Over the last month or so, the group for 20s and 30s at my church (Anchor) went through a message series called Real Church. The impetus behind this series was to talk through the history of the Church and compare the iteration of the Church we grew up with and see today to the Church as a fledgling and fringe group.The point to all of this was to really take a look at the what the Church has become compared to what it once was, and was intended to be.
So, why bring this up? Why share my thoughts?
We are seeing a greater exodus from the Church now than we have in a long time. Prominent members of organizations like the Southern Baptist Convention have walked away from these organizations, although not fully away from faith, because they are fed up with the direction many organizations like this are continually heading. Christian artists like Audrey Asaad are walking away from faith completely, because they feel unloved and unwanted by the Church that their faith created (if you want to look into this, you’ll find this more times with Christian artists than we’re ever told).
The Church that their faith created.
Let that sink in.
Christianity was not created by the Church. The Church was birthed out of Christianity.
How many of you feel like most churches get that twisted?
Me too.
The fledgling and fringe group once simply known as Christians (not denominations, but a unified group), began the Church with a very different attitude toward each other and those on the outside looking in. Those outside the church were not viewed as enemies. They were witnessed to, and loved whether or not they chose to follow the Christian faith or stand against it. Or just follow a different path.
Additionally, the early Church didn’t have huge buildings. Church leaders didn’t have great amounts of wealth, private planes, and the latest designer shoes and clothes. “Sexy Church” as one of the hosts of one of my favorite faith-based podcasts calls it was not even an afterthought for those in the early Church.
Look, I attend a church that probably falls under the “Sexy Church” category. We have a praise band and singers who sing the most “in” praise songs. We have intricate and impressive lighting designs, use haze to accentuate those designs, have an amazingly talented camera crew (which I’m part of…not biased though), and promote artistic videos and stage skits,and do many of the other things similar types of churches do all over the world. I’m not condemning “Sexy Church”. This type of church has brought a whole new generation to faith, and reached many people burned (often severely) by the more traditional churches all of us old enough to know what Church looked like before “Sexy Church” became a thing grew up in. I’m included in that group as someone previously burned by more traditional churches.
But I wonder if the Church has gotten too far away from what it once was, long ago?
The early Church was not a specific building. They met wherever they could. That often meant meeting in homes, renting space (which many new churches do today), meeting in open areas, and even meeting in catacombs amongst the dead. The early Christians were not concerned with where they met, but simply that they met. There were not varying classes based on wealth or success, or lack thereof. Instead, The Christians of the early Church had a greater relationship than we could understand today. They broke bread together and truly did life together. And they fought for each other, filling in the gap wherever there was a need.
Acts 2: 42-47 is the clearest expression of what the Church should be.
“42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
This passage refers to the early Church selling property to give to those in need.
Do any of us do that?
Does that question make you uncomfortable? Even angry and triggered?
I get it. I definitely don’t do that. And I’m not even sure that’s as much a necessity in today’s time. But too often we, and the world see churches and pastors that have huge complexes and buildings, expensive cars, multiple houses, yachts, private planes, and all manner of bells and whistles that contradict what Biblical teachings tell us (and the unbelieving world) is the way to follow Christ and His teachings.
In fact, a few examples are always in the forefront of my mind.
During major flooding in Texas a few years ago, a certain mega church in the Houston area not only closed its doors to refugees displaced by homes being flooded and destroyed by rushing waters, but even went so far as to close gates and place security at the entrances to their church campus. During the snowpocalypse earlier this year, I didn’t hear about a single church opening it’s building(s) for those without power for multiple days, or the homeless who in many cases had nowhere else to go.
I certainly saw churches step up to gather supplies to provide to those facing days and even weeks without power in the aftermath of the “once in a hundred year storm”, so I’m certainly not saying churches did nothing. But sometimes the Church doesn’t do anywhere near enough. And when it fails, the rest of the unbelieving world sees a group of people called by Christ to be His representation on earth as an epic fail.
