, how loud some guest musicians
might sing, whether the coffeepot was ready in the Sunday school building, and whether there were paper towels in the women's rest
room. I grew increasingly frustrated. I wasn't bitter or angry; I just wanted my life to count for something more than an ordained
cruise director."
11) Church Discipline
Also, I believe in Church discipline (1 Corinthians 5 and 2 Corinthians 2), and maybe that's what my predicament is all about. Maybe I
cause trouble in every church I attend; the church makes me uncomfortable; and, thereby, informally casts me out.
12) Me
I'm not a big enough (or good enough) person to get past all of these
things. I just don't see the unity, peace, and maturity
in our churches, as described in Ephesians 4.
Oddly enough, church became a stress factor for me--one that was
removed when I stopped going to church. Somehow, the pressure
of the church, and knowing about its inner workings, caused a lot of
stress for me, at a time when I desperately needed to relieve my depression and anxiety. Ironically, perhaps I've been edified
by not attending church.
Furthermore, I believe that it may be God's will for me not to attend church. I think that the churches I would attend are better off
without me. I would just be disrupting things as noted above. Perhaps the best way for me to edify the church is not to attend.
Summary
So, am I any better than our church leaders? No, I'm
not. However, none of my experiences have helped me to feel any better about this dire situation. After seeing the inner
workings of the church,
as mentioned above, I lost my will to serve my church
in any public capacity, and I resigned from my committee memberships. In short order, I stopped teaching Sunday
school, and soon after that I found that I was hardly attending church
at all. Or, maybe I do still attend church
regularly, just not in the traditional way. I believe that anyone who meets for Bible study (including the Internet),
gives to the poor, or cares for the sick is practicing Church.
Am I just another whiner, who doesn't receive enough strokes in church?
Maybe so. Has Satan found my weakness,
exploited it, and fooled me into stopping my commitments to the church?
I don't know--maybe so. These are additional struggles in my dilemma. I don't know whether to
feel guilty about not better serving my church,
or to feel good about "stepping out" in my faith.
Owen Weber 2011
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