organicchurch.com

I've been invited to leave my local congregation (by members, mind you, not staff) at least 5 times since I started attending almost a year ago. Every time I voice any frustration with the institutional church (lowercase "c") or question a doctrinal stance, someone will say something like "Well, if that's how you feel, maybe you should leave. Maybe God is calling you somewhere else." I have been asked to "step down" from leadership in churches or ministried before for "taking things too far." When I asked for specifics, nobody could give me a verse or even a specific example of something I said or did that was "too far." Other times I have stepped down, and people always ask why I don't just stick around and try to work for some good from the inside. There's no way to win when division is our default mode.

But I think I need to answer the questions and concerns. The reason I don't leave is that I love the Church (Capitol "C")- warts and all. As St. Augustine once said about the church, "The Church is a prostitute, and she is my mother." I won't leave because Jesus called me to be a part. And he called all of us to be in unity. Not the same in thought or doctrine or practice, but unified in Jesus. We've become too focused on our differences to see our commonalities.

I don't believe that the Church is a building. I don't believe it's an institution. I believe it's every believer in the world, from the most extreme right wing conservative to the most extreme left wing liberal. I love them all. I am challenged by them all. I learn from them all. I believe we're all called to unity despite our differences, and that if we were to actually unify instead of divide, we would all be closer to Jesus. As a matter of fact, I think that the people we disagree with most are the most important people to fellowship with. They show us our weaknesses and help us see a side of Jesus that isn't easy for us to see. They approach the scriptures with a different lens than we do. I believe there's a good biblical basis for saying that the people who we think are unpresentable or dishonor the church should be given special treatment, and special honor. That way we could do that "iron sharpens iron" thing (Maybe the fact that we don't do this explains why churches are so dull...).

But I think there's a problem in the body of Christ as we've redefined some essential terms so that we can live something that's not christianity in any way, other than in name:

We've redefined "church", so that it means a building or a small group of believers that agree with us about certain doctrines. We drive by buildings and say "Oh, look... a church." Some might argue that this is pure semantics, but I don't think it is. Satan knows how to play the word game and we have all fallen for it. We read about the Church in the bible being unified, of one accord, not divided... but we think of our local institutional congregation when we read the passages. We ignore the fact that we're completely out of unity with the believers in the "other churches" around town. But we can easily excuse it because we see church as something we do or as a small group of believers that agrees with each other. But as it's been said before, we err because we do not know the scriptures or the power of God. The scriptures call us to unity and to be the body of Christ, made up of many parts, each one valuing the one that seems least deserving of it. But instead, we redefine the term "church" so that we don't have to be accountable to those verses. We look around our congregation and say we're in unity, but we don't want to have anything to do with the liberals or the pentacostals or the fundamentalists down the street. We're as proud and divisive as the pharisees but we can't see it because we've redefined the term. We tell people that they might be happier in another church, and we can't even see that there's no such thing as "another church." It's a myth rooted in a lie, and forged in hell. Jesus has one bride, not a harem. There is only one Church.

We've also redefined "Peace" as well and turned it into complacency. Today's "peace" isn't the biblical concept of resting in God in the midst of discomfort or trials, it's freedom from discomfort or trials. We avoid anyone who thinks differently, divide over the issue into our denominations and congregations so we don't have to talk about it. And we call this lack of discussion over the issues "peace." But in doing so, we have no challenge to grow, just affirmation that whatever we already believe is right. We have become so spiritually inbred that our theology is becoming deformed and lame. Jesus calls us to unity not because he wants us to be free from people who love him but disagree with us, but because we are called to fellowship with all the members of the one body and he knows we will disagree with some. As a result, we're dull because we've never been sharpened by someone scraping against our edges, and crippled because we've become convinced that we can do just fine as a body without all it's parts.

We've redefined "tithe" to be... Well, crap, that's a whole 'nother issue that I think will require it's own article. But do yourself a favor, look it up in your bible yourself, and please use your cross-references.

As a result of redefining the terms, we get a narrataive that sounds something like this:

"We view (scripture, spiritual gifts, church offices, ordination of women, worship style, stewardship, tithing, communion, baptism, Hell, etc, etc) differently than you do, so we'd like you to find another 'church' so we don't have to listen to anyone who disagrees with us. Everyone in our congregation/denomination already agrees on these issues. If people come in here with different views you're going to screw the whole thing up, and we got a good thing going here. Don't bring up a verse that seems to counter our established doctrine- we've already settled on what verses we'll refer to on the issue. Even if you don't disagree with us but have some hard questions, we are uncomfortable with hard questions we can't answer, so we don't want to bring them up. That just makes confusion, and confusion is from the devil you know. God is a God of peace, and we don't feel any peace with your questions. We already know what we believe about this and it's not up for discussion. If you're going to ask about it or challenge it, we'll ask you to look for another 'church' so you won't be divisive and destroy the 'peace' we've struggled so hard to attain."

