I lived about 15 minutes from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the home of “Phil” the groundhog to whom we look, every February 2nd, to see if we’ll have six more weeks of winter. It was a cute little, unofficial, non-holiday that most people only paid some amused attention to, a few minutes once a year, until the movie Ground Hog Day came out in 1993. Since then “Ground Hog Day” has become a by-word for futility, for no matter what you do, nothing changes. It’s about a weather man who gets caught in a loop, re-experiencing Ground Hog Day over and over again. No matter what he does nothing changes.
That’s what I feel addressing church membership is like. No matter how many scriptures one uses to show its importance (like Matthew 18:15-17, much of 1 Corinthians or, especially, Hebrews 10:19-25), some continue to believe that the church is simply their individual service provider, like their favorite restaurant, to be changed for whatever reason you want.
A pious-sounding lady once said, “I know who I belong to.” It sounds so spiritual. “I know who I belong to.” That was her reason for abandoning the church she had covenanted to be a member. She had exclaimed that she’d never leave church #1 unless God spoke to her directly. That resolve lasted a few months until she decided that she could have a weekly family reunion if she went to church #2. She quickly abandoned that church to go back to an old church, #3, because the pastor was a friend. When that didn’t work out, she found a church #4 – and counting – which she now piously calls her “church family.”
See: “Wanda’s World of Worthless Words” (<click here.) for more on the “pious-sounding lady” who didn’t stay in her “church family.”
She thinks that because she belongs to Christ, she doesn’t need to belong to a specific church. Her commitment to any particular church can be broken on a whim. If you ask her why she’s leaving, she says, “I know who I belong to.” In the meantime, she also left her husband. Apparently, she didn’t belong to him either. For me or you to tell her that she should not merely go to church but be a covenanted member of a specific church, would be like a restaurant owner berating a former customer for not coming to the restaurant regularly anymore. No one expects loyalty to a restaurant. Why should they expect it to a church? That’s many people’s idea of the church.
We live in a culture soaked in individualism. They say if you want to know about water, the last one to ask is a fish. And so if you want to know about individualism, the last one to ask is an American. We are swimming in its acids. That’s why addressing church membership to many Americans is like Ground Hog Day. No matter what you do, the next day you’ll be back where you started. That acid has soaked its way into the church so that when the instruction is done about covenanting to be a member of a particular body, the next day the American wakes up and he’s a self-seeking consumer again. A church member, in the Bible-belt, could unashamedly say, “I know who I belong to,” as an excuse to abandon the people she had said she belonged to. That’s the acids of individualism dissolving the church.
The Church-As-Restaurant Attitude
Many churches’ response to that church-as-restaurant attitude is to admit it. Surrender to it. Enable it. They admit it by accepting the reality of it; not asking attenders to become members, to enter into covenant with one another; letting covenant-breakers, without rebuke, go their merry way; and then spend their time marketing the church to these people. They busily market themselves to their former customers to get them to come back for a visit. A gospel sing gives them an excuse to invite them. “You’ll love it; don’t miss it!” Or maybe a revival or a “home-coming.” Above all, don’t offend them on their way out, by telling them that they’re breaking their commitment, because then they won’t come back. Besides, we can’t rebuke them (we often think) because we recognize that they’re right: they belong to Christ (not us — not the Body of Christ?); that we cannot interfere in the sacredness of their individual free choices about how to be a member; about whether they should actually keep their commitments; whether their “yes” should be yes; whether they should have integrity; whether they should keep their vows even if it hurts (Psalm 15:4); whether they should be expected to be a covenant-keeper like God; whether they should actually consider the impact of their decision on the other people in the church they are leaving behind.
We often think, we cannot interfere in the sacredness of their individual free choices about how to be a member.
So, many reason — since “I know who I belong to” — I could just stay home and watch my favorite preacher, all by myself in my living room, with none of those other annoying people to make me uncomfortable. Why not, if we don’t belong to a specific body? During the pandemic, many churches encouraged this spectator-church mentality by speaking ironically of “joining us on-line.” They tell people, “Do church online.” They claim that there can be a “virtual church.” If, for a brief time, the best a church can do is offer sermons and lessons via the internet, that’s fine. But don’t tell people that watching from home constitutes gathering, that one can “do church” – do assembly – without assembling. By doing that, churches are teaching that church is akin to a theater. If the cinemas are closed, or you just don’t want the bother of going out, watch the newest movie by streaming from the comfort of your couch. After all, the only thing that matters is my entertainment. The virtual churches are encouraging the same attitude: “Entertain me or leave me alone but above all . . . I know who I belong to and it isn’t you (church).”
The Bible’s idea of the church is radically different than that: a vision of the church built and presided over by Christ as the family of God (Galatians 6:10, 1 Timothy 3:15). You would no more leave your church because some slight thing, like the music, was better elsewhere than you would leave your family for another because the new family had more fun at family game night.
Know a reader who wants to know about the church? Get him or her Seven Pillars of a Biblical Church at the site above or (if you’re in the Danville area) Karen’s Hallmark shop in the Danville Mall.
