The growing reliance on the shrinking Church

The growing reliance on the shrinking Church

 

 

I am a huge proponent of the separation of Church and state. Not because I am anti-God, but because I am PRO-God, and pro-Church. Even before my current reading I have believed in the need for the separation, but now that belief is growing all the more. It seems to me that all the signs are obvious and that no one in the Church should miss the fact that this is an un-holy union, but for whatever reason, be it culture or tradition we have the hardest time breaking away.

At the moment I am about halfway through Jesus for President. What a great book! I have to say that, like all books, there are things that I disagree with, but it has also been a tremendous resource of information and insight. The authors did an excellent job compiling information in just such a way that you can't help ignore it. As I mentioned, I have long held the belief that the Church should be devoid of politics or national allegiance, but this book has made me so much more aware of some of the often time overlooked bits of the old testament. In fact I feel that I have a better grasp of the purpose of the law in our lives as believers.

The book doesn't devote a lot of energy to environmentalism (so far­) though it is most definitely there. It does however draw to the forefront the need to rely less on fossil fuels and the pros and cons of globalization. In subtle ways it calls us to shrink our thinking, something that house church proponent Wolfgang Simpson promotes in his lectures. We lose a lot at the hands of globalization, and we cause a tremendous amount of damage to the planet. We talk to our "friends" on the other side of the planet but never see our neighbors, fisheries collapse so that everyone can have access to certain breeds of fish many of whom never had access to these species before. . .

We rely on the government in its various stages up to the U.N. to care for us and supply for us . . . and we neglect ourselves and our communities, forgetting to tend to one another.

It's the same way in the church. We build huge meeting halls and fill them to the limit. We get lost in huge groups and when we need council we look to people we will never meet because they wrote a book or an article on a subject that appeared to work, we rely on the Rick Warrens and the Billy Grahams to fill our cup every week all to the detriment of the local body.

 

"Do you think the Church will ever function like it is supposed to?" asked our housemate Chris.

 

My answer – not so long as we look elsewhere for things that God can and will equip his Church to do. We have to stop looking afar for the spiritual gifts. We have to stop relying on diplomas and certifications. We have to trust God, and trust that he will give gifts to those as he sees that we have need. At some point the local fellowships need to band together and become more self reliant (and by that I mean more God reliant and trusting that God will make us sustainable within our local body). At some point we will have to drop the facade and become trusting of God and vulnerable to one another. Not popular in this culture, no! But necessary – if for nothing else, for growth.