There's a simple reason we do this: Sin. The sin in us reveals itself in pride, divisiveness, division, and anger. Our division and self-assuredness feeds our broken egos and makes us feel superior to those outside our circle who can't seem to "rightly divide the truth" like we do. As soon as we allow ourselves to make an "us" and a "them," we're in sin- our relationships are broken. We label others as conservative or liberal, legalistic or backslidden, wacky charismatics or boring un-annointed, whatever. We put up the fences and slap on the label so we don't have to listen and prayerfully consider their point. If we are confused we run back to the people who think just like we do and get some affirmation. Too often, we feel like there's no way we could be the one who might have some learning to do. God forgive us for becoming the pharisees we've always mocked. Forgive us for not listening but demanding to be heard.

I'm guilty of it all too. I was worse in the past than I am now, but I know I still do it sometimes. I use different labels than I used to, and I have repented enough that I at least really try to listen to what others have to say (and maybe I put the label on afterward). I think a big part of it is knowing I don't understand it all, and learning that I can't see God or the bible outside of my narrow cultural and experiential view. Who I am and the culture I live in affects how I look at the bible. So people who are different than I am, and those from another culture have a different window to look at God from. I want to see what I can about God from their point of view. None of us look at the bible objectively. We all spin it to fit our preconceived doctrines. In the past week I've heard 3 different people say about the role of women in the church, "I think the bible's pretty clear on the issue." They all had verses to make their point; and they all saw it differently.

I used to use the verse that says "Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have in Christ Jesus" to determine who I would fellowship with and listen to. I used it to blow people off who had a different answer than me. But the verse doesn't say anything about dividing over answers, just that we should have our own. I've repented of that and now one of my favorite verses for determining who I will fellowship with is, "Oh how good and oh how pleasant it is for the brothers to dwell together in unity." I've moved from looking at the body of Christ as a place sectioned off by walls of disagreement to a place without walls, where we gather together based on our shared beliefs. A place where everyone is welcome, but where the judgmental and self-assured may feel uncomfortable with the diversity. A place where the love of Jesus looks beyond differences and pharisees get ticked about everyone hanging out with "sinners." Where there are 3 different views held on the same issue and it's not seen as something to divide over, but something to rejoice in. Where all of us listen to people with different views with the same kind of respect and honesty we expect in return.

I've finally found the church. Sometimes people that are a part of it meet in a big building with the name "church" on the sign out front, but others in coffehouses, homes, bars, or parks. The love in the church is contagious and overwhelming. Many of the people have an affiliation with a local organization with "church" in the name, and some do not. Some are republican, some are democrat. Some pentecostal, some baptist, some catholic, some presbyterian. Some are black, some white, some yellow, some red. Some drink beer during their fellowship and others don't drink at all. All love and respect each other, and welcome other loving, respectful followers of christ no matter where they fall on the issues. They dwell together in unity, and it's true- it's a good and pleasant thing to be a part of. They don't always agree, as a matter of fact, they often disagree, but they love each other and dwell in unity dispite doctrinal differences.

There are a lot of imposters out there, and for a long time I let them discourage me. I fell for the lie that the buildings and divided groups of religious people were "churches." I believed the people who told me there was such a thing as "other churches." People who claimed to love Jesus, but did not forgive their neighbor. People who claimed to believe in grace, but instead held grudges. People who accepted the free gift of God's love, but weren't willing to share with others freely. The weeds had grown up among the wheat, sown in the field by the enemy, and I almost trashed the whole harvest. But Jesus said to let it all grow, and then just seperate the weeds from the wheat once you see which plants are bearing grain. The church is everywhere. You'll know it by the love they have for one another.

I ask forgiveness from all the wonderfully diverse people that I once avoided in the name of doctrine, and I embrace you as brother and sister in the name of Jesus. Forgive me for not listening to what you were saying, but for just assuming I knew what you were going to say because I had labeled you before I listened to you. Forgive me for avoiding you because your questions made me uncomfortable, and for judging you as someone who didn't read the bible or couldn't read it right. Forgive me for being so proud and arrogant to think I was able to read the bible objectively and without bias, but assumed you read with purposed subjectivity and malice toward the "real" truth.

One word of caution- Jesus did have harsh words for the Pharisees, teachers of the Law, and other super-religious folk. But look closely at his condemnations- It's never that they were too accepting, but too exclusive. He didn't seperate himself from them because they thought differently than Jesus, but because they didn't love people who thought differently than them. I have been praying about this a lot, because I'm thinking of relationships I might have to spend less time in, or affiliations I once held that I may have to dissolve- but it is NOT over doctrine or belief, it's over the practice of love and demonstration of humility. We need to be careful not to allow ourselves to be contaminated with the yeast of the pharisees. This is the only time Jesus talked about division- and I think we need to be sure we don't allow ourselves to become part of a community that will breed any sort of superiority, exclusivity, or condemnation toward others.

I've finally found the Church, one that looks a lot like Jesus- humble and opposing the proud. Weak and opposing the strong. Loving and opposing the elitist. Sinners feel welcome there, but the religious elite find it detestable and perplexing. It's a mysterious thing, the church. It looks a lot different than I was always taught it should- and it's everywhere two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus.