Why Church Matters
Is it okay to be “spiritual but not religious?” Why do we need the church? If we believe in God, and we’re nice people, what is the church for? Why does being a part of a church matter? If I post a Bible verse on social media and listen to a sermon podcast, I’m good for the week, right?
If the music is boring, sermon uninspiring, and the people unfriendly, then why bother? What value does church have?
I have found myself within the gravity of the church pretty much since the day I was born.My grandfather was a preacher. My parents continue to be extremely involved in church. I’ve been to megachurches. I’ve been to house churches. I’ve been to seminary, and I’ve been ordained.
Despite my experience, perhaps in part because of it, I’m not naive about the pain and disappointment some experience. Churches are terrible places. Churches are beautiful places. Church has been a place of my greatest joys. Church has also been a place of my deepest wounds. On more than one occasion I’ve found myself in a place, feeling fully justified to walk away and shake the dust off my feet. But I don’t.
How do you know the real Jesus?
I have a friend who likes to ask his undergraduate classes, “How do you know that the Jesus you know is the real Jesus?” The classroom buzzes with discussion, and eventually he leads them to a place of wondering, what if we know who Jesus is because of the Church. We know Jesus because of the mentors and pastors and regular people we rub shoulders with every Sunday as they live out the Christian life in front of us. Church is a people—a people in which we are embedded.
The Church as a gathering of people
The Church isn’t a building. The Church isn’t a one-hour, once a week show, a sing-and-speak, the sage-on-the-stage. The Church is people.
In the New Testament, when we find the word “church,” we’re looking at the Greek word ekklesia, which had political, and not spiritual, connotations. An ekklesia was a gathering of people. We first see it in Acts 5:11. It’s not until Acts 11:26 that we find the word “Christians.”
This is important. It’s the Church that makes Christians, not Christians that make the Church.Becoming a Christian is not a decision I make on my own. It’s not a belief I individually hold. Becoming a Christian happens slowly over time in the context of a community. There’s something to Jesus’ metaphor of being born again. Nobody simply decides to be born on their own. It happens in the context of a family. The Church is the place where I am spiritually formed.
The practice of the first churches
So if the Church isn’t a rock concert and a TED talk about God, then what does it do? In many ways the practices of the early church may look familiar to us, and in other ways they may seem entirely foreign.
Our best glimpse into what a church service looked like comes from Justin Martyr, perhaps a generation removed from the book of Acts. Here’s what he writes:
And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time allows;
then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbal instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.
Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen;
and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.
And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succors the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.
To recap,
They met on Sunday (in a Roman world that worked 7 days a week) because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday.
Scripture is read aloud.
A leader affirms and comments on the Scripture, encouraging the congregation to do what it says.
They pray together.
They experience some form of communion or Eucharist.
A portion of the bread and wine is set aside to sent to those who are absent.
A collection is taken for the poor—orphans, widows, those in jail, immigrants, any needy person.
This is what some of the earliest church services looked like.
Church as the evidence of the Gospel
Lesslie Newbigin spent his career as a missionary in India. When he “retired” and came back to England, he found himself a stranger to Western culture. He then wrote several books about mission and culture and church. In one essay called “Church as a Hermeneutic of the Gospel” he lays out six markers of the Church. I think these make a compelling case as to why church matters.
The Church matters because it is a community of praise. Gratitude moves mountains. The practice of thankfulness uniquely marks the church in a culture of cynicism.
The Church matters because it is a community of truth. In a world where “fake news” and “alternative facts” exist, the Church offers the gift of truth.
The Church matters because it is a community that does not live for itself but is deeply involved in the concerns of its neighborhood. The Church cultivates neighborliness in a way not found anywhere else. A local church is devoted to local places. The Church loves neighbors.
The Church matters because it is a community where men and women are prepared for and sustained in the exercise of priesthood in the world. It’s the place where we’re taught how to bring the needs of our community to God and how to take the Word of God into the needs of our community.
The Church matters because it is a community of mutual responsibility. When I receive the Eucharist in my community, I can’t escape the thought, “I belong to you, and to you, and to you,” as my eyes scan the room. We belong to one another.
The Church matters because it is a community of hope. In a world prone to bad news, despair, and anxiety, hope is a precious, subversive, and beautiful gift. Hope changes the world. The Church knows hope.
There’s no Jesus without Church
When I’ve been hurt by the Church, and chosen not to walk away from it all, it’s not because of some idealistic notion or abstract theological commitment, vision, or idea. Rather, it’s because some flesh and blood human being cared deeply enough about me to make space for me.
If you find yourself hurt by the Church, I’m so sorry. God has chosen to build the Church with frail human beings, some more broken than others, and broken people break things. The Church is very big. While in some of its corners you may find mean, spiteful, and petty individuals, in other places you’ll find kind, generous, and helpful people sincerely pursuing God.
A commonly shared metaphor of Church is the bride of Christ. Now if you wanted to hang out, but you didn’t want anything at all to do with my wife, I’d have say that we probably weren’t going to work out as friends. We can’t be a part of Jesus and not a part of a local expression of his Church. It’s impossible. There’s no groom without a bride.
It is through all these local expressions of Church that God has chosen to remake the entire world.
This is why Church matters.
If you’re looking for some good resources to refresh your imagination for what church can be, I’d recommend these:
Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Faithful Presence by David Fitch
The Ministry of the Missional Church by Craig van Gelder
Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith
Fellowship of Differents by Scot McKnight
The Patient Ferment of the Early Church by Alan Kreider