_PNG.png)
i think one of the places we go all wrong with this church attendance thing is how we have elevated the importance of the “sunday morning” meeting to heights that were unimaginable in the first century.
historically, i’ve never really been able to find exactly where the whole church “event” mentality first surfaced. i’m sure some will try to build a case for what happened on the day of pentecost in acts 2, but that doesn’t wash with me. different purpose and design altogether.
the melding of the church and state in rome during those first 200-300 years after the resurrection of jesus certainly did much to establish the idea of hierarchy in the church and the formalization of meetings and structures. we definitely see the long-term effect of that movement throughout church history…all the way up to the present.
somewhere…somehow…the elevation of church leadership as a profession and the church program as the design for kingdom business replaced the concept shared life as the primary method of discipleship and reaching the world with the message of hope through christ.
going to church became the methodology. being the church wherever we go got lost in translation.
old testament sacrificial offerings to earn god’s favor and restore fellowship with him got resurrected in the form of church attendance, putting money in the offering plate, and being busy with church programs five nights a week, in order to make us right with god.
legalism and phariseeism lives on with a modern twist: mature believers are busy with church activities…those that aren’t are looked at as immature and self-absorbed, if they don’t come to the things we offer.
somewhere along the line, the idea that a bad saturday night of partying could be negated by dragging your behind out of bed and into the pew on sunday morning became the default strategy for god’s faithful who couldn’t get their spiritual act together.
i can remember the endless theological debates in my bible college and seminary days…where we beat around the question, “could somebody really be a christian without attending sunday services?” i haven’t had that debate for 25 or 30 years, but i imagine it’s more complicated now with churches doing services on other nights of the week….
here’s the point: going to church and being the church are two completely different concepts. certainly, being the church involves some level of commitment to “attendance” at church functions. but it is so very much more. and i’m afraid that in our effort to elevate the importance of our church activities…and the accompanying attendance expectations and requirements…we might have neutered the call for whole life discipleship along the way.
i think we have generations upon generations of “church people” who made commitments to sunday morning attendance who really believed they were doing what was required for kingdom living…and completely missed the life that jesus died to give them.
tragedy.
there’s more to this story…
Comments