I’m sorry this is so lumped together – I can’t figure out how to get paragraph separations to work on this thing. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. 
It seems to me that there is a new wave of church fad right now. You might think it’s the mega church with people like Joel Osteen and others who are creating a massive empire out of themselves, but this is a less massive movement that has gone a little under the radar. It’s a following of a small “core” group of people who meet in a downtown or less-to-do neighborhood and call themselves a Church. This group of people is almost always under the age of 40, usually in and around their late twenties and early thirties. They have felt a calling toward the inner city and feel that the larger institutionalized churches aren’t meeting the needs of the people living there. Usually you will find them on Saturday nights or Sundays in a building that doubles as a place of business. The pastors of these churches are often the counter culture types, who call themselves a full time pastor but have ties/partially own the business that is running out of the building they are using for their church. (And I don’t mean that condescendingly, I mean it simply as a fact.) I have a lot to say about these churches in general so I’m going to try to organize my thoughts a little. I’ll start by saying that I acknowledge that all of these churches are individual and usually not associated with one another (there’s no formal “denomination”) but there are often a LOT of similarities between them all. Such as the ones in the previous paragraph. My first issue: Isn’t the place of worship supposed to be sacred? Most of these churches operate out of a building used for business every other time that the church is not using it. (Or even at the same time, the church just might be in a different room from where the business is operated) The building may also be rented out to different artistic venues, such as concerts, art shows, theatre productions, etc. I believe that tying a business up with God’s house is a very dangerous line to walk upon. Jesus showed how strongly he felt about this when he displayed his righteous anger towards the money changers and those who were selling their goods in the temple. He specifically said in Matthew 21:13 “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a robber’s den.’ “ Many will argue the other verses where it is written that Christ does not dwell in buildings but within Man, and a host of other scripture taken out of context, but one must ask: if all God cared about was what is in our hearts(and not what we do), why would Jesus have had such a severe response to what was happening in God’s house? Shouldn’t we have the same perspective as Christ and be sure that God’s house is kept sacred? My second issue: Where are the older and wiser? Older doesn’t always mean wiser, I know that. But I know a whole lot more people who are wise that are old, than people who are wise and young. It seems that these churches rarely have anyone attending that are over 40, and definitely not over 50. They also often don’t have anyone under 20, except for the young children of the 30-somethings that make up the vast majority of the church body. I think this younger generation have excused all older and wiser people as stuffy, controlling, and set in their ways and have made off to do their own thing. They forget that within that demographic are a lot of very dedicated Christians who read their bible daily and have been for at least 30 years and have been on this earth long enough to recognize the Truth from a lie. These 50, 60, 70, 80, even 90-somethings have a LOT to give to a body of young believers, and I think this is a crucial part of the body. Think of a body of Christ as just that – a body. If all you have is a bunch of eyes and legs, it doesn’t make for a very complete body. My third issuse: Speaking of Christians, why can’t I call you a Christian? This new trend is not exclusive to the city church, but I felt like touching on it because it’s in the article that drove me to write this post. Many Christians are coming up with new words to call themselves because “Christian” has got a bad stigma to it. They are forgetting that Christ himself told the disciples that people weren’t going to like them or like it when they came around. If you are a Christian (or whatever you chose to call it) and aim to be Christlike, and like the disciples were, people aren’t going to like you or the message you have anyways, it doesn’t matter what you call yourself. Every last disciple except one was killed for their belief! Being persecuted for who we are in Christ should be readily accepted, it means we are living the way that the men and women of Christ’s day did, not something to be ashamed of and try to warp so that people don’t hate us as much. The definition of Christian from Webster’s Dictionary is “one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ”. And so if the shoe fits…. My Fourth issue: Misplaced Respect (OK, more of a general issue, but the circumstance applies to the city church and is relevant in it’s example to other like churches) I think the word respect is overused. And I think it has lost it’s meaning. The article that I referred to earlier said something that I thought was just completely backwards. Here it is: “After a screaming rock session with offensive lyrics, artists approach him (the pastor) saying, “Thanks for showing us respect. Most people don’t respect us.” One of the core values of <insert church name here> is to grant dignity to everyone they meet.” There is a big difference between dignity and respect!! The previous paragraph in the article was highlighting what goes on during a typical Sunday morning, where they invite their artists to “share what’s in their soul, even if it’s dark and unbiblical and then we communicate respect” so I’m quite sure that this particular band played on a Sunday morning during a church service. How is it respectful to God to allow something like this to disrupt the time He set aside for us to show him worship and praise? It’s not. It’s also not respectful of this band to play in this kind of setting – in thinking that being allowed to play would be a demonstration of respect on the behalf of the people who are allowing them, they have fully disrespected the people allowing them!! It’s so backwards! A better way to reach these people is for the pastor to do the leading on Sunday morning, and save people’s “expression of their soul” for another time, because doing it like this is disrespectful to God, nevermind the Christians who are supposed to be doing “church”. Which leads me to my fifth issue. My Fifth issue: This is not what “church” was designed for. A question: When Christ went around from city to city, what was his purpose? Was his purpose to invite people to the temple or to someone’s house for church? Was his purpose to get to know Him so that they might want to hang out with him more? Was he careful not to offend, or politically correct about the way he spoke? What about any of his other disciples? How about Paul? Was Paul looking for popularity? All of these men were searching for lost souls. And I love that these inner city churches are considering the lost souls that are often forgotten by community and large denominational churches. I give them 100% kudos for that. I also believe that every person is unique, and individual, and therefore the way that we approach the gospel which each of them is unique and individual. However. None of these men used church as we know it to reach them. Reaching the unsaved was something they did outside of the meeting of the body of believers, which is what church is and should be. God cares about what we do on Sunday morning. He’s given lots of instruction about it in His word. A few different points about church from the Bible:
- 1 Tim. 2:5 We don’t need any human mediators between us and God – Christ is that man now.
