Rethinking Church

Why “church as usual” might not make sense any more

A series of public addresses in the summer of 2001 and 2002.

It is nothing new that people walk away from their churches hurt, disgruntled, disgusted, and just tired of it all.   And why not.  Sometimes churches can be irrelevant, manipulative, and even hurtful.  In the name of God, we lay people waste.  Across the country churches of all stripes are dying and struggling, and church leaders are scrambling to know what to do.

All kinds of things have been suggested as the problem.  Churches are said to be either out of touch with people, or out of touch with its own past.  They are said to be either too focused on the "law" of the Bible, or too interested in grace. Maybe churches should modernize with fashionable new buildings and state-of-the-art contribution gathering systems;  or maybe we should go back to the old paths.  And on it goes.  Churches are dying and we struggle discover the causes and to throw them a life-line.

At the risk of sounding calloused and even "anti-God," I have an idea:  Let them die.  Who knows, maybe God has stepped in and is making a statement like,  "I'm tired of church as usual."   Maybe it is even stronger than that.  Maybe God hates what we've created.

I hate, I despise your worship times, and I can't stand your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your prayers and supplications, I will not accept them; even though you baptize and take communion, I will reject your offerings.  Enough with the noise of your songs! I will listen to your melodies no longer!  (cf. Amos 5:21ff)

It wouldn't be the first time God has bluntly told us how sick we make him.  From Amos to Revelation, statements are clear:  "I will vomit you out of my mouth!"  

Chilling, really, to think about this.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I am tired of church as usual.  And I don't mean "the other guys" who do church, I mean I'm tired of the way we as a society have come to do church.  The fact that I've participated in this bothers me to my core.    

I'm not saying that no one is faithful but me.  Nor am I saying that there are no good churches, or that all church leaders are bad, or anything of the kind.  I'm just tired of the trappings we have slapped over the way we do church.  I've been to a lot of churches in the last few years:  from Pentecostal to Roman Catholic, from Baptist to Methodist to Presbyterian, from Churches of Christ to Disciples of Christ, and from UCC to AME.  Three things are pretty clear to me about churches today:  

(1) we all look a lot more alike than we tend to think . . . in all the worst ways;  

(2) we've all done an unbelievable job creating our own little "Christian sub-cultures"  so different from anything else we experience that we have become bizarre;  and

(3) we don't live up to our "grace, love, and forgiveness" talk and we don't have any intentions of doing so.  

This last point I mean with all sobriety.  In the name of God, we produce some of the biggest hypocrites on the planet!  It doesn't matter whether we meet in the oldest and most revered house of worship in the state, or the newest fandangled architectural wonder in the worshipping world:  we Christians produce some of the saddest examples of humanity anywhere, bellowing grace and practicing law, or presenting an absolutely plastic facade of "holiness" that is sometimes as empty as it is annoying.  Yes, this includes me, and yes, there are certainly exceptions. 

 As long as there are people, we will need to continually reevaluate our efforts -- even our best efforts. As far as I'm concerned, "church as usual" (which means for me, church as we have come to practice it) has a lot more against it than for it.  I don't blame people for quitting.  In some cases, I even encourage it.

But just quitting is no answer, either.  Christianity is not a private religion.  It is, instead, a people-based and people-directed way of life.  Jesus is said to have died, "for the ekklesia," i.e., for Christians gathered.  Christianity is about followers of Jesus reaching out to one another and others, not about a single follower caving-in to personal weaknesses.  Just because we've created some horrible ways of being together as "church" does not mean the calling of Christ is flawed. 

We need to stop "doing" church and seriously rethink what it means to "be" church. Many are already doing this, so this is nothing new.  But it is a revolution that is forever reaching inside to the heart of a person.  That's what this series of lessons is about.  It won't be all-encompassing and it won't solve every issue.  But it will raise some points worth thinking about and, perhaps, will encourage others to think about their faith and the ways they express and live it. 

Grace and Peace,
Gary D. Collier