Fore!

How, I wonder, is a church different from a country club?

Sometimes not very much at all.

If so, how is a church a better expression of community than a football team?

In theory, I can give you a lot of good reasons. Stuff about the body of Christ, the communion of the saints, and the work of the Holy Spirit always in our midst. In reality? Many times churches fall far short of the hopes and dreams we have for them.

And that's disappointing.

Some have been so frustrated by this that they've taken a radical position disavowing all that has gone on before and have left behind the congregations in which they have been a part. I recently heard of one such individual who's stopped attending any local church and simply taken to communicating via a blog and e-mailing and calling with fellow Christians around the country to create his own "community."

It sounds nice, I suppose...and I know this person's had a really tough time of it---but I'm afraid to do so is to take a dangerous step. And not because there's anything magical or automatic about church attendance.

I'm afraid because it's easy.

Easy to proclaim a desire for community over individualism yet to reject the community you've been given and fashion one of your own personal making. Easy because you don't have to deal anymore with Christians that frustrate you, only those of your own persuasion. Easy because there may be no more resistance to your ideas and hopes and dreams and mistakes and meanderings.

Sounds good at times. But it completely ignores the fact that this community, the Church, only exists through Jesus Christ. That means it should and must include liberals and conservatives, traditionalists and progressives, bores and ideologues, scholars and simpletons. All whom Jesus loves.

People we adore and people who frustrate us all smashed together in the same congregation. People who would never exist in the same place without Jesus Christ and whose continued presence in each other's midst is only by His grace.

What is meant by all of this? Well, I think it means we don't get to decide who's in our church. That's God's call...and something that I think we just shouldn't mess with.

I'm a Conservative?

Church History--a discipline with which I fear I have become far too familiar over the course of this summer--provides us with a number of examples by which we might compare the happenings of our contemporary lives.

One of these comes to us from the Reformation.

During that tumultuous time in the history of the Church, two men stand as examples of diverging ways of looking at the work of God in this world. The first of these is Erasmus--scholar, writer, Catholic churchman, satirist and much more. He believed in the cause of learning and remain faithful to his religious ideals throughout his life--questioning and correcting yet never bolting the great Church of Rome.

Then there's Martin Luther--scholar, preacher, Reformer extraordinaire. Though starting out deeply enmeshed within the Catholic framework, his efforts at reform were rebuffed by those higher up and subsequently bolted from the church of his youth.

Two men. One a classic conservative--staying close to the ways of the past yet working to correct abuses within. One a sort of liberal--freeing faith from the chains of the past and starting over with a new idiom and rallying cry.

It's the same choice many face today when considering the sometimes sorry state of our churches. And it's not an easy one either.

I've come down on the side of Erasmus. And I really think I'm right. There's just so much potential within the church and so much danger in doing away with the inherited structure altogether.

Some good friends, however, are starting to head Luther's way. They just cannot abide what they've seen and experienced in the churches they've been and feel abandoned and betrayed by the institutions of Christianity. We've debated, argued, talked...yet here we are--Erasmus and Luther--both agreeing changes must be made yet for all our differences just staring at each other across a room.

What now, I wonder?