Quote of the Day (47)

“He hated congregational religion. He hated the smiles and the manners of the Sunday-dressed Scottish Protestant, the emphasis on a communion not with God but with your neighbours. He had tried seven churches of various denominations in Edinburgh, and had found none to be to his liking. He had tried sitting for two hours at home of a Sunday, reading the Bible and saying a prayer, but somehow that did not work either. He was caught; a believer outwith his belief. Was a personal faith good enough for God? Perhaps …”

— Ian Rankin, Knots & Crosses

Not Doing Church at All

Rankin did not play up the Christian faith of detective John Rebus much in his later novels, but it strikes me his most enduring character’s ruminations about finding a church may resonate with any number of Christians who have failed to make it back to a local gathering of believers in the post-COVID era. They always meant to get to it, but it just never happened.

I keep hearing the phrase “doing church at home” these days, by which is actually meant “not doing church at all”. After all, church is not what you do, it’s what you are.

Is private communion with God really enough? To make it very practical, are we really so likely to continue in communion with God once we have laid aside God’s own method for the maintenance and growth of Christian faith? I believe the Bible’s answer is no.

Consumerism and Individualism

We often hear that if a local church is doing what it should be doing, it will be growing. That is the expectation, and few of us are seeing it these days. Even the more well attended congregations I’ve worshiped with in the last few months are experiencing something more like churn than measurable growth. Don’t get me wrong: churn is fine, but you want some of those visitors to stick eventually. It’s all well and good to attribute declining interest in corporate expressions of faith to the age of individualism and a consumer mentality. What’s in it for me? Why is the preaching more up my alley on YouTube? Don’t the Baptists have better programs? I really prefer a more modern musical style …

But I wonder if the fundamental unseriousness of many professing Christians about gathering may owe most of its staying power to a widespread failure to teach, hold and put into practice a biblical view of the church.

You cannot believe what the apostles wrote about the church and expect anything good to come from staying away from it.

A Biblical View of the Church

If you really believe the church is “a kingdom and priests to our God” or a “royal priesthood” whose purpose in life is to proclaim the excellencies of the one who called us out of darkness, you cannot imagine solo Christianity serving the same purpose. How exactly are you “proclaiming” anything by watching Andy Stanley on YouTube in your pajamas with an espresso? Who are you serving but your own preferences? Where is the ‘hood’ aspect of your priesthood?

If you really believe the church is the “household of God”, joined together to become a dwelling place for God by the Spirit, what are you doing to build it? There’s a reward for building with the right materials. There’s none for stones left lying in the quarry.

If you really believe the church is a group of believers baptized into one body, in what way do you manifest the interaction between the body parts at the initiative of the Head of the Church? How are you using your gift to build up others and glorify God? It’s in these very interactions between believers that Christ is seen by the world. If the love of the disciples one for the other was the means by which “all people” would identify them, then to whom are you demonstrating Christ’s love? Moreover, you’re missing the love others would like to show you, and the interactions that were designed to transform your character over time into that of Christ himself.

If you really believe the church is Christ’s bride, the Lamb’s wife, betrothed collectively to one husband, how can you not love those the Bridegroom has chosen? You are going to be with them for eternity. That’s going to be tough slogging for people who hate congregational religion. Those smiling, Sunday-dressed Scottish Protestants may occupy the suite right next to you in the Father’s house.

Isn’t Personal Faith Good Enough?

No, personal faith is not “good enough” for God. He designed your faith to grow through serving your fellow believers and worshiping corporately, not through absorbing messages, music and programs passively as if all that matters is your own pleasure.

Now, of course, mere attendance is not fellowship. If your local church doesn’t resemble a priesthood because one man does everything or because no actual worship goes on … if it doesn’t seem like a bride because love is absent or cold … if it doesn’t function like a body because nobody serves anyone else or cares for its members … if it doesn’t look like a building because nobody is ever built up by being part of it … well, that’s another story. Maybe you ought to look for another one.

But you won’t make it on your own. If recollection serves, I don’t believe John Rebus did.