PTM WEEKLY UPDATE -- FEBRUARY 25, 2008
What our readers and listeners say
Do I have to go to church?
Greg answers an Air Force chaplain who objects to his answers in the February 11 PTM Weekly Update
I just read with interest your response to the inquiry, "Am I a bad person if I don't go to church?" While I agree with the premise of your response, the tone of your response saddens me.
• I am honored to discuss this subject with you, given the position you have and the rank you have been given by our nation's armed forces. Allow me to thank you for your service to our country, and speaking on behalf of many American citizens whom I serve, thank you for serving the spiritual needs of men and women in uniform.
I have re-read my response to the individual who asked "Do I Have To Go to Church?" several times -- and I am puzzled by your sadness. I can only assume that you are saddened by the fact that I take umbrage with religious counterfeits that partially or virtually completely war against (pun intended) the gospel of Jesus Christ. Perhaps you are not altogether familiar with the ministry PTM has, or the predicament of many of those we serve.
You may not be aware that a majority of those who seek us out for help (including many whose questions I answer and then publish in our weekly update) are survivors of religious bondage/abuse/mistreatment. Some simply cannot, for a myriad of reasons, ever bring themselves to walk through the doors of a church building again. They are alienated from institutionalized, organized religion (for better or for worse).
For example, as you well know there are some Christians who believe that the teachings of Jesus Christ mean that they cannot serve in the military. Their pacifist positions and perspectives must be understood as one attempts to understand and appreciate their beliefs and practices. Without definitively addressing the biblical pros and cons of a Christian's perspectives about involvement in warfare, I would only note that a pacifist may well be saddened to read of other Christians who take, from their perspective, a strident and jingoistic approach to warfare. In a similar way, someone who "goes to a building" as a way of "going to church" may prefer that I join them -- but I see no biblical necessity that I must worship God within four walls.
I agree the Christian life is about a living relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not about rules or rituals, geographic locations or ecclesiastical surroundings. But your response still saddens me because it reflects what I see often shadowing your remarks, a strongly negative view of the organized Church.
• I am not a fan of institutionalized religion. However, I believe, as I articulated in the response to which you have reservations, that Christ may infiltrate any "place" -- deemed to be holy or not by humans. The structure of a religious system is not the determinent as to ones relationship with God.
First, I am sorry for whatever church body or church authority may have wounded you. I am almost certain there is something painful in your personal journey of faith because you frequently seem to speak of the organized church in a pejorative manner.
• You are correct in that I have been wounded, but you are incorrect if you assume that I am simply lashing out at the world because I have been hurt. I am in ministry, attempting to reach religious refugees, attempting to help those who were beaten, left by the side of the road, discarded and avoided by religious institutions who passed by on the other side of the road. PTM believes that the most effective help we can render to such people is to direct them to the Good Samaritan who can mend them and heal them.
While I was personally wounded by unbiblical, authoritarian and cultic teaching and practice, I am far more concerned with the fact that I myself (unknowingly) inflicted religion on others, in the name of God. I was woefully unaware of what I was doing -- I was a true believer -- and I bought into a religious program -- hook, line and sinker. At the time I thought I was a part of the "only true church" (ironically, only to find out years later that there are many groups/churches who see themselves as the "only, true church").
In some respects my model of my life now is Paul, who was once Saul, now transformed by God's grace. Paul minces no words about religious legalism and abuse. Neither do I. Again, to disclaim, lest you misunderstand the force of my remarks, I am not saying I am some kind of latter day Paul -- I am simply one of many tools of God -- and willing to be of service as and where I might. I am not some modern day Paul -- not by a long shot.
For example, you refer to people who prefer to attend a larger church rather than a small one as they don't "feel right . . . " OK, some people might get wrapped up in judging an organized body simply by its size, but can’t there be some people who prefer a larger gathering because it gives them more opportunity for involvement in ministry?
• Of course they may -- and I tried, in a short answer, to include for such possibilities. But the person who sought my help was bleeding, they were hurting. They needed help. They didn't need me to say that they absolutely had to return to a place where they had been wounded and abused, in the name of God.
My family and I visited dozens of churches before choosing to make one of the largest churches in town our home. Why? Because the church offered multiple opportunities for our children to serve in ministry – choir, bell choir, youth group, mission trips, etc. – that the others simply did not. My wife and I loved the fact that the church also put as a first priority caring for the poor in our community, and she and our kids volunteered weekly in the food pantry. We also loved the fact that our church was one of the first to respond to the needs after Hurricane Katrina – and still continue to send work groups at least twice a month. This wasn't a judgment against any of the other churches. It simply made this church particularly attractive to us because it was serving the broader community.
• My answer did not attempt to diminish your choice of a home church, or your relationship with God. Your choice to worship God in the worship setting you have found is wonderful. I thank God for such healthy, Christ-centered churches, and the many men and women who serve in such environments. God can and does work in both large and small churches.
