Pillars of the Church are Often Made of Salt

Lot’s wife was forced to leave her home through no fault of her own. Sodom was a sinful city. God allowed Lot and his family to escape from the city’s destruction. The only warning was not to look back. But, Lot’s wife couldn’t resist the tug of her old life. Her sin was to look back at the place they needed to leave. She longed for her home, for her belongings, her friends. But the city was incinerated because it was also full of sin.

Turning to salt isn’t a good thing. It’s the end. It’s the statue that remains of what we used to be. It’s the net result of looking back over our shoulder. Like the Daniel Amos song, we “take too many trips down memory lane.” Then, we are only worth our salt.

The tendency to live in the mode of looking backward is a hallmark of the “Pillar of the Church.” Church pillars, of course, are those people who are the kingpins of the church, the leaders, the reliable old “saints.” But I’ve also heard the “pillars of the church” defined as the people who hold up the church and block vision.

Have you ever heard this phrase in a church? “We’ve always done it that way.” If you ask a pillar of the church why the sacred cow programs exist, they will often say “because we’ve always done it that way.” There’s no thought to whether they are effective in achieving anything or if they are the best use of money and time, much less if they are reaching the lost or not. Those programs just exist because that’s what the church pillars sees as he looks over his shoulder at the burning embers of what used to be effective. But those programs have long since been subject to the sins of pride and human tradition.

Should we consider whether our churches are being effective at reaching the lost? Should we eliminate antiquated, ineffective programs in order to fulfill the Great Commission? The Church Pillar thinks not. Instead, the pillar believes the church needs to continue programming on the basis that it makes the church people happy, creates a comfortable homelike feeling, and helps them enjoy “going to church.” Every time a new initiative aimed at reaching the lost is rejected (be they “contemporary” worship, creating new uses for the facility, transitioning away from traditional Sunday School, etc.) in favor of the status quo, you can taste the salt in the air.

It goes beyond mere church programming and into the heart of the pillar of the church. The church pillar also looks to the past as the high point of his own spirituality and of the church. “I was brought into this church 80 years ago when I was 2 weeks old.” Translation: “This is my church and you’ll have to put me in a box before you change it.” Another saying: “I was saved 54 years ago,” said by a bitter woman who has been mad at every pastor since 1960-something. But ask her about her current walk with Christ, the people she’s impacting for the Kingdom and you’ll get the blank stare of a salty statue. Another favorite: “That church hasn’t had good music for years.” (I will write another time on cultural relevance in music. Suffice it to say that we don’t throw theology out the window in the name of relevance.) What the person really means by that is: “I don’t care if our band is helping us reach people, I don’t find the music as entertaining as Lawrence Welk.” Another great one, "they took away my ministry." The meaning of this sentence is really: "all I did at the church was sing in the choir and we don't have one now so I can't be on the platform anymore." And finally, said with a great deal of pious pride (I heard this at my previous church): “we used to be a church of 1000.” This actually meant that they had a thousand members on paper but never averaged above 490 in their heyday in the 1940s. Salt, salt, salt, all of them said by pillars of salt.

The sad truth for the pillar of the church is that the best really is in the past. The church services that meant something to them are gone. The experience of the close-felt reality of God is a thing remembered only. The worship services where they raised hands, or shed tears, or prayed earnestly are all decades ago. The problem is that pillars of salt have no current spiritual experiences any more than the statue in the Lincoln Memorial can preside over our nation.

It is very dangerous to look only to the things better left behind: our old life, our old spiritual experience, the things that worked at our church in yesteryear, even our sinful ways. But, the churchist can’t resist. Yet, every time we gaze behind us too long, we lose our direction because we can’t see our destination.

Pastor, resist listening to salty statues. As much as we'd like to stay and reminisce about the places we leave behind, God calls us away. It's no fault of our own. The past just needs to be left behind. Listen instead to the living Holy Spirit who will direct your path into the future. Leave the past behind and press on toward the mark which is the call of Christ.

Church Allergy

I was talking to a pastor friend today. He shared an interesting thing with me. He is allergic to the church. When he spends too much time in the facility we call "church," he actually gets physically sick because of the mold spores in the building.

I think that people can be made sick by the church...both the churchists and those who are entirely "worldly."

How true that is for the followers of Christ. The more time we spend "in church," the more we become ill. Our illness looks like this: We forget that we should value relationships with those outside the church more highly than our comfortable "church friends." We begin to adhere to the rules of the institutional church more than Christ's own teaching. We begin to serve ourselves, our preferences, and our needs more than the needs of those who don't yet know Christ.

This fact is obvious in my former church's discussion of music. Every new member of our church over the course of 5 years said that the music was what drew them to the church. Meanwhile, the complaints about the music were so bad among church people that a former sound man was having "discussions" in the foyer about me (the pastor) and how wrong I was about our music and that I was "destroying the church." He refused to see that the same thing that was an irritant to him was actually effective in reaching over 2 dozen new people.

Another example of this church-sickness involved our old fellowship hall. We re-invented that space as a youth center. Over 18 months, our youth center served over 500 teens with over 30 giving their hearts to Christ. Our youth group grew from 2 to 40 and our Friday night Youth Center served about 70 kids each week. Meanwhile, the churchists were complaining that we had "taken the fellowship hall away from them." Of course, they were free to use it any time but when youth were present. But that's beside the point. They didn't actually care who was reached. They just wanted ownership of the building.

The churchists who've been made sick by being in the church too long also demand that the pastor prefer them over the lost. Shaking the hand of old sister so-and-so is far more important than making sure the new person gets connected. Spending time talking to the pillars of the church is far more important that spending time with lost people. (Reminds me of a story involving Jesus and Levi.) Pastors who imitate Christ are said to spend way too much time with "those new people."

