Photo cred: Daniel Tseng
Written by: David Hood
We have been reflecting a lot lately about what is the church for, what makes for a good, healthy church where all kinds of people can thrive, and, in light of so many scandals as of late (and historic atrocities), where has the church gone wrong and why. We can’t just carry on and pretend like this stuff isn’t happening. We need to talk openly and honestly about our sins as the Church, and humbly reflect and ask, How did we get here? It has been a necessary and beautiful but heavy journey.
It can be tempting at times to wonder if life would be simpler without trying to do this thing called “church”. Church is a lot of work, and it can go badly and do a lot of harm. Maybe the loner Christians who are content with their own private spirituality are right…
Full disclosure, I do not believe they are right. We need the church, but why? Why Church?
First, for perspective, it is important to remember that for every pastor that falls, there are hundreds of pastors serving their communities faithfully. For every toxic church, there are hundreds of churches hungering for God, serving their neighbours, and humbly trying to figure out together what it looks like to follow Jesus where they are. In Ottawa, I can point to dozens of good pastors and good churches.
Second, for all of her flaws, we cannot live a Christian life without the church.
In Ephesians 4, Paul says: He (Jesus) personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. 14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head—Christ. 16 From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.
The goal of the Christian life is to become like Jesus; to become fully human; who we were meant and created to be. To make this possible, Jesus died for our sins and removed every barrier between us and God, He gave us the Holy Spirit, and He adopted us into the new humanity He’s creating, the Church. He gave us community and spiritual gifts to every person in that community so that we could help each other love, follow, and emulate Jesus. We need each other to be formed into the image of and live like Jesus in the world, to enter into the fullness of all that He has for us.
You can’t be a Christian without the church. You can’t. Full stop. There is no way around it (at least not a legitimate, Biblical way).
The New Testament is full of commands that cannot be obeyed if you are not in community:
Be at peace with each other (Mark 9:50)
Be devoted to one another in brotherly (familial) love (Romans 12:10)
Honour one another above yourselves (Romans 12:10)
Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)
Instruct one another (Romans 15:14)
Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you (Romans 15:7)
Serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13)
Carry each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)
Be patient, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2)
Be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19)
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21)
In humility, consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2:3)
Do not lie to each other (Colossians 3:9)
Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another (Colossians 3:13)
Teach…[one another] (Colossians 3:16)
Admonish one another (Colossians 3:16)
Make your love increase and overflow for each other (1 Thessalonians 3:12)
Encourage each other (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
Build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24)
Confess your sins to each other (James 5:16)
Pray for each other (James 5:16)
Love one another deeply, from the heart (1 Peter 3:8)
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling (1 Peter 4:9)
I could go on.
We need each other, and the reason we need to be part of local churches is that you cannot really obey these commands in their fullness, as they were intended if you are just loosely a part of the global family of God. No, you need to commit to a group of people, to do life with them, serve with them, be on mission with them, learn with them, worship with them, eat with them, laugh together, and weep together. It is only when you are regularly with and devoted to the same believers that you can really, truly, actually experience the church as a family and live out the way of Jesus.
There is a mindset amongst some Christians that we don’t need the church. We don’t need to gather. We don’t need community. We don’t need commitment.
And I get it.
The church is messy. I have seen my fair share of hypocrisy. I have been hurt, and disappointed, had my trust broken, and experienced dismay and disillusionment. I have put myself out there and been misunderstood and rejected (and I am sure I have negatively affected others myself). I get it. But Paul is clear that Jesus loves the church, He gave His life for the church, the church is His body, His bride, and His family, and so even if you have to leave a particular expression of the Church, due to trauma, toxicity, heresy, or something else, you are not meant to live the rest of your life without the church at all.
CS Lewis observed, There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
To love is to risk pain, but to not love is hell. If you close off your heart, you will not get hurt, but you also will not experience hope, joy, happiness, goodness, beauty, and wonder. You will be safe, but dead inside and closed off to the fullness of life. You will become inhuman. As Alfred Lord Tennyson once famously said, it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.
Do not neglect the church. Love her. Warts and all. You need her. She needs you.
In my next post, I will explore some of our reflections on What’s Wrong With the Church?
This blog contains content from a sermon given at Southeast City, entitled Why Did Jesus Come? To Create Community.