Just Sit Down, Shut Up, and Start Going to Church

There are a lot of people who think going to church is more important than anything else in the world. Their entire world revolves around a church. They live and dive with the church happenings. They don't understand people that aren't attached at the hip to a church. Why is that?

There's a lot of things that go into Christianity and the church, and if you paid close attention, you'll notice that I changed articles, from a church to the church. What's the difference? Quite a lot. The church, or Christ's church, is the sum total of all believers in the world. Not all of them go to the same church or belong to the same sect. Not all of them are even in the same country. But they all believe in Christ as savior. That's the church.

People confuse the church with a church. For some it's as simple as a sectarian difference. For example the Baptists think they've got it right, and the Disciples of Christ are bats. The Disciples, on the other hand, think they've got it right, and the Baptists are the ones that are nuts. That's a big part of a lot of conflicts within the church, but it's not what I'm talking about here.

What I'm talking about here are the members of one particular church. Here's an example. Aunt Martha goes to Calvary Christian Church. She's gone there for years, and so has the rest of her family. Aunt Martha was raised in the church. She knows everyone by name. She knows why, fifteen years ago a hundred people split with CCC and formed First Christian Church of Fremont. It's still a sore point to her. She doesn't understand people nowadays that come to CCC, stay for a month, and leave.

Recently she met a new young woman named Abby. Abby was also raised in a church by Christian parents. Abby is a Christian, graduated college five years ago, and is looking for a church with a singles program where she can meet some other people her age and have some fun. The problem, Abby found out, is after looking at CCC for four weeks, CCC doesn't have a singles program. In fact most of the people that go to CCC are just like Aunt Martha: older, raised in CCC, and have never really experienced anything outside of CCC. Abby left CCC to find something that fits better with her needs and desires.

There's a fundamental assumption by these Aunt Martha types, and that is that her church can minister to everyone regardless of circumstances, so there is no need to look for a new church. How wrong these people are. If a church is not set up to minister in certain ways, then it can't minister in those ways to those people. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

It is simple except for one thing. A lot of churches are arrogant enough to believe that they can minister to anyone, anytime, any where. But when they try and fail, they don't understand why it didn't work.

Here's another way to look at it. A doctor and a plumber do both the same thing. Both reroute tubes to improve the flow of liquid. But why does the plumber not do heart surgery and the surgeon not put in bath tubs? Because the plumber doesn't know anything about the human heart, and the surgeon doesn't know anything about drain traps and wet walls. Likewise churches that aren't set up to minister to singles shouldn't try unless and until they have learned how to do it. Otherwise they end up like CCC in our example above.

Why don't I sit down, shut up, and just find a church? Because I reject the premise that all churches can minister to all people effectively. And with all the churches out there, there ought to be one to minister to me. It's just a matter of finding it.