Over the past few days, my blog reader stream has a lot of bits on Christian community, especially so after Ann Rice’s disillusionment with church. Statistically, her approach is pretty common. Some data presented last fall indicated folks identifying themselves with a body of believers has dropped in a huge way, yet, by the same token, the number of folks identifying as atheist or agnostic has not changed.
My personal experiences with a multitude of non-churched folks from any number of denominations seems to bear that out as well. Many folks absolutely love Jesus… but the church, not so much, or for some, their is absolute outrage, and hate for the church. In other case, some really odd practices show up, more than a few times, and in more than a few denominations, I’ve seen parents drop off their kids, and then retreat to the car, when upon they are reading the Bible… seeking Christ, but totally blowing off the body of believers in some cases by less than 20 meters!
Academically, believers know that the body of believers is a busted up broken mess, afterall, it is made up of hypocritical sinners, both lay and clergy. We all fall short of the glory of God, and non has all their ducks in a row. In the heart though… there is hope, that within the body of believers, faith, hope, and love exist… that its not just an eternal thing with Christ after we kick the bucket, but that within the church on earth, faith, hope, and love can be found, albeit imperfectly… and of course imperfectly, at least in the human realm ranges from minor, to incredibly major soul damaging, or possibly even destroying actions.
How should we as individuals respond?
The big issue is not that the church is imperfect, but more so how we respond to said imperfections. Five common approaches which I believe to be in error are denial, passivity, perpetual church shopping, abandonment, and failure to take responsibility. I wouldn’t necessarily say all are in error all the time. Certainly in the event of massive trauma, such approaches may be the only way of coping. Lets look at each one.
Deny
We’ve all seen the denial approach, ie the church, the pastor, the believers etc can do no wrong… and if accused, and even convicted, the stance taken is such was man’s error in judgment. In other cases, denial is advocated by well meaning Christians with a “well tough for you, but Christ commands us not to forsake the assembly, so suck it up” approach.
Go Passive
Passivity is a common approach, its pretty easy to appear not forsaking the assembly by just putting in seat time… and not engaging, not edifying, not doing much of anything, other than warming a pew for an hour once a week. In a large congregation it can be pretty easy to just slip in and out un-noticed. Such is not all bad, as most assuredly God’s word doesn’t return void, and a whole lot of osmosis goes on just by being present. On the other hand, seat time only likely has led to a lot of Sunday morning only Christianity too. Edification takes at minimum 2 parties willing to engage… passivity on one of them doesn’t work out too well.
Perpetual Church Shopping
Perpetual church shopping is another possible approach… Wing in, get challenged, and leave as it seems too much, or one may walk in to find it cold, either emotionally, or thermally, or one gets “no feeling” from a church, or a multitude of other reasons. The end result… a near continuous series of church experiences, a lack of pastoral connectedness, and a lack of mutual edification.
Abandonment
Abandonment is of course another option, and for some it may be the only option. Case in point a church going off in lala land, and logistically there being no other options. I think its also understandable in the case of trauma such may be the only possibility, at least for a limited period of time. As healing progresses, a passive approach such as radio, tv, or internet church may provide some level of connectedness to the body of believers.
Blow off Personal Responsibility
Failure to take responsibility is perhaps one of the most pervasive responses, hey, its not my problem. Responses of “Its those peoples fault”, or its the pastors fault can give a false sense of security, but such has a way of circling back on oneself.
The proverbial… “Well, Jesus didnt really mean that” or “Hey, lets not take this so far” when responding to Jesus hard core sayings are not helpful. The “hey, pastor is the spiritual guy… let him/her take care of it alone, its not our problem” is not helpful. The corruption of the church via hate, bigotry, greed, envy, etc while individuals sit back and do nothing is not cool either. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” seems all too true” while written from a secular standpoint does ring all too true within the church.
Engage and take responsibility, a better solution
A better solution, albeit it may not always be possible, is to admit the problems exist, and to be there, not to cast judgment, but to share in the suffering, and mourn with one another. To be there, and to shine ones light brightly, as light very much illuminates the darkness. To be there, to preach the Gospel at all times, and if need be to use words. To be there to engage, and edify one another. To be there, when pastor needs encouragement, to be there to help one another.
Thanks for writing this Ron– its something that has been on my mind lately and something I don’t exactly know how to open up and tell my Christian friends how I’m feeling.
I’m just talking about the Catholic Church and all of the issues we’ve been going through and how it has made a lot of Catholics just want to up and leave. I’m upset that the RCC has people in it that want to destroy the faith and I’m upset that I don’t know exactly what can be done. I don’t take the “its not my problem” approach, but after sending e-mails out to bishops and priests stating my pov and getting no response it just all seems pointless.
I can’t see myself leaving the Church because that is where I find the Sacraments and I don’t believe just anybody can bless the host and wine. Along with the Sacraments, I continue to attend Mass because it is where we celebrate the Lord and worship Him– it’s not so much about the people, but it is about God. Perhaps if I focus on worship and not so much on fellowship, it’ll get me through this.
But honestly I can’t blame people for leaving the Catholic Church and right now a homegroup is looking good. I continue to come back because of the Mass and because of the Sacraments.
What God does through the Sacraments is uber powerful… but also consider how He works through the fellowship of believers, even massively broken ones. God’s work through the Sacraments is massively huge, visible, and perfect… yet, through the believers, it often appears small but rarely really is, its often hidden away under layers of broken humaness, and our response to such will always be imperfect. Ultimately though, God is accomplishing great things through the fellowship of believers, even if we dont necessarily percieve such.
I guarantee you are not alone with your feelings in the fellowship arena. I think if you drew a 5 meter radius from where you sit in a pew on any given day, you would find at least 2 or 3 people if not a whole multitude with the same thinking. The thing is… folks rarely talk about such, other than perhaps the loudmouthed individual with an ax to grind… which often ends up being more poison than edification.
Have you gotten involved in any of the lay ministries within the Catholic church? You might well find that even if a group is named ABCDEF, and does GHIJKL… in a whole lot of ways, said group is like a home group, but with the benefit of mass, with the benefit of the the incredible heaving lifting that only a massive fellowship of believers is capable of. Granted, its unlikely you will see the home group parallel when initially walking in the door, but for a many of them, said parallels are there, but it may take some time before it becomes obvious.