Our pastor's bold sermon yesterday reminded me of some comments I've heard in the past from homeschoolers when looking for a church. They show up Sunday morning for worship, take a look at the congregation's appearance (especially the mothers and teenagers), and automatically know if this is the place for them.
Here's the quote from yesterday's sermon that brought this to mind,
The conservative churches of today, and we are one of them, are in greater danger than ever of falling into the idolatry of Pharisaism. Pharisaism is the chief idolatry because it is all about circling the wagons to exclude the unclean and maintain moral values. When you are worshipping the false pharisaic god, you exclude those who do not pass the latest moral acid test. In some churches that acid test is drinking, smoking and dancing. For others the acid test is your political persuasion, your stance on abortion or how loudly you denounce homosexuality. We are investing too much of our time in passing legislation designed to make our country more moral and not enough time practicing mercy.
The pastor has a point. When I look around a church body and see immodestly dressed women, wild-looking teenagers, and bored men I label that church as "worldly" and move on to a place that's "safer" for my family. This approach probably does lead us to churches that have circled the wagons to exclude the unclean.
But there is a counterpoint. If those worldly-looking people in the church have been there for years, perhaps even raised there, and yet they still look, think, and act like the world then it's clear that in not circling the wagons the church went too far and gave away the farm.
2 comments:
The church I want to attend is not a safe haven, a place to live a pleasant, peaceful, and static life. The church I want to attend is the one that will welcome the worldly into a life that will gradually but inexorably purge them of their worldliness. I want to live such a life and help build such a church for my own sake, and for the sake of others.
Unfortunately, a point-in-time snapshot of the congregation isn't going to reveal the church is engaged in such purging. Only a long, up-close look will reveal that. In the meantime, we have to make the best judgment we can about whether a church is promoting the kind of life we think should be promoted.
A very worldly church may be a place where the very worldly come to get started on a long process of sanctification, or it may be a place where the very worldly come to be comforted and affirmed in their worldliness. A church that has circled the wagons may have done so to create a safe, clean, and static place for like-minded people, or it may be excluding those who aren't very far along the path so as to better nurture an already strong and radical commitment to further sanctification.
It's good to be reminded of the dangers inherent in any approach. But just because dangers exist doesn't mean that those on the path have succumbed to them.
Well said; yet what you and I both want in a church is another one of those things that's easier said than attained.
I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments, but I'm seldom patient enough to get that long, up-close look. The pull towards the like-minded -- a church where most have already "arrived" at the same conclusions regarding lifesytle as me -- is strong.
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