The Church - The Things We Must Change

[TonyGosling]

The Things We Must Change
by [please contact author via Tony G] - February 2012
For some time now I have been concerned about the way the Christian Church is organised in the United Kingdom. There is a trend towards centralisation, where a small group of people lead their part of the church from a central location, control its finances and disseminate its message. Local churches are seen as branches of the larger organisation and (financial and non-financial) decisions affecting them can be made tens or even hundreds of miles away. We have had a generation of professional churchmen and churchwomen, who have careers in the church, speak for the church, make plans for the church and control its financial resources. Business plans are developed which brand the church, define its viability and make huge (yet unspoken) assumptions about the economic circumstances, age, mobility, status and abilities of those people the church is seeking to serve. Whole sections of society can be excluded from the church's mission. Local church activities can be scaled back or even shut down entirely, simply because some arbitrary, centrally imposed goal involving people or money could not be met at an equally arbitrary date. This is just not right.
My other concern is that Christians are sometimes engaging in trading activities or fund raising appeals (often using the internet and the mass media) in ways which dishonour their Saviour and would make Jesus pick up his whip of knotted chords, if he were still walking amongst us. When we start asking people to pay commercial prices for cups of coffee, make TV and radio programs whose main aim is to raise funds to make more TV and radio programs ... and allow people to actively “network” their businesses in church, we're demonstrating that the church is a business, not a bride. We are called to come together to worship, not to sell things ... and certainly not to make appeals to people (who are often not Christians) to assist in the upkeep of our decaying structures. The church isn't a branch of English Heritage, any more than it is the Conservative Party at prayer. We should be encouraging non-Christian visitors not to put money into the collection, not reinforcing their impression of a money grabbing, self-serving organisation, seeking a secular subsidy. Do we think people want to service our property loans? I think not. I'd go further and say that we shouldn't have collections at all, particularly if it's unclear how the money is being used. A collection bowl at the back of the church with a small note next to it will do just fine. The church is about people, not money or buildings, beautiful though some of them are. God would rather have them all fall down, than that the poor are neglected, the disadvantaged marginalised or the desperate ignored.

Jesus defined a viable church as “two or three” and spoke seven letters to the Revelation churches, not one. He had to borrow a penny when someone asked him about paying taxes, because he didn't have one and He went around doing good. I believe Jesus is grieved at the way in which massive financial resources are now tied up in pension plans, property, art and antiquities in His name. Jesus and the disciples did not conduct fund raising campaigns or set up substantial businesses. They did not receive large sums in tithes and offerings, control multi-million pound property empires, make grant applications to local authorities, or award substantial contracts of employment to the Apostles. They didn't jet around the world. Paul travelled mostly on foot and made tents by hand when he ran out of money. He wasn't a career churchman with a nice house and car, generous living expenses and a pension plan.

I think we need to do things differently. We need to stop supporting church organisations and support the sick. We need to stop paying people to tell us what we should be doing, and get on and do it. We need to stop trading and start fishing for men and women. We should let these antique buildings fall down and cry out to God to build us into a temple of living stones. We need to start moving resources towards local people, particularly young people, so that they can go and reach their own generation for Christ. Our leaders should remember that pyramids are in Egypt and that biblical leadership is about servant-hood and teamwork and accountability (the pastor is one function amongst many). That we are all accountable to God for what we say, how we live and how we use the resources He has given us. We need to live in the knowledge that nothing is too difficult for the One who made the heavens and that God has no favourite children. We need to actually believe that there are no greater or lesser parts in the Body of Christ because everyone matters ... everyone is indispensable. Time is short. We need to make (financial and non-financial) decisions locally, to commit to excellence, to hate religion with all its rituals and jargon and to unconditionally love people for their own sake, not as part of some “hidden” agenda to put more bodies on seats or more money in the offering. Love does not patronise or lecture; it listens and responds. We can no longer just pray and go home. We must pray and then do, knowing the days are evil and recognising that, until faith becomes sight, we'll never be perfect ... but that we're being perfected (being changed from glory to glory) by the Lord, who is the Spirit.

[fish5133]

A person who first comes to faith in Christ is oftened shaped by the "church" he or she finds themself in. Many who "come to faith" in a particular church denomination will have some degree of that denominations traits ingrained upon them. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it can initally lead to a distortion of what the "church" is. I fear that many new believers are susceptible to being a little gullible especially when their spritual conversion is quite dramatic. In my own case my own spiritual awakening to belief in Christ was not through a church but through prayer and reading the scriptures and reading around . Christ and the early apostles warn about false Christs, false brethren, false doctrine. The difficult thing is how to make that judgement as to some degree any Christian will probably hold some incorrect beliefs. The other awkward thing is that Christ and the apostles encouraged believers to meet together and whenever you get groups of people meeting you get some problems. History has shown that often whenever a church gets corrupt those with integrity first try to change it but often have to leave for conscience sake. It is a difficult "pilgrimage" but one I make in the beleif that no church organisation has control over me--my allegiance has first to be to my God. A former Bishop of Liverpool ( a good one by all accounts) J C Ryle wrote a lovely booklet called The True Church which highlights the spiritual nature of the church and not the denominational.
The other side of the coin is that Christians can become too defensive, suspicious and separate themselves from one another. Its a personal walk we make in union with others.
The first believers did not call themselves Christians--that was a name given them by non-believers who saw the love thay had for each other and their saviour (followers of the Way of Christ).
The letters written to the different churches in the Book of Revelation highlight the good and bad within each. Its good to know we dont need some big church program to "give a cup of water in Jesus name"