If you, like me have attended church consistently over many years you’ve noticed some changes. It may appear to only be window dressing, but outward changes are birthed from inward beliefs and that never happens overnight. Dating back to the 1990’s it seems like more and more churches began to adopt a corporate marketing strategy in an attempt to appeal to people “seeking” God. Essentially the thought was, the one who can recruit the best can attract more. Better recruiting meant spending more money and for many churches that meant more debt. Those changes were reflective of a previous shift dating back to 1961 with the with the publication of Donald McGavran’s book The Bridges of God. The Church Growth Movement was something like a California Gold Rush with an attempt to get more people in the pews to grow church membership. Fast forward to the 90’s and churches continued to shift their focus from the Gospel as primary to becoming more like the world outside with a Christian twist. Media teams were now en vogue to make sure the lighting, sounds, and video quality projected the right image they were looking for. And once you added programs for the kids and hip hang outs for teenagers there was fun to be had by all the family.
Now I’m not here to talk about church marketing strategies and how they’ve become the opium of the Christian church (although I could give first hand accounts of several). Rather, I want to focus on those Christians who have been let down by such total church makeovers and are no longer gathering with a local body of believers every week. A few years ago I was attending a church in a lower middle class area and wanted to see what the religious pulse was of the community of the Church that I attended so I decided to go door to door with other church members to get to know the area. All in all we visited roughly 400 houses and not 1 person ever attended our church. Not because they weren’t “Christian”, roughly 20% already attended a different church, but in part because they didn’t see the need to attend or because the church I attended had a bad reputation dating back several years prior to my arrival. Over time disgruntled church members decided to retreat to their homes and never visit another church. They didn’t want to be where the “hypocrites” were. Needless to say, they weren’t looking in the mirror when they thought that.
The Bible commands every Christian to gather together regularly with a local body of Christians. To not gather together is to neglect one another, and when when go against the commands of Scripture we sin. I’m reminded of how not too long ago a friend from my church youth group days was asked if he attended church. He became evasive in answering the question. He began to defend himself and talk about how he and Jesus were good, even though he and his family no longer gathered with a body of Christ followers. Whenever you decide to go against the commands of Scripture you’re not good, but in sin. Speaking of sin, the prophet Isaiah said,
but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear (Isaiah 59:2).
Disobedience requires confession and repentance if you desire to have a good relationship with God.
Every Christ follower needs other Christ followers. This is a simple truth the Apostle Paul illustrated when speaking of Christians as members of 1 body,
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12).
You have one body with many members; feet, hands, toes, fingers, arms, legs, etc… Can you imagine thinking that cutting off those members is good and beneficial to your body? Sounds foolish doesn’t it? Instead, we need to come back to Scripture.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Hebrews 10:24,25).
The Greek word for “stir” means to encourage one another. We ALL need encouragement, and the writer of Hebrews says that we ought to “consider” how to encourage one another to love and good deeds. To consider means to “think very carefully about”, “to give attention to”. Every Christian is to give attention to encouraging one another by loving and caring for each other and that cannot be done when there is neglect in meeting together.
I think it’s time for those who call themselves Christians to live as Christians. Christians gather together to encourage one another. They don’t abandon the body of Christ because other members of the body don’t meet their standards. That kind of behavior only expresses an attitude of arrogance, being more concerned with one’s own needs instead of the needs of others. But instead, we need to …
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires (Romans 13:14).
That means walking in the light of Christ. What does that look like? Paul said it well,
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves (Philippians 2:4).
Following Christ requires among many other things, humility and love for others. Does your life reflect a love for others above yourself? That’s what it means to be a Christian (see Mark 10:27). Are you truly a follower of Jesus Christ or a Christian in name only? Hope to see you in church on Sunday.
Providence Reformed Baptist Church 