March 11, 2010
Church Shopping (Part One)
We can buy almost anything without even leaving our homes. Shopping has been transformed into an online search for things that are first virtual, and only actual when they are delivered to the door. The revolution in shopping even impacts church shoppers. It’s a fact of life that Christians do church shopping. We can shop for a church on the internet, as you may be doing here today, or we can drive around and notice churches in our area to visit.
Is church shopping a good thing? What could be wrong with it, one might ask? Are there any cautions when shopping for a church? These are just some of the questions that this and other articles in this series will try to address. It is important to be a savvy shopper in the world of commerce today, especially e-commerce. We need to look for bargains, yet we know that we “get what we pay for,” and a bargain is not always a blessing. Sometimes buying “cheap” is penny wise and dollar foolish, as the old saying goes. And shopping for a church requires spiritual savvy, or better, spiritual wisdom and discernment based on the word of God. Without this we may “buy” into a church which does not have all of the marks of one which the Master Builder Himself, Jesus Christ, is blessing with true spiritual fruit.
As I see it, what so often happens when Christians go church shopping is that they compare churches with churches. They evaluate churches to see which one suits them the best and offers the most for their particular or perceived needs. Any number of criteria may be employed in determining which church to place in your shopping cart. If you have children, it may be which church has the best programs to meet their needs. If you have no children, it may be which church has the best couples group. If you are single, it may be which church has the best likelihood of producing a potential marriage partner. Then there are issues of style and atmosphere, comfort and convenience. Which church has the atmosphere that suits me? Which church has the kind of pastor who preaches the way I like? Perhaps you prefer the small church atmosphere so that you can get to know everyone right away and stay in touch; perhaps you are drawn to the larger church, feeling that large numbers are an evidence that a church is right on target. Instead, it seems to me that our starting point should be comparing churches with Scripture. This is biblical. In the Old Testament, the people of God were organized under the theocracy of God’s kingdom in a civil-spiritual-covenantal administration where the Temple was the central place of worship. Presumably sometime during the exile the synagogue system arose as the people were dispersed to foreign lands. Jesus Himself attended the synagogue services regularly, and the synagogue structure was providentially used by God to prepare the way for the worship of the New Testament churches. But in the apostolic period, people did not have the choices that Christians have today, so here is the problem: Christians today not only face choices in choosing a church, but the issue of comparing churches with Scripture. For this Christians need to know the doctrine of the Church as it is revealed in the Book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, and need to choose churches based on their likeness and faithfulness to Scripture revelation and apostolic practice. Even a cursory perusal of the Letters to the Church in Revelation 2-3 would give us many evidences of what Jesus is looking for in His churches.
There is no perfect church, just as there is no perfect Christian. No doubt you have heard that if you find a perfect church, don’t join it or it will cease to be perfect! But a true Christian is a man or a woman who walks in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord (Lk. 1:6). You see, conscientious, careful, God-glorifying Christian-living is real and we have many examples in Scripture and in church history of faithful church members, pastors, deacons, and churches. It is not perfection that we are looking for, it is faithfulness to every word of God in the structuring of church life (2 Tim. 3:16f), biblical conduct in the church of God (1 Tim. 3:15), biblically-qualified elders and deacons (1 Tim. 3), and holiness, integrity, and devotion to the God of the Bible who promises to bless His work when we work His way. Paul expressed the kind of caution and care that we must give to building the churches of Christ in 1 Cor. 3:10 where he said “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.” We just don’t have the liberty or license to do whatever we want in building a church which bears the name of Jesus Christ the Lord.
Here are just a few considerations. A good church may not be a big church. Size itself is not an indicator of wholeness. It may not be a church that has “a wide array of programs” for every age. A church may be a “great working church” like Spurgeon’s Tabernacle and conduct many ministries, but it may also be guilty of having activities that demand too much from its members. Even programs and ministries must be brought to the test and touchstone of Scripture to see if they have His approval. We cannot judge a church on whether it always makes us feel good, or require that it never make spiritual demands upon us.
A good church is a church that has the stamp of the work of the apostles. In other words, a good church is a church that looks like a church that the apostles planted. Someone may object: We live in a different culture. But I ask: Are people any different now than they were in the days of the apostles? Are their needs any different? Is there another Gospel to give to moderns which suits their situation in history better than the Gospel which Jesus and the Apostles preached in ancient times? Obviously modern churches have modern buildings, comfortable seating, air conditioning, comfortable rest rooms, good lighting, amplification, and other creature comforts. There is nothing objectionable in any of these things and we can use them advantageously. But a true church is one that retains and reinforces all Scriptural truth concerning the proliferation of apostolic churches uncorrupted by false doctrine or aberrant, sinful living. I am not saying that we should not strive to minister to the people of our culture, nor ignore the pressures that modern life puts on people. I do not believe in wearing people out with unreasonably long or tedious sermons, but rather labor with the conviction each week that the word of God must be preached Scripturally, exegetically, and with sensitivity to how much people can bear given their level of Christian maturity and providential circumstances. But on the other hand we must not make preaching and teaching, or worship services and prayer meetings, nothing more than “Christian” entertainment with enough Bible added to it to make it spiritual.
Let’s explore this theme further in the next article in this series.
Pastor John Reuther
