Can you guess what this
article is going to be about? A good
start to finding that out is to ask ourselves this question:
“Why go to church?”
My
first response to this question was the “automatic” response most Christians
give: Because God commands it (Phil.
3:17; Col. 2:19; 1 Thess. 5:11; 2 Thess. 2:1; Hebrews 10:25). Indeed, God wants us to gather together,
encourage one another, comfort one another, and be knit together in love, but
not everyone who attends has these goals or attitudes.
A
good example of the wrong type of church attendance is what I observed as a
missionary serving in Jamaica. There are more churches per capita in Jamaica than in the United States. While attending a church in Saint Ann’s Bay one Sunday I observed a
service with many people coming forward to give their lives to the Lord. The next Sunday I again observed a large
group of people coming forward, but upon close observation I noticed that it
was pretty much the same people who came forward the previous Sunday. I asked our Mission Team leader, Ron, about
this and he told me that they came forward on Sunday seeking forgiveness for
their sins then they would go out to the Rum Bars to drink and commit other
sins during the week. By Sunday they
would be back in church to get rid of their sins again. They no longer felt “clean.” Ron explained that they did not understand
what repentance really was and that this was one of the focuses of our ministry
there, to take them past forgiveness of sins into repentance and full
discipleship in Christ.
We
may not have as many churches per capita as Jamaica but we have some of the
same problems. I have observed people in
my church attending when things are going wrong in their lives. They come to have us pray for them then when
God answers their needs we do not see them for months, or until they have
another need. Some have attend a few
Sundays and asked for financial assistance.
Once they receive some money to help pay their rent or food needs then
we do not see them until they are in dire straights again. Our church tends to have a lot of people with
needs: drug addicts, homeless,
prostitutes, homosexuals, and people just out of jail or prison to name a few.
Does
that offend you? Most Christians these
days would have a struggle dealing with or ministering to people with these
needs but our Church has learned to reach out to them. We have taken the vision of our Pastor, “To feed the poor, to clothe those who are
in need, to reach out to the young people, to teach Jesus Christ, no other, and
to keep it as simple as possible,” to heart. Are
we perfect in this outreach? No, we
struggle with opinions, finances, drops in attendance, of giving
to people who show no appreciation and such but the key is
we do not see these physical outcomes as failures. We see successes because in each case we
focus on our obedience to what God has called us to do regardless of the
outcome.
I
know up to this point you thought I was going to say that coming forward again
and again to get rid of sins or getting money out of the church then never
returning are signs of someone “playing church”. Actually I see these things as cries for help
and God has charged us with building his Kingdom by ministering to and bringing
in those who cry out. I see that the
real way to “play church” is to go for the singing and the sermon and never
reaching out to the person sitting next to you who may be grieving for the loss
of their spouse, or may have just been evicted from their house. The chairman of Jews for Jesus, Moisha Rosen, said it best:
“The Church is not a
country club for saints, but a hospital for sinners” –Moisha Rosen
So,
are you going to keep “playing church?”
Are you going to keep sitting in the waiting room of the Sinner’s
Hospital reading the literature (Bible, bulletin and newsletter) and listening
to the music (praise and worship) or are you going to put on a spiritual
medical uniform and reach out to hurting person sitting next to you? It is time to quit “playing church” and start
building it instead. The decision is
yours.