When a young African American gay rapper called Lil’ Nas X had 666 “Satan” shoes made that included an inverted cross, real drops of human blood, and Luke 10:18, which refers to Satan falling from heaven like a lightning bolt, the Evangelical Christian world lost its mind. I would have never even known about these shoes had it not been for fellow Christians being so up in arms and giving publicity to something that very likely would have not gotten such publicity otherwise. Where the Church should have long ago listened to this young man and loved him in the midst of his struggles, it made him feel marginalized and like he could never belong to the club of the Church of Jesus Christ. And when this angry young man lashed out against the Church that made him feel marginalized and completely unloved and unworthy of Christ’s love, the Church once again responded to him with hate and disgust at the path he chose to take to speak so vehemently against the religion that had forsaken him.
Let me be clear, I am in no way saying he was in the right in creating these shoes, and reacting from anger, hurt and hatred. But who are we, so full of sin in our own right, to condemn this young man and further drive him from Christ who would fight for and love him, and who took upon Himself all of our sins because of His love for us? Focusing so much on an action like creating a “Satan” shoe is not the way to fight against evil. This troubled, broken young man is not the evil we are facing. That evil is unseen. That evil uses hurting people like Lil Nas X as pawns in his attack against Christ and Christianity. Pray for this young man. Not that he will will find Christ (Christ will take care of that as he sees fit), but that the hate he once received from those representing Christ will be undone, and that this young man (and MANY others) will be overtaken by a flood of Christ’s love pouring forth from the church, as it should be.
I recognize that much of this has been a scathing look at the myriad flaws of our human-led and flawed Church. And I would be remiss in overlooking the ways the Church gets it right.
So, I do also want to share a story where that happened. During conversations on everything I shared above, my group leader shared a story of an encounter with a distraught man on our church campus.
This leader approached the man and asked if he needed help. To which the man expressed that his father was dying of cancer, and he needed Bible verses to read over his dad. This distraught man was a Satanist. More than that, he was a member of leadership in the local Satanist church. But facing the death of his father, he was seeking a way to bring his father peace. Something (or Someone) drove him to seek out help from a church. Rather than turn this man away because he was an integral part of an organization completely at odds with Christianity, our group leader chose to see him simply as someone in need of help; of compassion. He went upstairs to make copies of some verses, because the man did not want to be given a Bible, and gave them to the man. As they talked more, the man revealed that he was part of the Church of Satan, and even said “look, I’m not going to convert you, and you’re not going to convert me. But thank you for this.” The leader simply offered the man an invitation to come back and talk again, which the man said would likely not happen. Later that night, he returned and spoke to another staff member on site. Then he reached out to the leader I mentioned for more conversation.
Will this man ever find faith in Christ?
That’s not our question to try to answer, nor is it our responsibility.
The responsibility for the believer this man spoke to was simply to be like Christ to him. And that’s what he was. Christ was already at work in this man’s life. The evidence to that is clear for those believers who read this. Our responsibility to this man, to Lil Nas X, and to anyone we come in contact with is not to see them through the lens of a per-conceived judgement, but to see them through the lens of Christ’s eyes. They are not Satanists, gay, trans, of a different ethnicity, republican democrat, atheist, agnostic, a drug addict, a prostitute…the list goes on. Those are the labels society has placed on all of us. Through Christ’s eyes, we–all of us, not us and them–are His creation, His flock (the 1 AND the 99), and beloved by Him, not in spite of our sins, but because of His love.
So, What does it mean to be “The Real Church”?
I, like all of us, struggle every day to fully understand and live that out. But I think it means to simply love each other, regardless of anything that could and would divide us. That doesn’t mean agree with everything, including what contradicts Christ’s teachings, but it does mean loving people without judgment, when the only One with the right to cast judgment does not cast a stone. We’ll get this wrong. We always do. All sides do. But if we strive to get it right, Christ is there to fill in the gaps.
The Random Musings of a Nerdy Christ Follower 
Hi
The early church setting and description that you shared, does exist today. There are people seeking to follow Christ, in the way he set out in the new testament. But, you wont find people sharing about it on here. I can share more privately perhaps.
Cheers lisa
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Hi Lisa,
First, thanks so much for the read. I definitely know of more than a few churches and Christian groups who are more closely living out following Christ as He laid out. When I refer to the capital C church, it is definitely knowing that the reference is a blanket statement. I attend a church and am part of a few groups that do a pretty good job of living this out. But I am always open to learning more about other groups striving to do that. feel free to share more.
This article is more a commentary based on a number of conversations with fellow believers struggling with their own issues and anger toward the church, and friends who are not believers and even in the LGBTQ+ group.
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