The Church...Club to Join or Future of Christian Faith

I saw a Catholic cartoon recently and on the cartoon a little girl was rejected admittance to her friends’ Superhero Club, until she exhibited great bravery by jumping into the river and saving a three-year-old boy. The superheroes henceforth offered her an invitation to join their club, which she denied boldly proclaiming to be a part of the greatest club of all—the church.

Is there perhaps a better way to describe the Church today? Are we teaching our children that being part of the Body of Christ is likened unto membership in a super-duper club? Is that something we should be proud of? Would Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, be content with the consideration of Christianity as a social club? Would Peter consider the Christianity for which he was, crucified upside down, a social club? Would Paul take all those stripes, be stoned, imprisoned, and ship-wrecked time and time again for a social club? A study of the book of the Acts of the Apostles has no such mention of this social club of Christianity. I doubt Jesus had “social club” in mind when He said “If anyone would come after me, He must deny himself take up his cross and follow Me.” The members of the early church would scoff at our pitiful attempt to do church today in America.

Let us examine the definition of social club: a formal association of people with similar interests. Think of your church group, and compare and contrast it with the definition of social club. Chances are you are finding that your church group fits the definition for social club very well. That might not seem entirely bad, on the surface. Naturally your church group is a group people gathered together formally for a common purpose. The American Heritage Dictionary defines church as “a building for public, especially Christian worship.” Okay, now let us examine what is before us. Given these two definitions we can define Christianity in America as, “a social club gathered together in a church.” Now I suppose it seems a bit worse eh (that is not a typo)? A few more components to American Christianity should be added to this definition including (with no particular order: excruciatingly tight schedule (in order to keep mandatory lunch obligations), no more than two meetings per week, assigned seating, sour countenances, and invitations printed only for those whom we like. Finally we can construct the entire definition of American Christianity: a social club gathered together with an excruciatingly tight schedule, assigned seating, sour countenances, in a church; where invitations are only extended for those who are “liked” by the members of the social club.

We have a false concept of what “church” means. Church is not a place to go, or a thing to do, rather according to the original Greek it is “a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly.” Read that closely, “a gathering of citizens;” so in other words, the Church is a group of people, not a building. If you have truly repented of sin and believed in Jesus, then you do not go to church, you are the Church. The aspects of the American church that seem to be missing from the scriptural church are the time schedule, the one particular building, the assigned seating, the sour countenances, and the lack of invitation. The American church also lacks the zeal, persecution, and witness that the New Testament church had so abundantly.
The Apostles saw thousands of people come to Jesus on multiple occasions, baptizing as many as three-thousand in one day. When is the last time any of our American churches saw more than ten or twenty (or one) come to Christ in one gathering? The early church was hated by the world around it for its radical message, and the members were often beaten and martyred for their faith? When is the last time one of our American churches was persecuted because of the radical message of faith in Jesus? The members of the early church took witnessing seriously, and took the message of the Gospel to the streets? When is the last time ten percent of a congregation of more went door-to-door witnessing in one day? Perhaps they had it all wrong in Peter, Paul, and John’s day. Perhaps the Apostles should have practiced hour long services, with twenty-five minute long sermons, five songs, and an offertory hymn. Timothy and Barnabas should have just made friends with the world, built a building, drank a cup of coffee, ate a doughnut, and gone to lunch where they could talk about things that are truly important; such as football and NASCAR.

Maybe we are apart of a great club, but that club is in direct contradiction to the Biblical picture of the Church. Eventually, if we do not correct this issue ourselves, this issue will be corrected for us and I do not believe we are going to enjoy the process of that correction.