IN THE CHURCH, BUT NOT OF THE CHURCH

As a child Jesus had been very enthusiastic about the Jewish temple, lingering so long that his parents started their homeward journey not realising they had left him behind. His adult evaluation of the temple was less enthusiastic. Matthew 23 marks a low point, as Jesus calls its leaders hypocrites, blind guides and snakes. That took the conflict to a new level and a crucifixion took place shortly afterwards.

Most Christians are well versed in Jesus’ troubled relationship with the religious institution of his day. However, they usually assume his delight in the alternative he founded, the Church. Is this a valid assumption? 

In my book, The Big Picture, I have written, “As I read the Gospels, I do not get the feeling that the Jesus portrayed in its pages would sit calmly through the average church service and give a beaming affirmation at the end, ‘This is exactly what I had in mind.’” Even though I wrote that, it’s hard to see how anyone could disagree.

A friend said to me recently, “Let it be known. I am in the church but not of the church.”  

I think he was saying that he is somehow just holding on. He realises that if it were not for the church, the faith would never have been passed on to him. And he loves Jesus, so he feels a little uncomfortable criticising the body Jesus started. But he is frustrated and feeling that what passes as church is very far removed from the life Jesus taught. He finds it sad to see so many small struggling churches, desperately holding on to traditions from the past and doing all that they can to make Sunday happen, and he wonders if the enormous energy it takes to keep them going is worth it. But he is even more disillusioned with the large megachurches, with their slick pastors and enormous budgets and shallow teaching and mindless followers. Well, he thinks they are mindless – noting that if they question anything they are no longer welcome. Take care if you test the thesis. It might well be true, and the experience could be distressing.

He also cares about the big issues of our day… climate change, social justice, gender equality, the future of work, Artificial Intelligence. He knows enough of the history of the Church to realise that it has had seasons where it was prophetic and spoke boldly and confidently to the future, helping to birth a better world. But he is experiencing the church as thoughtless, verging on the irresponsible – anxious to preserve its own freedom, but not sure what to do with it. The examples he has heard are about the church wanting freedom to harm, not freedom to do good. It alarms him. He has also dug into the facts of some current disputes and has been dismayed to discover that some church leaders have been very casual about truth – feeling that facts can be tampered with and sacrificed for the sake of a cause that might be considered more noble. He is not sure that it will be.

He would love to talk about some of his doubts, not because he doesn’t believe, but because life is complicated and messy and many of the formula’s he once accepted don’t seem to work. But someone told him that lack of faith was self-fulfilling, and that if he was going to dance with his doubts, he would suffer the consequences. He wasn’t sure why that was supposed to make them go away – but it seemed to be the best his counsellor could muster.

Throw COVID into this, and the stop-start cycle of attending, not attending, zooming in, sorry system crashed this week - unsettling. He has asked what he has missed on the weeks he has not attended and hasn’t come up with much. 

My friend is one of literally hundreds of thousands who are contemplating (or have already opted for), churchless faith. They believe in Jesus, love Jesus, trust Jesus – but feel increasingly uncomfortable with identifying with His church. 

Most agree that the church is in a liminal season. To be in a liminal space is to be at a boundary – a threshold. It is when you know something new is about to be birthed, but you are not sure just what? We need to give ourselves permission to imagine what a 21st century church could look like.

This is the first in a series of posts which will explore what church “after church” might look like. A church no longer trying to be a more impressive version of a twentieth century church, but a community of people who want to claim Jesus’ promise that where 2 or 3 gather in his name, he is present. A church committed to following Jesus. A church tilted outwards towards God’s world, rather than inwards, towards its own agenda. A church shaped by love, listening and a commitment to real justice. A church watching for the fingerprints of God. A church that honours God’s name.