Giving up on Church
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:05.000 | In his recent blog post, prominent Christian writer Donald Miller said he has graduated out of the local church
00:00:11.000 | and that he rarely attends church anymore. He says he actually feels more closeness to God when he's innovating
00:00:16.000 | and starting new initiatives during the week than he does in church on any given Sunday.
00:00:21.000 | One of his hang-ups is corporate worship. Miller wrote this in a blog post, quote,
00:00:25.000 | "I have a confession. I don't connect with God by singing to Him. Not at all.
00:00:29.000 | I know I'm nearly alone in this, but it's true. I was finally able to admit this recently
00:00:33.000 | when I attended a church service that had, perhaps, the most talented worship team I've ever heard.
00:00:39.000 | I love the music, but I loved it more for the music than for the worship.
00:00:42.000 | As far as connecting with God goes, I wasn't feeling much of anything." End quote.
00:00:47.000 | But clearly it's more than just the music, and it's clear he represents more than himself.
00:00:51.000 | For many evangelicals, both young and old, the local church simply doesn't work any longer as a place of worship.
00:00:58.000 | And besides, no local church looks like the churches in Acts anyway,
00:01:01.000 | so why pretend that modern churches are of equal value to those in the first century?
00:01:06.000 | Those are some of the entangled questions on the table now.
00:01:09.000 | So, Pastor John, what would you say to any evangelical Christian who believes that they have graduated from
00:01:14.000 | or spiritually outgrown the local church, or who believe corporate gatherings on Sundays
00:01:19.000 | simply don't fit their personality type and worship preferences?
00:01:22.000 | Well, there are a lot of issues here that I'm hearing in and between the lines.
00:01:28.000 | There's a worship issue and how it's done. There's a personal singing issue.
00:01:32.000 | There's a biblical authority issue, and do you submit to your own preferences or to God's Word?
00:01:38.000 | There's a definition of church issue. What is it?
00:01:41.000 | There's a cultural issue of where's this kind of unencumbered autonomy coming from
00:01:49.000 | that presumes that I have the right to just dictate my own way of life.
00:01:54.000 | And so it seems to me there's a pride issue that elevates personal preference over biblical norms.
00:01:59.000 | So just a huge batch of issues here.
00:02:03.000 | It seems to me I should just tackle one of these, and that is,
00:02:07.000 | is there a biblical warrant, a biblical requirement for belonging to a local church?
00:02:14.000 | Belonging, really having a sense of membership and accountability to a church.
00:02:19.000 | And here's the way I'm defining a church.
00:02:21.000 | A group of Christians who are covenanted together to gather regularly for corporate worship,
00:02:27.000 | celebration of the ordinances, ministry of the Word of God,
00:02:31.000 | under the leadership of biblically qualified elders,
00:02:33.000 | submissive to the discipline of the body, on mission for Christ and the world.
00:02:38.000 | That's a church. And it can have all kinds of big or little expressions culturally across the world.
00:02:47.000 | But there are at least five biblical pointers that everybody needs to consider
00:02:53.000 | if they want to be biblical, if they want to be submitted to God's Word regarding belonging to a church.
00:03:00.000 | So here they are. Number one, Matthew 18, 15 to 17.
00:03:04.000 | "If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault between you and him alone.
00:03:08.000 | If he listens to you, you've gained your brother.
00:03:11.000 | But if he does not listen to you, take one or two others along with you
00:03:14.000 | so that every charge may be established in the evidence of two or three witnesses.
00:03:18.000 | And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
00:03:21.000 | And if he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a tax collector and a Gentile."
00:03:27.000 | So it seems to me Jesus assumes that his disciples will belong to a church.
00:03:34.000 | He assumes that when a disciple is out of step with his brother,
00:03:40.000 | then there's a church that can love him and pursue him and, if necessary, discipline him.
00:03:46.000 | Number two, 1 Corinthians 5, 12.
00:03:49.000 | "What have I to do with judging outsiders?
00:03:53.000 | Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
00:03:58.000 | God judges those outside. Purge the evil person among you."
00:04:01.000 | So from that it seems like there's at least two implications.
00:04:05.000 | One is that there is an in, an in the church, and there is an out, outside the church.
00:04:12.000 | And the other implication is that a person can be removed from being in the church.
00:04:18.000 | And that informal removal would be impossible.
00:04:21.000 | If every Christian could just go around saying, "Well, I don't need the church anyway,
00:04:25.000 | so in or out doesn't really matter to me," then Paul's whole teaching falls to the ground.
