. . . and, we are walking!
As I have already noted, there are many who recognize and mourn the widespread deadness and hypocrisy in churches, desiring what they rightly see as the essential element of the Christian faith – a living, vibrant, real-time relationship with the crucified and risen Christ. This is a good thing because it sets them searching. That desire, however, is often accompanied by impatience. This is a bad thing because impatience, in a search for truth, tends to make people settle for something less than the whole truth. Promising a short cut to satisfaction and peace of mind, easy answers take on a powerful attraction for the over anxious seeker. Enter the scapegoat, upon which the blame for the trouble in churches is erroneously laid.
There are a number of popular scapegoats from which the hopeful pilgrim may choose. The unique circumstances of each person’s life will, to a large extent, determine which scapegoat looms largest in their mind. And, as the believer focuses his attention so as to eliminate the perceived threat to his closer walk with Jesus, he is led down a rabbit trail that effectively keeps him going around in circles rather than getting closer to his beloved Lord. In his preoccupation, he fails to see the real problem. Life becomes a string of frustrated attempts to realize the experience of the first century church as portrayed in the New Testament. And, all the while, the truth of the matter lies plainly in sight.
Before we talk about what that truth is, let’s examine several of the most common scapegoats that distract God’s people from seeing it. There being no particular order of importance among them, I’ll just begin with the scapegoat known as “Organized Religion.”
Organized religion has long been thought to be a killer of spiritual vitality in churches. At best (the thinking goes), those who take part in organized religion are saved (God love ‘em) but are stifled in their spiritual lives, and just don’t get it. They don’t understand what a real relationship with Jesus is all about, because they’re blinded to it by the organized religion they’re a part of. Those who subscribe to this kind of thinking often confirm among themselves the accuracy of the diagnosis by nodding their heads in sad agreement with what appears to them to be the obvious truth – organized religion is the touch of death to a real relationship with Jesus Christ. The answer of course is to shun organized religion.
The problem here is that those who eschew organized religion practice organized religion themselves. They plan where and when to meet, and who will do what in what order. The lessons, sermons, teaching, and/or music are all typically planned. If they plan to be spontaneous, even this must be regarded as a minimum of organization, aside from being an outright contradiction. True, it be would far less organized than most other religious activities. But, organization it is nonetheless. And I know of no scripture indicating that one degree of organization in His worship is preferable to God over another. If the presence of organization means spiritual death (or at best, sleepiness) in churches, the only real alternative is disorganized religion. The difficulty of imagining such a chaotic affair can only hint at the impediments inherent to its execution.
Scripture in fact teaches organization to God’s people. Worship should be organized in its fulfillment, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40) New Testament churches met on a predetermined day at a predetermined time, and there was organized giving, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.” (1 Corinthians 16:2) Organization is part of the nature of God, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33) His covenant is likewise organized, “He has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things and secure.” (2 Samuel 23:5) That covenant is what the Christian faith is all about.
Not to belabor the point, but the Bible also tells us that we are “wonderfully made,” “skillfully wrought,” and that God “formed” us. (Psalm 139) The earth itself was “without form and void” before God organized its various components in their proper order. (Genesis 1:2) Many other instances might be cited to this effect, but the collective witness of scripture makes it clear that God really, really likes organization. We therefore have no proper grounds for the conclusion that it is anathema to a relationship with Him. Rather, we have every indication that is an important element to a healthy relationship.
Someone will perhaps protest this is not what they mean by organized religion. It turns out that they meant to put the blame on denominations. And so, denominations are really the problem behind the spiritual deadness of churches. Scapegoat or not? We will explore the validity of this assertion in the next installment, the Lord willing.
