Resolving To Get Back To Church (Part 2)
The Bible Tells Me So - Biblical & Historical Precedent
When I was in college back in the 1900s, I was part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at UCF. It was a lot of fun being part of that community.
But, the most formative part of FCA for me was a Bible study we did my Junior year. It was a 12-week video series by Tommy Nelson, the pastor of Denton Bible Church in Denton, Texas and it was based on the book of Song of Solomon, or what some Bibles might call Song of Songs.
The study was titled, “A Study of Love, Marriage, Sex, and Romance,” and it was perfect for a bunch of college students, many of us in the beginning months of our relationships with future spouses. (I kind of feel like the plural of spouse should be spousi.)
In the first week of the study, Tommy points out that the way we do marriage in America is different than how marriages have been done for thousands of years, because in America (and West), we choose our mates whereas historically, marriages have been arranged.
The point he makes is that in our culture, we choose our mate based upon things like looks and personality with passion (which we mistake for love) as the driving force, but when the looks fade and the personality becomes annoying, the passion goes away and the marriage goes south.
In cultures with arranged marriages, passion has virtually nothing to do with it. Rather, a person’s character is the most important thing and over time the couple’s love for one another deepens. He points out that cultures that have arranged marriages have a better track record for marriages staying together than we do.
Now, I’m not arguing for arranged marriages, but as a man with 3 daughters who’s been married for over 25 years, I could easily get there! I’m only sort of kidding.
So, what does all this have to do with resolving to get back to church?
Well, just like our culture has departed from thousands of years of precedent when it comes to finding a mate, we have also departed from thousands of years of precedent when it comes to finding a church. In fact, I think it’s safe to say the phrase, “finding a church” would have been a foreign concept to most people throughout history. But, because we are so enlightened (code word for “self inflated”) and progressive (code word for “historically arrogant”) we think we know better than all those billions of uneducated, yahoos from yesteryear.
This post isn’t necessarily an argument for getting back to church, but rather a reminder that how we approach church today, including looking for the “right” church or being a Christian who thinks gathering in person with other Christians isn’t important, is completely out of step with history and the Bible.
A Biblical Precedent For Gathering Together
Starting in Genesis, we see God’s pattern for community. In fact that community begins with Himself when we get our first glimpse of the Trinity.
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" - Genesis 1:26 (ESV)
Relationship is central to God’s design for human beings, because He is a relationship in Himself and since we are created in His image, we were made for relationship.
And, as we read through the Old Testament we see examples of leaders like Moses assembling the people to hear the Word of the Lord.
Then we get to the New Testament when Jesus (God with skin on) was walking the earth. He lived in a time when the tradition was to show up, and gather together at the local synagogue every Sabbath to hear the Word of the Lord. Jesus reinforces this tradition by going along with it.
Why is that important? Because Jesus didn’t just do tradition for tradition’s sake. In fact, that’s what got him in so much trouble with the religious leaders. He bucked their traditions over and over again. But the tradition of showing up, gathering together with people for the sake of reading the Word, is something he embraced.
"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written…” - Luke 4:16-21 (ESV)
"And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching." - Mark 1:21 (ESV)
"On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath..." -Luke 6:6-10 (ESV)
And, right before Jesus goes to the cross he prays for his disciples, which includes us, that we would all be one just as he and the Father are one!
"I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." - John 17:20-23 (ESV)
As followers of Jesus, we are to be one with all other followers of Jesus. At least that’s his prayer for us!
Finally, from Acts to Revelation we see the birth of the church, the spread of the church, and the encouragement and admonishment of the church. Interestingly, churches are almost always associated with particular cities when addressed by Paul in his epistles and by Jesus in Revelation.
That’s a much longer topic for discussion, but my point is, from Acts to the end of the Bible, the assumption every writer makes by divine revelation of the Holy Spirit is that followers of Jesus are gathering together consistently; in some cases even daily as we see in Acts 2:46, “And day by day attending the temple together…”
So, for thousands of years of history, God’s people have gathered together to worship, to hear God’s word, to be taught, to pray, and to give their talents and treasures away for the sake of the Kingdom. My question is, what makes our us believe we know better? What makes us think we can follow Jesus but not do one of the most basic things all of his followers have done for over 2 thousand years?
Maybe arranged churches - like arranged marriages - would be a better option for us. In our culture, the days of churches being assigned or assumed by geography are long gone, but in those days, so many of the things we “look for” in a church didn’t matter at all. What we do now is elevate preference (music, noise level, teaching style, etc.) over the things that I believe really matter - physical presence with other believers, and the teaching of the Word.
But what if we saw church and our relationship to it as assigned anyway, committing to go, praying that God would arrange our connection to the right church and make it known to us, not known to us because it meets our preferences, but because the Holy Spirit prompted us to go?
Those of us who have been married a long time know the feelings come and go, but love is a choice, a daily commitment. If we are the bride of Christ, the same is probably true for us as the church. Going to church isn’t about our feelings, but about a commitment to our husband, our Lord, and our King!