Is This Christianity?

Over the past few weeks, possibly the past few months actually, I have been involved in a lot of conversations about the church of today and with the boxes we place everything in, our churches, our services, our worship, our ministry. Everything fits nicely into these perfect little boxes that are used all over the world, where church all looks the same and everything is done in almost the exact same ways and there is no room for creativity, no room for God to work. Because, if you haven’t noticed by now, nothing about God fits into any kind of box we could ever create. So why should our church, our worship, our ministry?

God doesn’t call us to be complacent. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we should take a seat, get comfortable, and just enjoy the watching life pass us by. Nor does it imply that we have a free ride to just enjoy our lives as we please, that we don’t have a job to do. In fact, it says the exact opposite. God commands us to go. To “make disciples (Matthew 28:19, NIV).” To “let [our] light shine before others (Matthew 5:16 NIV).”

So why are we—why is the church, the body of Christ—sitting idly by and letting the world burn all around us? Why are we choosing the comfort of our “perfect” lives and our church pews over the real life and hurt and pain and sorrow that is going on all around us? When are we going to let go of everything we’re holding on to, everything that we think is important, and make room—no, make our whole lives about what God tells us really matters?

If you couldn’t tell, this is a topic that I am very passionate about, but I just want to be clear that I’m not bashing the church. God intended for us to band together as believers, to worship and commune with one another, and to live in community. So I know that the church is necessary, and is the perfect training ground for believers to get closer to God and then go out into the world and put that into practice. What I am saying is I don’t feel like the church of today is actually fulfilling this calling, at least, not the churches that I have been hearing about lately.

Right now, the church seems to be obsessed with the idea of being the biggest, the most attended, with the best performance on a Sunday morning, featuring the best worship and the most special effects and the most “relatable” preacher. However, there is one word in particular in that sentence that stands out as one that doesn’t belong. Performance. Since when has Sunday morning worship been a performance? When did this start being a trend, start being what so many churches a striving towards? Last I checked, Sunday mornings are for worship. For a community of believers to enter into the presence of God, worship Him together, and then learn more about Him and be strengthened before they go back out into the world for another week. I don’t think a “performance” accomplishes that goal.

All of that is to say, we as Christians are failing at our goal as well. We are comfortable with this “performance-driven” worship, and every week we expect something that will keep us interested and be entertaining and make us want to come back next week. Otherwise, we probably won’t. But that isn’t Christianity! We should be going to the church to meet with GOD, to hear what He has to say to us and make sure we are right with Him before we go back out into the world to teach others about Him, not to find a feel-good experience. And as a result, we only go to church when it “feels good,” we only go to churches that meet our “performance” expectations, and we fail to leave that church and “go out into the world,” except when we go out and be a part of it rather than a light in it.

What I’m getting at here is this: the church needs to step up and be the church. First, it needs to step up and show us what worship and being in community with Christ and other believers look like. Even when it’s convicting and not necessarily the most “feel-good” experience. Second, the church of believers needs to take that and go out into the world, sharing all that they learn with others. It’s not going to do us any good if we sit in a building on Sunday mornings—even if it actually does look like the church God intended—if we aren’t taking that with us as we leave and putting it into practice every other day of the week. That is what God truly intended.

Take a look at your city. The one in the picture above is mine, at least the city near my church. There is so much brokenness, so much hurt, so much need everywhere in that city. And in every other city on the face of this earth. We need to make a difference in these cities. What is the point of having a church in that city if the church isn’t going to do anything for it? A building is just a building. So if that church was no longer a church, would your city even notice? If your answer is anything but a “yes, it definitely would,” then we have a problem.

So let’s change it. Let’s change the trend our churches, and Christianity as a whole, is following. Let’s make it clear that we won’t stand for this, that we don’t want a “feel-good” religion. We want a church that challenges us, that draws us closer to God, and that equips us to be sent out into our cities, and into cities all over the world, to shine our light, and show others what this Jesus is all about. Because that is when we will really start to see a change, in ourselves, in our churches and cities, and in our world.

May God bless you and keep you,

Mackenzie

To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party page.

The credit for this picture goes to the internet, as I'm not sure what website it is on but I borrowed it from Google.