But I don't need to attempt to prove to you that our American culture has dictated that bigger is better. Many people "feel better" because they are in a large church. For them, size matters. For God, it doesn't. That's part of the point. I know scores - perhaps hundreds -- of pastors of small churches (attendance averaging under 100, for the purpose of this discussion). Many of them are depressed and discouraged by Wal Mart religion that has become so attractive to so many evangelical Protestants. They feel diminished. They feel of little if any value, given the mega-church a few miles away. I know pastors who no longer pastor, because a mega-church opened up a few miles away and their congregation slowly drifted away, swallowed up by the mega-church.
Perhaps some of the churches that some of my friends pastored needed to die (there are churches that need to die). But then again, maybe some of their congregation were seduced by the glitz, and the sizzle of the mega-church, and left for what to them seemed to be a better place. Of course, the opposite could happen as well -- someone leaving their big church, expecting that their big church was their problem, and that the panacea was a small church -- only to find that church buildings, liturgical procedures, theological methodologies, are not the real crux of one's relationship with our Lord and Savior.
I don't think your answer responds to the questioner’s deeper need. It seems apparent he or she has been wounded by something or someone in a previous church encounter. Rather than helping the questioner find healing or wellness, you simply send a message akin to "some churches might wound you, so stay away from church."
• Now I must take exception with your thoughts . I take my job seriously, and I do my best to reflect Jesus. I appreciate that you are entitled to your opinion, and that you may sincerely feel I did not help this person. If someone is thrown off a toxic, spiritually unhealthy religious horse, I don't think, in order for them to have a healthy relationship with God, that they must return to a religious institution. God may be found within a religious institution, and he may be found outside of one. I appreciate your input, however, for I know that there is much about me that needs work -- and by God's grace, he will continue to work within me. I don't want to be what I believe I should be -- or for that matter you or anyone else thinks I should be -- I want to be his workmanship. So thanks for your candid thoughts, though I must disagree.
The church is more than empty rituals.
• Yes, the body of Christ is more than empty rituals. There are physically incorporated entities, and geographically located, brick and mortar buildings that are more than empty rituals. But I happen to know that there are some religious places that exist, in the name of God, that are little more than empty rituals. Of course, in spite of that fact, in spite of the pervasiveness of spiritual death in such religious environments, I also know and believe that Jesus can and does have his own, who in the midst of spiritual death, actually live in Him. They live in Him in such toxic places not because of liturgy, ritual and ceremonies -- but in spite of them.
Finally, you are right in saying we don't have to go to church because we are a church. But I disagree that we can do it alone. You said "church" is only used twice in the gospels. That's true. You mentioned that "remain" is used ten times in just a few verses. Also true. What you failed to mention is the important phrase, "one another" which appears repeatedly throughout the gospels and the epistles. The "Jesus and me" tradition of some Christians today sadly has removed us from a living relationship with one another. "Going to" church lets me have a living relationship with others of like faith. Some may rub me wrong. I know I rub others wrong. Still, we stick together and encourage one another and build one another up. I have a living relationship with my brothers and sisters in the organized church that I simply do not get from the radio or the internet, and that relationship stretches and challenges and enriches my relationship with Jesus Christ. It is true – I am the church (or at least one small part of it) but it is also true that I need the other parts of the body and they need me.
• You did not, in bringing up texts that mention one another, attempt to explain why my exegesis (supplied in my answer) of the fellowship we have with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as explained in 1 John, was remiss in some way. Most importantly, we must have a living relationship with God. We can have a living relationship with other people, in a club, in a church, in a school, at our office -- in many places -- but unless we have a living relationship with God our relationships with other humans, regardless of how "holy" the atmosphere might be, is temporal, physical, and has no spiritual life at all.
Going to church helps me to practice BEING the Church. But I won’t settle for just any church. I want a church that puts love of Jesus Christ and compassion for Christ's people before rules and empty rituals. But I absolutely need the church! For me, the church is not just a convenience or a luxury and certainly not something to be endured, it is a delight and essential for my walk with Christ.
Very respectfully,
Senior Protestant Chaplain, USAF
• But your point of going to a building to practice being the church begs the issue, it seems. Yes, going to a geographical location can help anyone of us practice being the church. But is that the only way to "practice" or "to be" the church? I can go to get the oil in my car changed and practice being the church. Can I practice and be the church outside of religious institutional structures and physical buildings? Can I be the church on a bus, in the grocery store, at Starbucks, as I mow my front yard, as I talk to the mailman, as I work in my office, or when I go to the gym to work out? Can I be the church and meet with four or five people in my living room, without a religious professional present? Will Jesus be in and with me wherever I am? Will Jesus leave me if I fail to "attend" a particular kind of service in a particular location? That's the issue.
May I also remind you of my respect for you, your relationship with God, and the service you provide. Thank you that we can discuss such a "touchy" matter as brothers in Christ. May God's blessings be with you.
Your brother in Christ
Greg AlbrechtRETURN TO PTM WEEKLY UPDATE CONTENTS PAGE
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