You Must Belong to The Club!

Follo­wing Jesus Means Belon­ging to a Local Con­gre­ga­tion so says Rick Warren.  yes, that Rick Warren, pas­tor of the Sadd­le­back mega–church in southern Cali­for­nia.  Typi­cal ans­wers, typi­cal Bibli­cal exe­ge­sis from a typi­cal pastor-type.

When Jesus wal­ked the earth, God wor­ked through the phy­si­cal body of Christ; today he uses his spi­ri­tual body. The church is God’s ins­tru­ment on earth. We are his hands, his feet, his eyes and his heart. He works through us in the world.  We each have a con­tri­bu­tion to make.

I agree with everything except the phrase “the church is God’s ins­tru­ment on earth”.  Where did this come from?  I have yet to find it in my Bible, at least Rick’s defi­ni­tion of church.  Jesus com­man­ded us to love one another and to make dis­ci­ples so we do have a con­tri­bu­tion to make but how did we get from there to today’s mas­sive reli­gious sys­tem of ump­teen variations?

A church family iden­ti­fies us as genuine belie­vers.  I can’t claim to be follo­wing Christ if I’m not com­mit­ted to any spe­ci­fic group of dis­ci­ples.  Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my dis­ci­ples” (John 13:35, NLT).

The verse is true but his inter­pre­ta­tion is not.   Well, maybe his words are right but he res­tricts “spe­ci­fic group of dis­ci­ples” to mean “local church.”  Sadly, I have been in churches that do not show love for one another, tho they claim to.  I dare you to leave your church, on good terms, and see how quickly you are drop­ped like a hot rock.  Where did all those “rela­tionships” sud­denly go?  The truth is that the peo­ple of this world do not care about what my Mem­bership Card may say.  They want and need to see Christ in my love for them.

A church family moves us out of self-centered isolation.

In truth I see more “self-centered iso­la­tion” from peo­ple asso­cia­ted with an Ins­ti­tu­tion than I do with my non-church asso­cia­tes.  Refer back to my pre­vious exam­ple about the hot rock.

The local church is the class­room for lear­ning how to get along in God’s family. It is a lab for prac­ti­cing unsel­fish, sym­pathe­tic love. As a par­ti­ci­pa­ting mem­ber you learn to care about others and share the expe­rien­ces of others: “If one part of the body suf­fers, all the other parts suf­fer with it. Or if one part of our body is hono­red, all the other parts share its honor” (1 Corinthians 12:26, NCV). Only in regu­lar con­tact with ordi­nary, imper­fect belie­vers can we learn real fellowship and expe­rience the New Tes­ta­ment truth of being con­nec­ted and depen­dent on each other.

Hmm, I guess that is true but is he saying that I can­not learn by simply loving those who do not know Christ?  I have dis­co­ve­red it  har­der to love, and have sin­cere rela­tionships with, those in the Ins­ti­tu­tion because of the higher con­cen­tra­tion of Posers.

No one will ever grow to matu­rity just by atten­ding worship ser­vi­ces and being a pas­sive spectator.

Agree.  Too many pas­sive belie­vers filling too many pews on Sunday.

Only par­ti­ci­pa­tion in the full life of a local church builds spi­ri­tual muscle. The Bible says, “As each part does its own spe­cial work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and gro­wing and full of love” (Ephe­sians 4:16, NLT).

Disa­gree.  “Only…”  Are you kid­ding me?  He says there is ONLY one ans­wer.  And why is my “own spe­cial work” res­tric­ted to the Ins­ti­tu­tion?  Too much Chris­tia­nity is lived out in the con­fi­nes of the church, it never gets beyond the walls, we put in our 2 hours in Sun­day mor­ning and then we return to our real life.  We must inte­grate our faith into our 24 x 7 life.  This is how the world gets impacted.

Over fifty times in the New Tes­ta­ment the phra­ses “one another” or “each other” are used. We are com­man­ded to love each other, pray for each other, encourage…and many other mutual tasks.  This is bibli­cal mem­bership! These are the “family res­pon­si­bi­li­ties” that God expects every belie­ver to ful­fill through a local fellowship. We need to ask those who attend our ser­vi­ces, “Who are you doing these with?”

This is not just a “family” res­pon­si­bi­lity.  This is my LIFE’s res­pon­si­bi­lity.  Other­wise it all about us…us Chris­tians that is. We must “one another” the peo­ple around us?  How are we to make dis­ci­ples if not pou­ring out our lives to those whom God puts in our path?  I guess our only option is to invite them to church so the pas­tor can do his thing.  Argh, this kind of thin­king frus­tra­tes me.

God has a uni­que role for every belie­ver to play in his family. This is called your “ministry”…  The local fellowship is the place God desig­ned for his chil­dren to dis­co­ver, deve­lop and use their gifts.

How about deve­lo­ping our “spi­ri­tual gift” by living out our every day, nor­mal, pos­sibly mun­dane, exis­tence, as devo­ted Follo­wers of Christ?  There are a lot of hours beyond the two hours Sun­day mor­ning?  How about we go into all the world each day as a law­yer, poli­ce­man, gar­bage man, teacher, engi­neer, or stu­dent and take our “ministry” with us?   It must NOT res­tric­ted to an Ins­ti­tu­tion.  Sure it will be evi­dent there but to do other­wise means we live a bi-polar existence..secular ver­sus Sacred…nothing else in our life mat­ters beyond the sac­red 2 hours.  Sorry, I don’t think so.

Even those with a wider ministry need to unders­tand that their first res­pon­si­bi­lity is to the local Body. Jesus has not pro­mi­sed to build anyone’s ministry; he has pro­mi­sed to build his Church.

OK, I expec­ted his tal­king points but this one sur­pri­sed me.  He dis­mis­ses para-church ministry efforts and sub­ju­ga­tes them to the local Ins­ti­tu­tion.  Guess what Rick?  God did not pro­mise to build a local Ins­ti­tu­tion.  The Ins­ti­tu­tion is NOT the Church.

Satan loves detached belie­vers — unplug­ged from the life of the Body, iso­la­ted from God’s family and unac­coun­ta­ble to spi­ri­tual lea­ders — because he knows they are defen­se­less and power­less against his tactics.

Here come the fear tac­tics.  If you don’t belong to an Ins­ti­tu­tion you are going to be taken out by the devil.  And you bet­ter be accoun­ta­ble to a spi­ri­tual lea­der, as he is more know­led­gea­ble and gif­ted and holy than you…or else disas­ter is around the cor­ner.  Since when did the Good News of the Gos­pel involve FEAR?  Scrip­ture says that it is the kind­ness of God that leads a man to repen­tance.  And that the fear of man is a dan­ge­rous trap, but trust in the Lord means safety.   These tac­tics are shameful.

For the record there are faith­ful Follo­wers, not com­mit­ted to the Ins­ti­tu­tion, but com­mit­ted to com­mu­nity and gro­wing in their rela­tionship to the Father.  I sup­pose that Rick may not agree.