Life-changing questions like this are more challenging for a woman. I am submissive to my husband. In the end, after whatever discussion occurs, if he says we go, well, then, we go.
But for me... I would stay.
Because I am part of the body. Church-leaving is not just ending attendance. It is not disappearing. It is not a gentle goodbye. Church-leaving is amputation.
Or it ought to be. Our church-leaving epidemic is leaving local bodies walking around with bloody stumps.
Or it ought to be. Our church-leaving epidemic is leaving local bodies walking around with bloody stumps.
In a "me culture" we have become dulled to, permissive of, even enthusiastic for the search for the church that "feeds me." We want to see people like us, hear sermons that inspire us (but with nothing too convicting or "judgmental"), sing songs that praise the safest version of God we can imagine, and be utterly liked by everyone in the building. Should one of these qualifications fail; we explore until we find a church that fits us better. C.S. Lewis said it this way:
"Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for a church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches." The Screwtape Letters
We have every human reason to go. We need friends like us. I need to grow. I can't stand that music, that pastor, those people. I was hurt. I am ignored. I am bored.
Could we enter humility and find every godly reason to stay? I can be the person who makes a difference. I can be her friend. I can help someone grow. I can worship, listen, love. I will forgive. I will stand to make an un-ignorable difference, to be an unavoidable blessing. I will enter into an adventure with my God that has everything to do with His glory, and nothing to do with mine.
Sometimes our churches just need a champion. Rather than sloughing off like skin from a corpse, maybe the dying church needs someone to stay and fight for her. Christ saved her. It was not so that we could let her die. Stand and be your church's champion!
In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers a hopeless battle is approaching. A hand full of untrained farmers are facing 10,000 Uruk-Hai. The elf (supposedly the wisest and most divine of all the races) loses hope and declares to the already war-battered king "They are all going to die!"
The king replies without thinking or flinching, "Then I shall die as one of them."
My mother declared to my father, "Our church is dying."
His response was the same, "Then I shall die as one of them."
What has become of unity in the body? Almost every book of the new testament implores believers to do two things in their Christian life: stand firm and preserve unity. Maybe these two things are not so unrelated as we would like to think.
Do you love the church Christ has given you? How can you be her champion? Can you be selfless in a selfish age? Will you stand?
"Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for a church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches." The Screwtape Letters
We have every human reason to go. We need friends like us. I need to grow. I can't stand that music, that pastor, those people. I was hurt. I am ignored. I am bored.
Could we enter humility and find every godly reason to stay? I can be the person who makes a difference. I can be her friend. I can help someone grow. I can worship, listen, love. I will forgive. I will stand to make an un-ignorable difference, to be an unavoidable blessing. I will enter into an adventure with my God that has everything to do with His glory, and nothing to do with mine.
Sometimes our churches just need a champion. Rather than sloughing off like skin from a corpse, maybe the dying church needs someone to stay and fight for her. Christ saved her. It was not so that we could let her die. Stand and be your church's champion!
In The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers a hopeless battle is approaching. A hand full of untrained farmers are facing 10,000 Uruk-Hai. The elf (supposedly the wisest and most divine of all the races) loses hope and declares to the already war-battered king "They are all going to die!"
The king replies without thinking or flinching, "Then I shall die as one of them."
My mother declared to my father, "Our church is dying."
His response was the same, "Then I shall die as one of them."
What has become of unity in the body? Almost every book of the new testament implores believers to do two things in their Christian life: stand firm and preserve unity. Maybe these two things are not so unrelated as we would like to think.
Do you love the church Christ has given you? How can you be her champion? Can you be selfless in a selfish age? Will you stand?
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