Have you ever been introduced to a multi-level marketing
organization where the product was basically irrelevant because the
organization existed primarily to recruit new people?
It occurred to me today that Church with no real
understanding of the Gospel is exactly like that. I have been researching churches online
recently, and, the vast majority of them are very excited about recruiting others
to join them, and then encouraging the new people to find more people, who will
then find more people, who will…well, you get the idea.
What’s missing is the “product”, or, in this case, the Good
News; the very reason why Church actually exists. There is a vague reference to something like ‘the
life-changing love of Jesus’, an inference that by joining you will become a
better person; and then, week after week there are sermons with instructions
regarding how to be that better person accompanied by the general expectation
that, after hearing the instructions, you will become that better person;
unless there is something wrong with you, and it then becomes obvious you don’t
really belong in the organization.
I’ve watched videos poignantly depicting the unreached
masses in our nation and around the world.
There is barely a mention of Christ, only an invitation to join this
busy, happy group, followed by images of members having fun and working
together.
I’ve listened to countless worship bands emotionally singing
of their desire to serve God and give their all. I’ve seen people, with tears streaming down
their faces, promising that, this time, they will truly surrender; this time
they really mean it.
Because, for many years, I was a part of churches like that,
I can say with a fair amount of certainty that from the leadership to the
people in the seats, there is a general sense that Church has to do with the
fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but the most important thing is
our Christian Living, our response to that historical fact. And, the required
response is to both be a better person and to tell others so that they too will
be better people and will tell others: Multi-level marketing with “you must be
and will be a better person because Jesus died for you” as the product.
So, what’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t we all strive to
become better people? Sure! There’s nothing wrong with becoming a more pleasant
contributing member of society; but, to be honest, there are many non-Christian
motivational speakers who are actually more effective at generating behavior
modification, and in a more professional manner, than most churches. And, the
non-Christians who have experienced behavior change may actually be more fun to
be around than the churchgoers, because their changes were not required, but
desired, and come with much less baggage.
The real message of the Church is not that we need to be
tweaked; it’s that we need to be resurrected.
We’re not sick and in need of medicine, we are dead. We don’t need a doctor, we need a
Savior. The real message of the Church
is that what God told Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:17, about eating from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, was true: “for in the day that you eat of it
you shall surely die.” When our first
parents ate from that tree, we all died.
But, in 1 Corinthians 15:22 Paul tells us, “For as in Adam all die, so
also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Then in Colossians 2:13-14 he says, “When you were dead in your sins…,
God made you alive with Christ. He
forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,
which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to
the cross.” And finally, Hebrews 10:14
says, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are
sanctified.”
We were dead, and through Christ God made us alive and
canceled our debt, forever perfecting us and making us holy and acceptable in
his sight. None of that was our
doing. It was done for us and to us by
God through his son. It was not earned
or deserved, and it can never be repaid.
It is God’s gift. That message is
the unique offering of the Church.
People don’t need the promise of a nicer, busier you and
me. They are starving for a genuine
means of shame removal; a message of forgiveness and reconciliation regardless
of what they have done; the knowledge that they are completely and irrevocably
loved because of and in spite of, just as they are, with no reservations. This is as true of people inside the church
as of those outside. We all need to be reassured every day that God’s grace is
real and is for us.
If that is not the message your church is proclaiming,
beware, you’re being sold a program with no product and one day that pyramid is
going to fall.