It’s been a challenge for organized religion. Many local congregations face financial collapse. Sampling a few websites for a few churches, what stands out most is not the spiritual care they may offer but a donation button for online contributions. Of course, there are the protests from “true believers” insisting that they are being denied the freedom of religion because of public health restrictions. As I watch it unfold, one of the questions I ask is this: where did the church go wrong?
This a clearly a complex issue with many layers. For example, one dimension of the Christian church’s failure is the growth of “evangelic Christian ministries” which have built incredible enterprises off of a time-tested formula of two essential claims: that God speaks directly to the leader and that God wants you to give your money to the leader. That’s manipulation not authentic religion. Another dimension that’s led to the failure of Christian churches are the religious institutions that maintain control based firm statements that insist that a priest, bishop, elder, or other leader has special power and without that leader, ordinary people have limited access to God. Such claims, though often dressed in fine theological statements, are contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Many of the demands in the US today about religious freedom and the need to hold public religious services come from groups that follow these paradigms. In both cases, there is unbridled self-interest for preservation of the status quo where a few leaders benefit from the adherence of the many.
But where is the essential church? For that, we need to dig a little deeper.
Our English word “church” which is derived from the Germanic word “kirika,” is the translation of the Greek word: ecclesia. An ecclesia was a gathering of people and used to describe a way in which people gathered together as a community in ancient Athens. At the root of “church” is community – people gathered together and interconnected.
The essential church is the gathering. This is the essence of the words of Jesus recorded by Matthew’s gospel: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) It’s important to realize that Jesus referred to people gathering, not what they did when they gathered. In other words, the ecclesia, the church is the gathering of people in the name or spirit of Jesus. Perhaps they’ll gather in the building for prayer. Perhaps they’ll gather at a soup kitchen to feed the hungry. Perhaps they’ll gather to shelter the homeless. Perhaps they’ll gather to care for the sick. The essence of church is not the Sunday service. Instead, the essence of church is that people gather to act in ways that make the teachings of Jesus real in the world.
Christians consider the day of Pentecost as the birth of the church. What happened on that day? The followers of Jesus had been hiding out because they were afraid that they would be arrested as associates of Jesus. The Biblical writer Luke says that they were gathered in a room praying. In that gathering, the Holy Spirit awakened them to something new and transformative. They left the security of that room and went into the streets of Jerusalem. It was there they touched people’s lives. The church was not born when they hid together for prayer. No, the church was born when they went out into the streets and made a difference in the world.
Somehow, Christians have gotten it backwards. The essence of being a Christian is not attending services in a building on Sundays. No, the essence of being a follower of Jesus is working with others to make a difference in the world. That’s what it means to be “church,” the ecclesia, the gathering of people that does something in the world.
Those people who complain about not being able to meet for Sunday services, well, to be honest: I don’t think they understand the teachings of Jesus. I think many of them are selfish. To be a follower of Jesus is to be self-less, to give of oneself for the benefit of others. Yes, Christians will be the church again when they are dedicated to bringing life to the world. That’s the essential church – the gathering of dedicated people who give of themselves to enliven the world.
Photo by Stephen D. Melkisethian on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND