Challenging Low Views of Church
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 11:12AM I often talk to people who have low views of the church. Some of the most common:
- the consumer view - the church just isn't meeting my needs
- the voluntary association view - I'll participate in the church as I would a club, as often as I can given my existing commitments
- the critical view - I have no time for the church
- the anti-establishment view - the church isn't organic enough and therefore I will bail out until it gets its act together
There really are two underlying problems. On one hand is a form of self-centeredness, in which we make church subordinate to our needs. William Willimon asks, "When, in Seeker Services, do we pull out the cross? When, as we're touting all the benefits of Jesus, do we also say to them, 'By the way, Jesus said that anyone who bought into his message would also suffer and die.'" Good questions.
The other underlying problem is pride. Our critical attitudes sometimes betray our belief that we are better than the church. It's much healthier to see ourselves as part of the problem: when we criticize the church, we are criticizing ourselves.
I need constant reminders of what the Bible says about the church, because I'm tempted to miss what's right in front of me. Paul says that the church - not the perfect church that doesn't exist, but the real messy church all around us - reveals the multifaceted wisdom of God to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 3:10). Try thinking about that the next time you don't think much of the church.
C.S. Lewis confronted low views of church in his day:
The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion: some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted in the Epistles. So we must be regular practicing members of the Church. (The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3)
No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as "what a man does with his solitude."...Christianity is already institutional in the earliest of its documents. The Church is the Bride of Christ. We are members of one another. (The Weight of Glory)
Lewis also spoke of how the church confronted his own pride:
I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren't fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit. (God in the Dock)
If you want something stronger than Lewis, then these words from John Calvin should do it: "The abandonment of the church is always fatal." (Institutes)
We need a rich theology of the church. We need to remember what she will one day be - a church of splendor, without any spot or wrinkle or blemish (Ephesians 5:27). We need to challenge consumer views, and we need to challenge critiques from the outside. Humble critiques from the inside are much better.
Maybe Augustine (if the quote truly came from him) got the tension right: "The church is a whore, but she's my mother."
Reader Comments (14)
i agree with much of what you are saying but must contend that the apriori assumption is that the problem lies with the individual. what if the specific object of disdain is so corrupted as to be rendered useless?
Scott,I guess I believe that both people and churches are problems. Or, to put it differently, I am as big a problem as the church. I probably won't outgrow this in this life either, as much as I would like to.I certainly think there is a role for challenging what's wrong with the church. And I agree that not everything that calls itself a church is a church. But I think some go too far in miss that God is at work in the mess - and they are part of the mess themselves.
Great post, Triple D. As I find my way back to a non Fresh Expression of church, I am strangely comforted and excited. This does not mean I'm leaving my focus on missional church, but rather I am recognizing that we live in a both/and church economy - rather than the either/or in which I was too often a polemical blogger.I do confess, however, that poor Michael Servetus came to mind when you quoted Calvin. :-)I further confess that it is very strange to be experiencing DashHouse as a WordPress blog. You were one of the last great MovableType kinda guys. I look forward to seeing your face soon!
"The Church is the Bride of Christ." There are times I want a divorce! “The church is a whore, but she’s my mother.” There are also times I would rather be adopted by another family. As Uncle John noted on the weekend: "The biggest hypocrites are in the Church."Define "church" please. One thing it is NOT is an edifice, a building. Another thing it is NOT is a denomination. While I am now a fairly happy member of a congregation of similar-minded people, I still shudder at the thought of "churchianity."