- 1 Tim. 2:8 Men lift up their holy hands to pray, literally or figuratively
- 1 Tim. 2:9 Women should dress modestly and discreetly, and with good works
- 1 Tim 2:10 Women shouldn’t teach or exercise authority over men during church
- 1 Tim 3:2-7 Instruction regarding an “overseer”, either a pastor, bishop, elder, or whatever you chose to call it.
- 1 Tim 3:8-13 Instruction regarding deacons
I’ve never read a passage in the bible that says “Here is the exact layout in it’s entirety of what must happen during a church meeting”. We have portions of things to go on and general basic instruction, but the fluff of the meeting is usually individual. We can, however, take our layout from the example of the believers in the Bible. All of the letters in the bible are written to the believers in the church – and none of them tell them to invite people to come to their church to make it bigger, or as a way of introducing someone to “church”. It seems that we get so caught up in wanting to grow our churches, and get people to start going to church, forgetting that salvation is more important. Most churches don’t preach the gospel every Sunday morning, so is that really the place that non-Christians should be? Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of souls that have been saved as a result of Sunday morning, I don’t discount that. I just think that our Biblical model says that is not the place where souls usually are saved. Sunday morning is for the renewing of the Christian mind, for teaching, for correction, for worship, for praise, for fellowship. If not on Sunday morning with our body of Christ that we are a part of, then when? We as Christians should be professing Christ and leading people to Him in our daily lives, and not just on Sunday morning. I found this statement from the article a little alarming: “In fact, some Christians who have attended <insert church name here> say they love it, but that they want ‘more worship and deeper teaching.’ At times like these, <Pastor> and his leadership team go back to the purpose of their church. ‘Our focus is to give ourselves away,’ he says.” Is this what God wants the purpose of church to be? A mission? I believe the people who start these churches and attend these churches have a very noble focus, and are doing a great service to the community they are working with. However, in order to be the best they can be, and “give themselves away”, they need be filling themselves back up again too – by attending a church filled with believers, not one filled with non believers, and a church where the Body is complete. They also need to show that there is a difference between Christians and non Christians. Many Christians have decided that they don’t want to be any different than non Christians, which is sad. The Bible specifically says in Ephesians 4:17,18 “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded form the life of god because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” and then in vs. 22-24 “that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of god has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth”. It then goes on in verses 25-32 and into chapter 5 talking about all the different things you used to do, and don’t do now that you’re a Christian. If a non Christian doesn’t see any difference between you and them, then where is the need for a saviour? What is the point in having Christ in their life?
Ok, back on track, off the tangent!
It just makes me wonder what is being preached at these kinds of church on Sunday morning. Is the focus on the people who are coming in? Or is the focus on God? Is the opportunity of having so many unsaved people coming in and out being capitalized on each and every time? I don’t doubt that people are being saved. And we should all be glad for it, I know there is rejoicing in heaven every time someone comes to know Him. But I am wondering if they are won over to a light-hearted “be yourself” kind of gospel or if they are won to the Truth, to the “be who God wants you to be” gospel. What you want to do and what God wants you to do aren’t always aligned.
All churches have flaws and imperfections. We are imperfect people in an imperfect world. That doesn’t mean that we should live with those imperfections. I am open to correction if anyone wants to give it to me, so long as you can give scripture to back up your position.
I’m glad that these people starting and attending these inner city churches have a heart for the unsaved less fortunate. They are often a demographic that is forgotten. I pray that through our human imperfections that they are able to paint an accurate picture of who Christ is and show that even though he is a “come as you are” kind of saviour, he also wants us to change once we’ve come to him.
