Once A Week Church
Is More Like Parole Than Worship
I don’t like the word ubiquitous but if ever there was a good time to use it, it is in reference to church.
Churches are everywhere, on every street corner, in every kind of building from cathedral to cardboard lean-to.
But what do we understand about church, really? What is the point of church? Is church something else other than how it’s been fashioned by centuries of human involvement? Has it been reduced to something less than what it could be or expanded to more than it should be? Have we narrowed the meaning and purpose?
To answer those questions, let’s talk facts.
Fact One: It’s Not A Place
This idea isn’t new. It’s been around a long time. In fact, it is so old it has died and resurrected several times. But it never changes.
Church is associated with a place, an address, a building, a cathedral but even those who agree that it isn’t any of those things still treat it like a place.
Almost all churches have contact details and own property. We spend more time and money giving people directions to church than we do giving them directions to God.
Going to church is a popular idea but it misses the point badly.
If anything, the church should be mobile, flexible, agile; ready and able to morph at a moments notice.
Fact Two: It’s Not A Service
Another word we associate with church is service, as in church service. And attending the service, like going to church, is another misleading concept.
Attending is neither an act of service nor a quality included on any list of virtues in the Bible. It isn’t one of the nine fruits of the Spirit.
The Bible does say we shouldn’t forsake the “assembling” of ourselves together but what exactly does that mean? Every Christian I know makes the assumption that the church service we attend weekly is what assembling refers to but maybe not.
Assembling is important, yes, but assembling and attending are not the same. There’s nothing ceremonial about assembling. It may or may not have a schedule.
Assembling is what friends and family do. They may set a time and a place for getting together but it’s not always a regular thing. Maybe this week, maybe not and when it happens, there’s interaction, fellowship, connection, caring, interest and concern.
That’s never been my experience in church.
Assembling is neither a church service nor a formality. People assemble for many things. Teaching is part of it but fellowship is always central. Church is where we practice loving the neighbor we don’t like.
Why do we call church get-togethers services? Because we can’t call them lectures. Someone preaches, teaches or shares in a church service, somewhat like a lecture, but that is not assembling. Assembling always involves fellowship, which is personal, church services have little of that.
In a lecture, there is accountability. In fellowship, it’s not needed.
Fact Three: It Is Not Worship
Church people should and do worship. But church is not the only place to do that. Attending is not the only way to express that.
Music is one way to worship but it isn’t required. If it were, deaf mutes would be left out. Music is more an add-on than a must.
Music is a thing of the heart. It doesn’t require musical notation or rhythm.
In some eras music was disallowed. Today it is almost required. Christians sing in church and many popular musicians got their start in church. All of that is fine but never forget that hymns came out of hearts not heaven. If you want to worship, write your own song.
I wouldn’t say a church service is wrong. It isn’t immoral. Many people come to salvation in a service. On occasion someone learns something important.
But a church service isn’t church. It is one method a church can use to accomplish its goals but it shouldn’t define church.
Preparing for and conducting a church service is one way to serve but very few Christians are serving in a service.
Fact Four: It Isn’t Preaching Or Teaching
From popular experience you get the idea that it isn’t church if no one preaches. I’m using the term preach broadly to mean anything from an ordered teaching session (classroom) to a five minute testimonial.
Church folks meet together for all kinds of occasions and when they do, one or more people usually make some kind of point publicly for all the rest. The point is usually about salvation. Even weddings are used to reiterate these truths.
I’m not saying that is absolutely wrong. There is a place for teaching. Whatever we know about anything we learned and there is plenty to learn about God.
Further, the Bible clearly says that one method God chose to spread the Gospel was preaching and that is usually confined to a church service but we need to think carefully before we make that the ringtone for weekly Christian living.
The Bible also refers to preaching as foolishness, which at least suggests that after a point it becomes nothing more than the noisy gong or clanging cymbal Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13.
His emphasis in that chapter was love and if love is in force, preaching won’t become a droning avalanche of ritualized ideas.
Fact Five: It isn’t Thought-Restrictive
Usually, each church is led by one person. That one person gathers a group of inner-circle individuals who are loyal to the lead person and this small group of people, usually men, determine what thoughts are allowed in the public hearing.
They control what people do and what people say.
This approach is excused as a way of protecting congregants from error and the congregation from division.
If you have any experience with different types of churches, you know how controlling this group can be.
But Paul made a curious statement in 1 Corinthians about wrong ideas in church. He said there must be differences (divisions or heresies) to show who is approved and who is not (1 Cor. 11:19). His words:
For there must also be factions (heresies, differing ideas) among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.
What you find in most churches is exactly the opposite. One prominent, very large church, which broadcasts services on TV regularly, prohibits anyone who believes in Calvinism from teaching in any class and there are many classes.
I’m not a Calvinist and wouldn’t like listening to anyone teaching it but prohibiting others from hearing it is actually not what the Bible teaches.
The differences have a way of making the truth known. Truth is what we’re aiming for and in this approach Paul said the truth would eventually emerge. He didn’t say what that would look like but if you believe the Bible is inspired, you have to accept this as a fact. Resolution will occur for the individual if we let it play out without rancor.
Seems scary but the fact is we don’t and shouldn’t be afraid of ideas that differ. The church shouldn’t be thought-restrictive.
Fact Six: It Isn’t Inspired
The Bible is inspired, the church is not. Church is not something you believe in. “Belief” is reserved for things we can neither see nor explain.
I believe in God even though I can’t prove He exists.
I believe in the Bible even though there are questions I can’t explain.
I believe in Jesus even though I’ve never seen Him physically.
I live and do church. I interact with fellow Christians and even non-Christians daily. It’s not once a week. Even family relationships are to some degree church-like.
Once-a-week church is more like parole than fellowship. It’s a good way to control and corral but it also has the tendency to become cultish.
What you hear in church services repeatedly, even the wrong stuff, doesn’t fade easily but we treat it like it’s inspired. It’s not.
Give yourself a break from church occasionally. Relate to people who aren’t fed an endless dose of thou-shalt-nots. Look for right, good, decent things to do and do them out from under the canopy of church and you might find more church in that than you do in a service.
THINK!AboutIt
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