00:04:29.000 | Third, Hebrews 13, 17.
00:04:32.000 | "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they're watching over your souls as those who will have to give an account."
00:04:39.000 | Same thing with 1 Thessalonians 5, 12.
00:04:43.000 | "Ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, who lead you in the Lord."
00:04:50.000 | So church membership is implied, it seems to me, in the biblical requirement that Christians be submitted
00:04:57.000 | to a group of church leaders or elders who are qualified to oversee a flock.
00:05:03.000 | Fourth, Acts 20, 28 and 1 Peter 5, 2. Same thing.
00:05:08.000 | "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,
00:05:15.000 | to care for the church of God."
00:05:18.000 | So elders have the responsibility to a particular flock.
00:05:23.000 | And they should know their flock and watch over their flock.
00:05:27.000 | They're responsible to their flock.
00:05:28.000 | How can they be responsible to their flock if the members of the flock consider it optional
00:05:33.000 | whether they stay or go or are accountable or not accountable?
00:05:38.000 | The whole structure of Peter's understanding of how eldership and church works is,
00:05:44.000 | it presumes that people are belonging, seriously belonging, to a flock.
00:05:50.000 | And the last one I'd mention, and not the only five, Ephesians 5, 18, because it was mentioned,
00:05:56.000 | sometimes people don't like singing, they don't think it's important, it didn't connect with them emotionally.
00:06:02.000 | Ephesians 5, 18, "Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."
00:06:09.000 | Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
00:06:14.000 | Singing, making melody to the Lord with your heart.
00:06:17.000 | So the Holy Spirit fills us and one of His overflows is singing to one another.
00:06:24.000 | Not just alone and certainly not not singing.
00:06:28.000 | If we're not inclined to sing, and there are lots of people who are not inclined to sing,
00:06:32.000 | they're not even wired to sing, but if we're not, I think we should do the best we can
00:06:40.000 | as the Spirit enables us to sing and we should look forward to the day,
00:06:45.000 | like there's going to be a day when our musical brokenness is healed.
00:06:51.000 | Instead of, you know, boasting and saying, "Well, that's just not me. I don't think music is part of my life
00:06:55.000 | and I don't connect with God by singing." Say, "Okay, we're broken. We're all broken."
00:07:00.000 | And you humble yourself under the hand of God and you say,
00:07:04.000 | "God, I'll make a joyful noise to the Lord and I will look for the day
00:07:09.000 | when you tune this instrument to sing your praise as never before."
00:07:14.000 | So my conclusion, Tony, is that the New Testament doesn't know any Christians
00:07:20.000 | who are not accountable members of local churches.
00:07:23.000 | There are no Lone Ranger Christians in the New Testament.
00:07:27.000 | It's a contradiction because a Christian means to be united to Christ
00:07:35.000 | and union with Christ expresses itself in union with his body.
00:07:39.000 | They are inseparable. To be a hand in the body of Christ, you cannot say to the eye,
00:07:48.000 | "I have no need of you." So this gift of belonging to the church is a gift.
00:07:58.000 | Ten thousand times more importantly than it's a duty.
00:08:01.000 | It's so sad when people think, "Do I have to do church?"
00:08:05.000 | And Paul, I think, would throw up his hands and say, "Have to. Like, have to."
00:08:11.000 | This is one of the most precious gifts in the world.
00:08:14.000 | Now, my heart aches for people who have not found that kind of fellowship,
00:08:21.000 | but I think they need to grow up into Christ and be part of the solution
00:08:26.000 | rather than part of the problem by abandoning the body.
00:08:31.000 | Very good. Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:33.000 | And there's a sermon in the Desiring God archive titled, "How Important is Church Membership?"
00:08:38.000 | which was preached back on July 13, 2008.
00:08:41.000 | You can find it at DesiringGod.org by searching for the sermon title,
00:08:45.000 | "How Important is Church Membership?"
00:08:48.000 | Well, Jeremiah 17:9 is a verse about the heart, a verse many of us know by heart.
00:08:54.000 | The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.
00:08:57.000 | Who can understand it?
00:08:58.000 | But does this verse apply to the regenerated new heart of a believer?
00:09:02.000 | Hmm. We'll ask Pastor John that tomorrow.
00:09:05.000 | Until then, please keep emailing in your questions to us.
00:09:08.000 | You can find those brief and to-the-point emails to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.
00:09:13.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.
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