Church sickness goes even deeper within the churchist. They become more and more confident and smug in their own opinions about church while they are removed more and more from the real world. Ask a church-sick churchist to tell you about specific relationships they are investing in right now to bring someone to Christ. I guarantee it will be an interesting conversation. While they will say that reaching people is very important, they are not willing to get involved in that activity in their personal lives or in their church's services and religious product offerings.

The church sickness among the churchists has another symptom. The church itself, in their view, exists to serve the church goer. One of my pastor friends recently told me that during a review with his church board, a church board member said that he "focused too long on reaching lost people and now it's time to focus on us a while." Another pastor told me that a church board member liked that people were being reached, but that they should try to reach people "who are more like us."

These folks have a profound gap in their understanding of why the Church exists. The Church exists to "go into the world...and make disciples" and to "go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth." The pastors and leaders of the church exists to "equip the saints for works of service." I can't find anywhere in the scripture where it says that the Church exists to make church goers feel contented and happy.

A 500-pound man goes into a fast food restaurant. He orders the Big Burger and Extra Manly Size soft drink and fries. He consumes the meal and is still unsatisfied. He complains to the manager: "I'm not satisfied. This restaurant isn't feeding me." Perhaps the problem isn't the food. Perhaps the problem is that he is over fed to begin with. Such large stomaches are hard to fill. Maybe the churchist who has unwittingly become sick by being in the church so long needs to stop getting fed, get off his butt and exercise his faith a little.

There is another side of the church sickness coin. There are those in our society who have given church and Christianity a try, but who have seen it for the hypocritical mix of gnosticism and legalism that it is. When a heathen person looks at the church and sees us bicker over carpet color, argue about worship songs, say bad things about each other, and ignoring our moral code, what is that person supposed to believe? How can they not be made sick by the church? When drinking is talked about like it's the cardinal sin and yet a person playing guitar in the worship band has a well-known, multi-decadal affair, how can an outsider look on that as anything but complete and total disregard for the scriptures? It's just self-evident. And yet, the churchists justify these things while the average person with no church experience is sickened. And for good reason. Jesus is sickened by them too.

God save us from those claim to follow you. Help us to truly be the Church.

You Don’t Need To Be Present to Win

You Don’t Need To Be Present to Win.

Today, I saw the most ridiculous thing on Facebook. It was a quote that said “you can be a Christian and not go to church just as much as you can be married and never go home.”

Where do I begin?

This is a great argument put forth by a Churchist, someone who confuses church attendance with a relationship with Christ, who mistakes the institution for Christ’s presence.

When will we who are believers stop trying to gather “unchurched” people into our subculture on Sundays? When will we stop asking “are they in church” as if it were the most important existential question?

Let’s be clear. My home changes places. Sometimes (like now) I don’t have a home of my own. And yet, I am still married. My relationship to my wife is not determined by a particular dwelling place, or a room, or a town or a country. We are married and have a relationship regardless of place. In fact, if I am never “home,” I am still married in the eyes of God and the law.

Using the same metaphor, the Bible makes it clear that the bride of Christ is waiting on His return. He’s not even with us and yet we are still His bride. Using the same logic as the Facebook entry, He has forsaken us. He is the one who is absent in the relationship. What kind of husband is that? Jesus must be a deadbeat in the eyes of that pastor on Facebook.

Our relationship to the Ultimate goes well beyond that metaphor. That relationship with Christ is internal. Let’s face the fact that often times the outward expression we call “church” is a corporate reality that doesn’t resemble the Church that Jesus spoke about. His temple is in our hearts. His Kingdom is come within humanity. His Holy Spirit is given to all who believe. Being in a particular venue on a particular day of the week does not save us. Only Jesus can do that. In fact, often, His alleged people can drive us farther from the truth. However, His presence is mysteriously active in each individual who believes. And, His promise is to be with those who gather in twos and threes. Sunday or not. Church building or not. Worship service or not. Church growth to satisfy the egos of the attenders or not.

I was a pastor for many years. I understand the desire to grow a church. I also generally recommend people attend a church. However, often those who talk in church-growth terms are speaking out of pride (it makes us feel good to be a part of a growing church) and never actually do anything to reach anyone. When a church grows, we assume people are being reached for Christ. Do the research and see for yourself if that typically happens or not. Most growing churches are larger because the church people are gathering in greater numbers. And, if someone is converted, they are given as proof of God moving. I know of one church that points to its one convert in 10 years to show that the church is successful at reaching the lost.

Let’s face the truth. Church growth doesn’t equal Kingdom growth. Church attendance also doesn’t mean you are a believer. I have some dear friends who rarely attend a church service and yet are much more committed to the faith that the vast majority of church attenders. The Church’s expression is not limited to Sundays in a church building. A better expression of the Church happens as people do life together, love each other unconditionally and pray together while growing into the image of Jesus. That’s the Church.

Some will quote the scripture that says “do not forsake the assembly.” But what assembly are we talking about? In Paul’s day...Daily...In homes. Is that what Churchists do? Hardly. They attend on Sunday while the the rest of the week, they slander people including their pastor, live in such a way that their faith is compartmentalized, and try to justify their behavior because they are “only human.”

God save us from Churchists. Gatherings of people on Sunday mornings are not “the way, the truth, and the life.” So let’s stop condescending on those who have no use for the subculture of Churchism as expressed on Sundays.

I’m not trying to discourage church attendance. Let’s see it for what it is. It is not in itself a relationship with God. It can be a help in your spiritual journey, but it can also be a hinderance in many cases.

Attendance is not mandatory. Jesus lives within the hearts of those who believe. We don’t have to be present with the churchists on Sundays to win that Prize.