Darryl,I think the church deserves all the criticsm it has received. My hope is that the pile on will continue. 80% of church budgets go to salaries and buildings. It's an outrage.In Ireland today, the gov't released yet more sexual and physical abuses in schools for boys run by the Church.Pew research released a poll in which the majority of Christians support torture of terrorists. http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/ In fact the more I reflect in History the church has been on the wrong side of almost every major moral issue of the 20th and 21st century. The majority of Christians supported Jim Crow laws, the majority of Christians discriminate against gays and lesbians, the majority of Christians support subjucation of women (especially in evangelical churches...how many women pastors in your denomination?)Why should I have a high view of church?Rob
Rob:Tim Keller says that the critiques of the church are the hardest objections against Christianity to answer, because many of them are true. Christ himself had a lot of harsh things to say to churches in Revelation 2-3.You're right in a lot (not all) of what you say about the church's faults. I guess I've reached the point where I've looked at the alternatives and found them wanting. The gospel provides what we need to critique churches like nothing else does, but it does it in a way that provides hope (unlike every other type of critique).In the end a high view of church comes from the fact that God has a high view of the church. Certainly not because of the church itself.
"We need to remember what she will one day be - a church of splendor, without any spot or wrinkle or blemish"Indeed she will be, and a heck of a lot of people running denominations and sitting in the pews are going to have to come to terms that within that splendor will be many they had no time or place for.
Darryl, I agree with your analysis that the "church is there to serve me" mindset is not valid. And I agree wholeheartedly that we soft-peddle both the message and the cost of following Jesus far too often. But I'm a bit confused by your assertion that we need to "challenge critiques from the outside." Maybe this comes down to question Art asks about defining what the church is.If by outside, you mean the unbelieving world, then I would have to say the only challenge we can present is the Truth about Jesus, the witness we have of what He's done in our lives, and the lives we live. How well we do that will determine how well we challenge that criticism. Jesus was pretty clear that the world would be critical, particularly if we are actually doing the church thing right. That doesn't mean that all of the outside criticism is not valid, but we have to recognize that the world-views of an unbelieving world and a believing church are inherently in conflict.If the criticism is coming from brothers and sisters who have left us, or who have set themselves outside, then as assemblies we need at the very least to determine whether they still have something to say to us that may be true, and ask whether we have something of which to repent.This is the case even if their motives are bad, selfish, or prideful, which they may or may not be. Just because they may have wrong motives doesn't necessarily mean we don't have a problem. And even if we don't have a problem, a little self-evaluation before reacting never hurt. If we take the log out of our eye we might be able to help them remove the speck from theirs.I guess what I'm saying is that both as individuals and as churches, perfection is a ridiculous expectation, but repentance is not.I think it is important for us to remember that we can reach a point as churches where we no longer really represent Jesus and His purposes. I guess that's why I have problems relating to Augustine's position - I'm afraid that if the church becomes what he describes, maybe it's no longer the church. Not because it sins, but because it does so unrepentantly. Some of the churches in Revelation were confronted by the ultimate possibility that they would lose their lampstands if they failed to repent, and while I don't know what that entails exactly, I suspect it mostly means they weren't going to be entitled to speak the Truth any more. That's about the worst outcome I can imagine.
Bene and Jeremy: Great points.There are a few weaknesses in this post. I think it's hard to talk about this without defining what I mean by leaving the church and critiquing it from the outside. That's going to have to be another post. And, if Jesus threatens to leave a church (or remove his lampstand), then maybe there is a time to leave a particular church as well.I guess I am concerned that many have disengaged entirely and are pretty much alone, thinking that church for them means the odd coffee or golf game with another believer. No teaching, no sacrament, no commitment come hell or high water to another group of messy people who are, frankly, quite inconvenient at times. This isn't to deny that the church has problems and needs correction. It's just to say that God (for whatever reason) has chosen to work through the church, and hasn't really left us an option to withdraw from it.Still to come: what I mean by the church (which probably should have come first).
Rob, what's wrong with our church spending 80% of its budget for our minister?
Thanks Darryl. That clarifies a lot for me. I agree wholeheartedly that we have to have the church. I just wanted to make sure I knew where you were coming from.J
Where'd you get the Augustine quote from? That's wild.
Steve Brown quotes it a lot. It may be ecclesiastical legend though - lots of secondary sources, but I still have not found a primary source.
It must come from his anti-Donatist writings. I'll keep my eyes peeled.