I went the whole summer of 1980 without attending church. That’s right. The whole summer, and I never missed it, a seemingly shameful confession from a seminary student. (I won’t name the seminary I attended at the time because I don’t want to disgrace them but it was a Baptist seminary in Denver.)
Now wait. Before you pray for my soul; hear the reasons. Hear the irony. Ironically, I had, in the previous few years, developed an extremely high view of church and it was because of this high view that I refused to attend.
I hadn’t always had a high view. I was led to Christ in the early seventies when Christians were making an important distinction between attending church and “really knowing Jesus.” Sure, we still needed some fellowship but basically the new and cool relationship with God Himself was enough.
Naturally it didn’t take long for me to fall flat on my face and realize that this relationship doesn’t work too well without help from other forgiven sinners. I began studying the New Testament’s teaching on the church. I figured there must be some reason why church was talked about so much. As it turned out I found a lot of reasons and most of them were issued in the form of commands.
There was the command to worship together (I Tim 2). There was the command to disciple others (Matt. 28:19-20). There was the command to hold each other mutually accountable (Eph. 5:21). There was the command to submit to church authorities (Heb 13:17) (ouch). There was the command to use our gifts for the betterment of the body (I Cor 12) . There was the command to reach out to the surrounding community (Acts 1, Rom 10).
At the time, I ran a para-church campus ministry at UC Santa Barbara. For those who need a definition here, “para-church” is an invented expression to justify organizations which are church like but not church titled. To their credit, such entities were created to meet a need which the “real church” had overlooked. Examples are numerous from Christian Business Men’s Association to Navigators to Inter-Varsity, to Campus Ambassadors, my own organization. Now mind you, C.A. was a bit different in that it strongly encouraged church involvement as part of the discipleship program. In fact, part of my job was to inform students that simply attending a church on Sunday morning was not enough. One must get authentically and biblically involved. The problem, of course, was that if any of my students ever took this notion seriously, they would be more committed to their churches and less committed to C.A., a scary idea since frankly, I needed them to keep our ministry going. Besides, if I was doing the job of leading students to Christ and training them in leadership, why should some other organization waltz in and take the bread which they never helped bake?
Still, I was conscientious enough to teach on the importance of church involvement and as a part of that teaching I made it very clear that we (Campus Ambassadors, Santa Barbara) were not a church. To my surprise a student openly disagreed right in the middle of my church seminar.
“But we do all these things you said were important,” he insisted. “We have mutual accountability and worship. We use our gifts and reach out to our community the campus.”
I must admit, it made me think. I thought about our weekly evening Bible Study-Fellowship time, recalling an observation which I had never paid too much attention to. It occurred to me that if we were meeting on Sunday morning instead of Monday nights; if an organ were being played instead of a guitar; if we were meeting in a chapel instead of my living room; if I were dressed in a suit instead of jeans and a tee-shirt, if I were giving my message from a podium, rather than a chair; everyone would view us as a church. And yet, not one of those visible familiarities is a New Testament test. They are, instead, optional traditions.
I didn’t admit it at the time, but the whippersnapper, know it all student was right. We have done funny things today with labels. We defend the existence of para-church groups on the basis that the church isn’t getting the job done. Well, if an organization is acting more like a church than the church maybe it is the church (I don’t think I could say that again in one breath.)
My purpose here is not to get into a lengthy discussion of campus ministry. It’s just that my para-church background was an excellent atmosphere with which to think through the myths and preconceptions we have about Christian community.
The New Testament word for church is “ecclessia” referring to “a called out assembly of people.” It is fitting that the church has a simple definition because it has an important task and important tasks don’t need complication. Our task? To bring people into the family of God and treat them like family.
Admittedly, some of the confusion comes from different usages of the term. “Church” was used in both a universal and a local sense. Universally, it referred to all born again Christians, past present and future, dead or alive, adopted by God as His children, making up a family which is so close positionally, that it is viewed by God in a singular sense. For example, Paul called this church the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:25 )
At the same time, the New Testament referred to local churches. In Acts 14:13 Paul appointed “elders in “every church.” These local assemblies have the same purpose as the larger body, only on a smaller scale. The universal church reaches the world. The local church reaches its neighborhood (or at least starts there).
Back to the summer of 1980. I was a summer school student, living in Santa Barbara for most of the year and living in Denver for only a few months. Fellow C.A. staff on a similar schedule seemed to feel that it was proper to attend church on Sunday morning. The previous summer I had done likewise, out of habit and guilt mostly. This summer I was analyzing the situation. Why go to church? For teaching? I have five seminary classes this summer. I believe that’s enough teaching? OK fellowship. But the C.A. staff were getting together every Wednesday night for a potluck, Bible Study and prayer time. OK. involvement. Well sure, if there was a church that wanted to trust some ministry to someone who is only going to be here for a few months but I hadn’t found such a church and Denver, for most of the year was not my community. As it turned out, Sunday became my morning to sleep in.
I have never regretted it . Again, it came as a result of a high view of church. Don’t misunderstand me. There would have been nothing wrong if I had wanted to attend. But it was not necessary because it was not community involvement. My hope is that by discovering what the church isn’t we will have a more accurate understanding of what the church is. Anyway, I still saw the Rockies that summer. Luckily for me, chipmunks don’t sing hymns.
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