Well over a week ago I wrote a post responding to the book So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen (aka Jake Colsen).  In that post I noted that the underlying message of the book is that “organized religion” as we call it is responsible for the problems, hypocrisy, manipulation, and spiritual abuse that too often occurs in our churches.  I warned against this tendency to throw out the baby with the bathwater, showing from Paul’s description of the body in 1 Corinthians 12 that some form of organization is necessary for a body to function, and I also argued that when any group of people, no matter how small, seeks a common goal, some level of organization is necessary if the goal is to be achieved and, in serious cases, if the group is to come out alive.

Although we are responsible first for our personal relationship with Jesus, the Bible makes it clear that we are not to be isolated.  We must depend on other believers for support spiritually:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV 

Scripture also makes clear the need for competent leaders with differing gifts and talents working together: 

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.  Are all apostles?  Are all prophets?  Are all teachers?  Do all work miracles?  Do all have gifts of healing?  Do all speak in tongues?  Do all interpret?  But eagerly desire the greater gifts.”

1 Corinthians 12:27-31 NIV

It is important to note that in the original Greek, when Paul is asking the questions “Are all apostles? Are all prophets?…” the implied answer is “no.”  Now I do believe that all Christians are a royal priesthood based on 1 Peter 2:9, and as such, we do not need to go to a priest or preacher to get to God Himself.  We can approach God at any time we like in prayer, asking for His forgiveness personally for our sins.  But because we are part of a body, we need teachers to show us the path to God.

Unfortunately, many pastors, teachers, and leaders in general have abused their places of authority to build an empire for themselves or to control a group of people to serve their personal agendas.  This is not showing us the path to God.  The path to God is only found by becoming a servant.  The leaders must learn to do the same.  Jesus said that to become the greatest, you must become the least.  If you want to lead, you must learn how to serve.  Adam McHugh, Presbyterian pastor and recent first-time author put it nicely in Introverts in the Church:  “True leadership is not cultivated in the limelight; it’s won in the trenches.  Character is something that is built.  Thus, the mark of godly leadership is not a magnetic personality; it is discipline, because discipline develops character.”

The reason I bring this up is that I know several people who are convinced that being faithful to the Bible implies a rejection of organized religion.  They argue that you don’t have to go to a church to be a Christian.  I agree, to an extent.  Walking into a church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than walking into a coffee shop makes you a latte.  But I must stress that if you truly are a Christian, it will show by your desire to be with other believers for regular corporate worship.  It necessarily goes back to the body.

So what does the body look like?  That’s not really an easy question to answer primarily because the body has had to change, grow, reshape, and adapt to the surrounding environment.  The Church has changed drastically over the past 2000 years as the cultural and political landscape has changed.  It has ranged from small, home-based gatherings to large denominations.

Denominations…that’s a word that many Christians love to hate.  And with good reason.  Let me stress that denominations do serve an important purpose in the Church, and they are an inevitable result of over two billion people in the world who call themselves Christians.  With Christians from a wide array of cultural, political, linguistic, and educational backgrounds, we cannot help but to understand the Bible differently or understand the role of the Church differently.  Large denominations have had great influence in American culture as well as European culture and Hispanic culture.  Local churches hardly have the resources by themselves to send missionaries to foreign lands to deliver the Good News of Christ’s atoning death and resurrection, but when many like-minded churches pool their resources, more can be done for the Kingdom of God.

But there is one major drawback to denominationalism, one that I recognize to be troublesome.  Disagreements between denominations over trivial matters have plagued the Body of Christ by interfering with the unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17.  Some denominations believe themselves to be the only true Christians, with no salvation possible outside their organization.  Others are accepting of all believers as brothers and sisters in Christ, but organizational rules and regulations prevent fellowship even for a worthy cause.  I suffer personal frustration frequently because one of the greatest ministries out there, The Voice of the Martyrs, sometimes sends me letters asking me to consider having one of their representatives come to my church.  That’s something I would love to see my church support, but the leadership will not allow it.  Why?  Because The Voice of the Martyrs is not a strictly Church of God (Cleveland) ministry!  Your ministry serves a great need, and we recognize your organization as a great ministry that God will richly blessed, but since you are not part of OUR denomination, then we can’t have you!

I have been called into the ministry.  I know I have.  But unfortunately, because of the politics in the denominational church like this one, I have recently decided that I will not be seeking credentials with any denomination, even with the church that I loved for 12 years.  I hate that I invested so much in this church to throw it all away like this, but I realize that just as being part of a denomination has some benefits as far as influencing society, it also can be very restricting when I believe God expects me to do something that denominational regulations won’t allow, like supporting a parachurch ministry.  I’ve decided that when my time does come and God opens a door for me to do ministry, I will most likely do the work in a nondenominational church.  If anyone will have me, I gladly present myself as a lay preacher and teacher.

This is just one frustration with denominations that people experience.  I know others who fight over theological issues and allow trivial matters such as musical preference to destroy friendships.  Our lack of unity is frustrating to those outside who are desperately looking for something real, and we as Christians have failed them!  They call us hypocrites because we preach unity and then crucify each other!  It has been said that God’s army is the only army that shoots its own wounded.  God forgive us!

