I’ve heard it dozens of times. The last time I heard it, I knew the implications and it brought reactions ranging from nausea to anger. “Come to church and get fed.” (In the case of the last time I heard it, he should have said, “come to church and pay your tithe again.”)
Sure, you can go to church and draw closer to God. However, going to church is not quite as focused on developing your personal relationship with God. Instead, it is a mass production organization that hopes to add adherents.
Church cannot be your means of sustaining your relationship with God. It MUST be a “nice extra” (if it can be that. . .and if it can’t, why bother?!?).
Consider this activity schedule that I have held in the past during my time in the institutional church:
Sunday morning
- Attend the morning service which may include:
- Get to church in time to start serving (whether as a praise team member or greeter or whatever). This may be several hours early if we’re practicing on this day too.
- “Worship”
- Play drums for the worship service (sometimes there was some actual worship of God in that but other times I was just waiting for the cue to move on to the next song)
- Alternatively, I might also be on the “praise team” singing. (Again, sometimes there was some actual worship of God but other times watching for the cue to move on).
- Alternatively, I’m “just” a parishioner in the audience sometimes worshipping and sometimes distracted by the song selection, lighting, instrumentation, or odd movements of the worship team.
- Offering and Announcements
- In some churches this was quick and moved along. In one particular church, the “offering sermon” was sometimes longer than the regular sermon.
- Some churches include a “mingling time” to connect with other parishioners.
- Main Sermon
- I’ve had some sermons where I’ve learned quite a bit about God or the topic. I have many notebooks full of sermon notes.
- I once went a full year under one pastor without being able to take any notes of value before I felt I was released by God from the church.
- This was definitely a one-way address. It was not a chance for discussion (διαλέγομαι [dialegomai]).
Sunday night (depending on the church)
- Some churches I’ve attended didn’t have a Sunday night service. If they did, see the schedule above.
Tuesday night
- Men’s Bible Study and Basketball at one church I attended. I will say, I usually got the most out of this because of the interaction depending on the group that showed up and the topic being covered. It allowed for discussion (διαλέγομαι [dialegomai]), personal encouragement, and care.
Wednesday night
- Arrive 45 minutes early to run through the songs that we would play for worship.
- Similar pattern to Sunday morning/evening service
Saturday
- Planned Church event. This wasn’t every Saturday. However, there were many Saturdays that were covered with all day church events (or at least a significant portion of the day).
Various Days
- Committee Meetings (missions, quiz bowl, vacation Bible school, Sunday School, etc.)
- Board Meetings (when applicable)
Where is God in all this, from a truly relational perspective? Sure, we can connect during the worship times. We can connect with Him individually during any of these times. However, the corporate gathering (and all of its trappings and doings) is not personal relationship. God is not the same as the Institutional Church or the structure it holds. While He may use it to accomplish His purposes, all too often, they are not tracking in the same direction and have diverging purposes.
As my mother has said for years, “God doesn’t have grandchildren.” The truth is, He doesn’t have church members either. He simply has sons and daughters. In my experience, my relationships with my children, while certainly not perfect, are not developed through an organized structure focused on self-perpetuation of the structure rather than the relationship. Rather, it is in the every day. It’s the hug in the morning when they got up (when they still lived at home), the quiet conversations, the random acts of silliness/family jokes/fun we created, the trips and events we planned together, and, yes, even the tragedies and hard times that we faced together.
God is a relational being. Our very creation was for that purpose. So don’t let the structures of the Institutional church confound your relationship with Him. Instead, develop your relationship with God personally and just let the Institutional Church be an added benefit (if it can be that). The day-to-day relationship with Him is the central aspect of your faith, not the Institutional Church.
Comments are closed