PEAKLAND BAPTIST CHURCH, LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA
March 10, 2010
Coming and Going as Christians
I have a friend and church member who sometimes calls himself “the lostest sheep.” When he has missed several Sunday worship services because of family and community commitments and interests, he sometimes calls (dare I say, sheepishly) to explain his protracted absence from worship services. It is always good to hear his voice (not to mention to see him in worship service); but when he calls and describes himself as my “lostest sheep,” I sometimes let him turn on the hook of his guilt. After all, appropriate guilt can be a very effective motivator. It often works for me. At other times I have mercy and tell him that he is only one of the “loster” sheep. He asks if I am suggesting that he should try harder to achieve admission into this more select group. I respond that “loster” is preferable to ‘lostest.”
As we banter back and forth, I suggest that there are other activities at church in which he can participate when not able to attend worship – Bible Study, service opportunities, taking his pastor to lunch, etc. He suggests back that only one with limited vision would conclude that just because people are not attending church activities that they are not serving God in their lives and God’s larger world. Touché. If the shepherd would look at what the sheep are doing outside the confines of church scheduling, he might see that they are not quite as lost as they appear. My friend and I have stumbled upon the classic dichotomy between “going to church” and “being the church.”
Sometimes clergy fall into the trap of judging success by attendance at church activities. We assume that the growing church is one where the worship attendance is increasing. The growing Christian is one who spends an increasing amount of time attending church-related activities. We clergy really are brighter than this. We understand that the true purpose of going to church is so that people are called, equipped, and motivated to be the church in their everyday lives in God’s world. The true measure of Christian growth is when “the sheep” live out being the church in whatever pasture they frequent during the week – school, work, neighborhood, etc. However, it is difficult to measure success by the standard of what Christians are doing in their everyday lives, so we often fall back on the only standard we can easily measure – attendance at church-related activities. It sometimes takes an honest sheep to open the shepherd’s eyes to the larger world that lies beyond his fold.
But to explore the other side of this dichotomy, it is almost impossible to be the church in the world if one does not have a regular pattern of going to church. Unless one is engaged in Christian formation through worship, study, service, and fellowship with a peer group of Christian friends, it is difficult to be the church in the world. Of course, it is easy to rationalize that what I am doing serves God, when actually it may merely serve my personal tastes and self-interest. When I am a part of a group that regularly discusses what God wants us to do and even prays for discernment about God’s direction, it is far more likely that I will actually be the church in the world. When a new identity is being formed in me by the inner work of the Holy Spirit and the outer work of the Christian disciplines, it is almost inevitable that I will express this new identity in the larger world. To use a Jesus metaphor, I will actually bring light to the world. (Matthew 5:14-16)
“Bless me, God, and what I decide to do” is the prevailing mantra of too much contemporary religious culture. “Show me your will, O Lord, and make me a blessing in your name” is the refrain of those who truly seek to be the church in the world. This refrain is also the essence of the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught all who would be his disciples, as we form our identity as children of God and go forth to work as servants of God. After all, Jesus is the one who has commanded us both to gather in his name and to go forth to serve in his name. When we follow him, “going to church” and “being the church” are not a dichotomy after all; merely two side of the same relationship.
Coming or going, I look forward to seeing you in the church and the neighborhood,
Steve