A few alternatives to denominationalism have surfaced over the years, and the most popular alternative is the house church.  Many Christians find fulfilling spiritual lives meeting in private homes rather than institutional buildings.  However, I’ve noticed on some website promoting the house church movement that a somewhat we-vs.-they attitude makes it appearance, especially when house churches describe themselves as a “biblical church,” implying that institutional churches, whether denominational or nondenominational, are unbiblical.  Several cases in the book of Acts describe Christians meeting in private homes, and many house church leaders argue that since that was the common pattern in the New Testament, institutional churches are unbiblical.

Now let me make clear up front that I do not have a problem with people meeting on Sunday morning in private homes if the participants find God in that capacity.  Not all house churches hold the sentiment that I have described, but the argument is common enough to warrant a logical response.  I believe that even if what you are doing is God-inspired, doing it for the wrong reasons can be disastrous.

The fact is that when church life was described in the book of Acts, God was not giving a mandate, as if to say “This is the only right way to do church.”  We only see a short period after Jesus returned to heaven when the first Christians were working out what it means to be a Christian.  The only really important thing to take from Scripture is that the Christians met together regularly to worship God.  The fact that they met in private homes is incidental.  And since the first Christians were Jews, they still met in the synagogues on Shabbat and taught at the Temple until the Jewish authorities threw them out.  The primary reason that they met in private homes rather than buildings was that they didn’t need buildings at the time.  There weren’t enough Christians yet to require a building.  Later, when persecution by the Romans began, the Church went underground, still meeting in private homes whenever it was safe to do so, and also meeting in catacombs, underground tunnels where the dead were buried.  Notice that the Church had to adapt their practices to the circumstances.  After AD 313 when Constantine legalized Christianity, the number of Christians in the empire exploded, and we find the problem that private homes were not big enough to hold the new believers on Sunday.  Buildings had to be constructed, and baptisteries were needed in locations too far from a natural water source for baptism.  The model of having separate buildings was successful, and continued for 1700 years to the present.  But the house church hasn’t died out completely, and in many cases, it is still a necessary church pattern for many countries where Christianity is illegal.  Over 90 million Christians in China meet in house churches to worship God while hiding from the Communist regime that routinely tortures and kills our Chinese brothers and sisters.

This historical progression illustrates what Charles Finney observed about the lack of instruction in the New Testament:

When Jesus Christ was on earth, laboring among his disciples, he had nothing to do with forms or measures. He did from time to time in this respect just as it would be natural for any man to do in such cases, without anything like a set form or mode of doing it. The Jews accused him of disregarding their forms. His object was to preach and teach mankind the true religion. And when the apostles preached afterwards, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, we hear nothing about their having a particular system of measures to carry on their work, or one apostle doing a thing in a particular way because others did it in that way. Their commission was, “Go and preach the gospel, and disciple all nations.” It did not prescribe any forms. It did not admit any. No person can pretend to get any set of forms or particular directions as to measures, out of this commission. Do it–the best way you can–ask wisdom from God–use the faculties he has given you–seek the direction of the Holy Ghost–go forward and do it. This was their commission. And their object was to make known the gospel in the most effectual way, to make the truth stand out strikingly, so as to obtain the attention and secure the obedience of the greatest number possible. No person can find any form of doing this laid down in the Bible. It is preaching the gospel that stands out prominently there as the great thing. The form is left out of the question.

(from Lectures on Revivals of Religion Lecture XIV, “Measures to Promote Revivals” by Charles G. Finney).

If you are interested in starting a house church, let me advise you to make sure you are doing it for the right reasons and with a proper understanding of what a true “biblical church” is.  Any gathering of believers sharing a common faith, whether it meets in a private home, an outdoor tent, an elaborate cathedral, or an abandoned barn is a biblical church.  Honestly search your heart and be sure you are not harboring any ill feelings for your brothers who meet at the institution.  We are all of one body.  The amputations need to stop.

A few days ago I read a book online that has sparked a long line of thinking about the role of the church in a Christian’s life.  My half-sister and her family had been attending a very non-traditional type of church over the past few months, and they had been bothering me about checking it out with them.  I was quite reluctant because I had my own church that I attended, and was about to try to get into the discipleship program teaching a short course on fasting.  Not only that, the name of this particular church bothered me to some degree.  My former Sunday School teacher, who I thought was a great teacher, was frustrated with the politics and some of the official dogma in our denomination, and he often found himself teaching things that were contrary to what our pastor preached, so he left to start his own church for the outcasts of church society.  These believers call themselves the Exiles.  They felt marginalized and treated as second-class citizens in the mainstream church culture.  Now I don’t have a problem with these people forming their own community of faith.  In fact, I heartily applaud the effort to reach out to those that the mainstream church has arrogantly turned away.  But what bothered me about the name “Exiles” is that it assumes a victim mentality and has the potential of creating an us-vs.-them attitude which is enough of a problem in the church due to the problem of denominations.

My half-sister started going to this church because she has always had a problem with what she called “organized religion.”  Her husband enjoys going to this church because the style of teaching is more of a relaxed discussion group where people are encouraged to question what the leader is teaching without being condemned for heresy.  He views preaching as a way of forcing a viewpoint down the audience’s throat, and anyone who questions the preacher is strongly condemned.  I admit, I have seen it in my own church and in others.

Last Sunday my nephew had to hitch a ride to the Exiles and needed a way back home, so after the morning service was finished at my church, I sat through the Exiles service, not knowing that his parents had arrived and I was not needed.  I was immediately spotted, so slipping out quietly was not an option.  I found a chair and joined Carla and Charlie while listening to Bob’s teaching which I hadn’t heard in a long time.  It was kind of odd.  The gathering felt like a house-church, except it met in a store-front.  Bob mentioned a book that Carla had recommended to me just a couple days before.

I ran a search online and found the PDF file of So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobson (pen name Jake Colsen).  The book is a critique of the institutional church written in the form of a fictional story.  The author places himself in the story as the main character, an associate pastor of a megachurch who meets a fellow named “John” who guides him on a journey to what is supposed to be a real relationship with God.  Jake entertains the thought that John may be none other than John the Apostle.  The two meet randomly at unexpected times, and in each meeting John helps Jake to understand the dangers of man-made traditions and rules that supposedly are the result of the church as an institution.  Now the book is actually a good critique of many of the problems that arise in a church.  We see cases of church politics where pastors and leaders struggle for power and a paycheck.  We see a system of control where we teach people to seek man’s approval rather than Father’s love, illustrated by a gold-star system in Sunday School where children get stars for attendance, bringing their Bibles, and memorizing verses out of context.  We see people who are bound up in keeping rules to earn Father’s love, which flatly contradicts the work that Jesus did for us on Earth, living as a man and dying for our sins.

The underlying message, however, is very disturbing.  Although the message is a bit ambiguous, it seems to point in the direction of rejecting any and all ways of doing “church” that even remotely looks organized.  Organized religion is the enemy, if you carry this book to its logical conclusion.  When Jake starts a house church, he is warned again that this is another institution—just a different location, and therefore will become another form of enslavement.  Why?  Because planning events ahead of time calls for commitment, and commitment leads to slavery.  Instead, church should just “happen” spontaneously.  If a few believers accidentally end up in the same place, like at a coffee shop, and begin discussing some biblical topic, then presto!…we have a church.  Throughout the book, John convinces Jake that the institution (sometimes referred to as “machinery”) itself is the culprit in creating a system of slavery to the very people that Jesus sought to set free. 

The problem that I have with this teaching and the rejection of “organized religion” is that we as Christians are called to be in relation to one another as members of one body (1 Corinthians 12) and when there are at least two people involved in any way whatsoever, there will always be some form or organization, minimal as it may be.  Groups cannot help but to organize if they have a common goal to meet.

Suppose for example that you and four of your friends are hanging out together at the park.  One of you mentions that he is feeling a little hungry.  Two or three of the others express the same thing.  So you suggest the group goes out to eat.  The group likes the idea, and then the big question comes…where should the group go?  Since there are five in the group, it is likely that you will hear five different suggestions.  But you all want to go together, so you must come to some form of agreement.  You discuss and debate, and then another suggestion comes up that all five of you like.  So you decide to meet at the Chinese restaurant just a few blocks down.  Guess what happened.  The group followed a pattern of coming to decision in a smooth manner.  It’s almost as if it was organized.

My point is that organization is impossible to avoid, even in Christian life when all we want is a personal relationship with Jesus.  I must conclude that the institutional church, or “organized religion” is not the enemy.  In fact, when Paul describes the Church as a body with many parts in 1 Corinthians 12, we note that the parts must be in their proper place doing their proper function if the body as a whole is to function properly.  That’s organization.  Blood travels through the heart and blood vessels in a set pattern.  Muscles work in pairs in conjunction with the bones to perform many tasks.  Food travels through the digestive system in the same order, no matter what you eat or when you eat it.

I cannot agree with John that the institution, organization, machinery—or whatever else you want to call it—is the enemy or the cause of our problems.  In the gun control debate there is a prevailing argument in favor of the Second Amendment that says, “Guns don’t kill people—People kill people.”  The same is true about institutions.  If there is a power struggle or system of control and slavery in your church, it’s not the institution that is to blame.  It’s the corrupt leader who abuses the system for his own purposes.

You may still argue that the institutional church is full of hypocrites, and that makes the church as a whole corrupt.  I’ve known people who have rejected a relationship with Jesus because of someone they knew who claimed to be a Christian and denied Jesus by their lifestyle.  You would do well to remember that the reason Jesus came was to save us from our fallen nature.  He’s not looking for perfect people because such people do not exist.  The same is true about the church.  You will never find a perfect church.  Don’t even try.  The church is composed of human beings, and it is a maxim of mine that whenever there are human beings involved, there will always be AT LEAST one flaw.  No exceptions.

I’m going to end this rant for now, but I still have other things to write about concerning how we should “do church.”  This may very possibly be the first in a series of rants on the role that the church should play in the life of a Christian.  Stay tuned for my take on denominations and house churches.