Readers,
Recently, I've been engaged in several meaningful exchanges off the blog. One is with someone who shares my understanding of the importance of Kingdom living and of what righteousness is, as well as concern about what the church has become today.
I've copied one of my messages to him here.
I've edited it slightly to shield my friend's identity.
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I've continued to give thought to your note.
As I wrote to you, I shared it with Evie. She has so much wisdom about these things.
The first thing she said to me about it is, "You should tell him that Sunday morning is not church."
Evie has a perspective on this that extends to the early years of her life. She's never read the books we've read. Yet, she walks this walk with profound conviction.
Her father was a very highly respected deacon in the Church of God congregation they attended. He, most likely, would have been elected as an elder except for one thing: He rarely attended church on Sunday morning.
Evie has never been enthusiastic about the so-called worship service. When I was a pastor, she, of course, had little choice but to attend.
But, when I was in grad school, she almost never attended a church service. Many Sundays when we were living in New Jersey, I attended a church alone. She didn't mind that I attended but felt no need for herself.
It took me many years to appreciate how profoundly biblical her way is.
We know that Jesus didn't start a church and He didn't create worship services. When He defined righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount, He never addressed the issue of corporate gatherings. In Revelation 2 and 3, He used the word church, but never in terms of the weekly gathering.
Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us to consider how we may provoke each other to love and good works and adds that we should not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.
I see that as a fair description of life among Kingdom people in the early years.
Gathering was not central to life among early disciples in the same way that Jesus didn't empathize it. In fact, according to Hebrews, some actually gave up meeting together.
While the writer of Hebrews discouraged the giving up of meeting together, he also didn't make a strong argument for the gathering as a core component of the life. He'd only go so far as to say, don't give it up.
As I said, our gathering meets sporadically and rarely these days...and (Evie and I) rarely meet in any other format. The virtual dissolving of our gathering has been, essentially, our decision.
A few days ago, a coworker--a sort of co-ambassador--who does attend a fairly traditional evangelical-ish, uh, church, asked me if I'd like to attend their Christmas Eve service. I rolled my eyes and said, emphatically and sarcastically, "No!", and she, waiting for my response, smirked at me. She knows.
Evie and I have come to emphasize the daily walk and care less and less about gathering.
We tenaciously invest energy in the walk, not the gathering.
And, as I look to the New Testament, that seems to fit, even if it's out of phase with the spirit of our times.
Why am I writing this to you?
You are a man of conscience. As am I.
I, of course, share your dissatisfaction with, as you say, "what we do as a current expression of church." Knowing how that dissatisfaction has emerged in your life, as it has in mine, it will probably not change.
If you read my blog on Jerry's memorial service, you know how I chafe at Christendom meetings.
I'm in a position in my life in which I'm almost never forced by circumstances to attend a Christendom gathering. That reality spares me a ton of grief and vexation.
But, it's a secondary issue, really.
What I write to you is big picture.
I wouldn't presume to understand the dynamics of your family.
Were I you, I'd probably not fight (your family on) church relationships. That's the decision my friend Jerry made. His family and he achieved detente over their differences.
Jerry pursued his convictions intentionally through several friendships, like the one we shared. It wasn't perfect for him, but it worked well enough for him...for decades.
It seems to me that you have a wonderful resource in your workplace (and friendships.)
My heart truly goes out to you.
It's a difficult walk we walk. But, speaking for myself, all the more meaningful.
Blessings as you serve Him and love Him.
bill
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