Not Going to Church

 

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If we agree that we are all on some kind of journey – that we are going somewhere, even if that is on an invisible road, leading to the centre of our being – part of many people’s “going somewhere” includes some form of Church.

“What church do you go to?” is a revealing question, both about the inquirer as well as the potential respondent. In my small, seaside town there are, as far as I can make out, six “churches” that define themselves thus, within the Christian belief system. SIX! Your town will have that many, and more, I suspect. A city: dozens. (Norwich, famously, was renowned for having 52 “churches” – one for every weekend – and 365 pubs; one for every day of the week!) The six I am telling you about do not include “hidden” “churches” such as House Church types. Yet the irony is that all the assemblies I am referring to would insist that their buildings (owned or rented) do not constitute the “Church,” but that they, the people who assemble there, do. (They have no choice really, as the Bible – used as an Instruction Manual for most – clearly states that followers of Jesus are, collectively, the church and, individually, members of it.) And yet, according to the same Bible, what some people who gather in to worship, pray and be lectured to, call “church,” is no such thing!

New Testament writing reveals that, for a start, there was only ONE church per town or city! Each, and every, letter, written, edited, and assembled in the New Testament section of the Bible, is addressed to “The church” in/at such-and-such a city. And that includes the seven letters attributed to Jesus Christ as recorded by John in The Revelation. Not five or six, or twelve or even 52! The situation regarding “churches” is even worse today, however, as the Protestant denominations, alone, now run at 40,000 competing “Churches”!

No! No! No! This delusion has been deceiving us for centuries. However, people are waking up. Millions have left “church” - or are in the process of leaving or thinking about it. “Churches” are emptying - in the West, anyway. Only Africa and Asia are currently seeing numerical growth in church membership, all denominations included. An ancient hymn has the triumphant acclamation that: “The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord…” which is true, and comes from St Paul’s theology about church. But the evidence on the ground in our towns and cities, is clear: the “church” has built itself on innumerable foundations, none of which is Jesus, the Christ!

Don’t misunderstand me here; I am not dismissing the millions of sincere believers who congregate in a genuine desire to worship God, pray, seek Biblical direction and spiritual counsel. And our Heavenly Father, who loves us all absolutely, understands our hearts as well as our true intentions in all this. God, who became human in order to meet us in, and deliver us from, our darkness and delusions, continues to meet us where we are and bless us there. That doesn’t mean They endorse or justify our thoughts and actions, though!  God is Love, and God is good – always! And, of course, there are many, wonderful congregations that meet with intentional faith, genuine love for one another and hopeful expectations and experience of serving their communities wherever, and however, they can.

Genuine church is living, experientially, the ekklesia that was the original, organic church in any given area. Paul gives the word ekklesia a specific, spiritual dimension in identifying it as the human, physical expression of the “body” of Christ.

We are all indwelt by God: Father, Son and Spirit; but those that have acknowledged that indwelling, changed the way they think about themselves and God, and have intentionally committed themselves to walking in right relationship with Them choose to assemble together to worship God, encourage, instruct and develop one another after the image of Jesus the Christ, and individually or corporately proclaim the Good News (Gospel) of how God has reconciled all humanity and creation to Themselves in Christ Jesus, through word and deed to their surrounding community. And they do all that as households of faith, not organizations with real estate to build, purchase and maintain. There is no hierarchy, no pastors, leaders, platforms, pulpits, or professionals of any kind!

“Organic churches” writes Frank Viola in Finding Organic Church, “have open-participatory meetings where each member shares something of the Lord with the rest of church. But one of the major obstacles that hinders believers from functioning in such meetings is the consciousness of sin. This is the sense of guilt. The sense of condemnation. The sense of unworthiness. In the first century, the Christian worker’s task was to empower God’s people by setting them free from guilt. The worker did so by showing God’s people that they are blameless in God’s eyes. He showed them how God sees them in Christ, and that Christ’s shed blood was enough to satisfy God’s demands. He also provoked them to repent when necessary. By preaching a gospel of unfailing grace, void of legalism, first century workers armed God’s people with a clean conscience—free from the consciousness of sin. This empowered the early Christians to open their mouths and boldly share the Lord with one another (Heb. 9:14; 10:1–25) as well as to the lost.

No spectator sport or entertainment is this genuine church! We face one another around the room, rather than in rows, staring at the heads in front of us. The focus is on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in and among us -rather than on preachers/pastors/priests, etc, on platforms - as we function as living stones spiritually built together as a “Temple” – or habitation - of God.

As T Austin-Sparks explained:  Thus, having set aside all the former system of organised Christianity, we committed ourselves to the principle of the organic. No “order” was “set up,” no officers or ministries were appointed. We left it with the Lord to make manifest by “gift” and anointing who were chosen of Him for oversight and ministry. The one man ministry has never emerged. The “overseers” have never been chosen by vote or selection, and certainly not by the expressed desire of any leader. No committees or official bodies have ever existed in any part of the work. Things in the main have issued from prayer.

The “churches” are emptying – and if the ones near you haven’t yet, it is only the system of “commandments of men (mostly)” that is keeping them going. Yes, there is blessing in many places; for God is Love, and faithful to us in our need and our sincerity. But “the times, they are a changin’!” Get out while you can, and, instead, get together round Jesus in your homes, find your function in the Body of Christ and flourish as the child of God you are with all your gifting, and talents, and training by the Holy Spirit. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ…” “[S]eeing that His divine power has granted to all of us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, through which He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Peter:3 – 4 NASB)

For additional reading see: Reimagining Church - Frank Viola (David Cook, USA 2008), The Normal Christian Church Life – Watchman Nee (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1980), The Mystery in You - Logan Barone (TWS Trinitarian Publishing Company, 2023), T. Austin-Sparks, Explanation of the Nature and History of “This Ministry” (Tulsa, OK: Emmanuel Church, 2004) and many more.