Growing Through Challenge - Dangers Within The Church

                     DANGERS WITHIN THE CHURCH?

Wait a minute! The Church is supposed to be the place with answers... the place where we go to find "helpful" beliefs, not harmful ones. Well, yes the church should be that kind of place, but unfortunately churches are made up of people... imperfect people with flaws... flaws which, without vigilant care will carry over into all our endeavors. A loving, caring, and truthful local church family is a wonderful thing to be a part of... but that should not exempt it from critical examination!

                          SPEAKING AS AN "INSIDER"

As I write this, I am 63 years old and have been a church member for about 50 of those years. I have a Graduate of Theology degree, and as I moved around the country, have been deeply involved in almost every aspect of several churches of several different denominations, as well as two which were non-denominational.

Over the years I have read countless books and attended countless seminars about how churches ought to be doing things. So, I speak with a fair amount of knowledge when I suggest that no congregation is perfect, and all have some dangers we need to watch-out for and avoid!

                                A DOZEN DANGERS

As I considered this subject, I quickly listed 12 mistaken attitudes or dangers which are all too common in many churches with which I am familiar. Below is my first cursory list, in no particular order... you can probably add several of your own.

     1) Thinking that just attending church is enough. How shallow is that? Does it even need comment?

     2) Thinking that our particular church has a "corner on the truth" and "we're the only ones who are right". I grew up in that kind of church, so I can tell you from first-hand experience how powerful is the drawing-power of such a message; but also how wrong I found it to be. Why do you think we have so many different denominations... or variations within the same denomination... all claiming to be closest to the truth? In my mid-twenties, when I started to honestly look around, I found wonderful, sincere, godly people of numerous denominations and persuasions.

     3) Church can be a place where self-centeredness, pettiness and smallness can take hold and thrive. Etched deeply in my memory is a Sunday morning service when I was about 15 years old. At the end of that church service, several prominent members marched to the stage and, without warning, took over the service, accusing the pastor of not being a good enough pastor and asking the congregation to vote them into leadership.   It will probably not surprise you to know that the dissenting group followed these ego-driven "leaders" to start a splinter church which died out after a few years. Sadly, church can be an easy place for "small" people to get "big" ideas. They also have no idea how many people suffer great and lasting harm because of their self-importance!

     4) Closely related to this last point is the fact that many of the legitimate leaders of congregations are also "small" people, consumed by ego and ambition. Jesus Christ's call for "servanthood" falls on their deaf ears. For them, leadership is power-trip from which many a previously honest follower never returns!

     5) "Sheep" mentality. I had a professor in college who was honest enough to admit that many an ill-prepared or ill-informed preacher's only salvation was that the folks in the pew didn't really think for themselves, or ask serious questions about what they were being taught! A thousand years ago when most people couldn't read and didn't have books, they had some excuse. What is our excuse today???

     6) Somewhat related to the last point is that humans have always tended to build a "PERSONALITY CULT" around leaders they liked in any arena of endeavor, not just church. Many good pastors see this danger and try to warn their congregation against it. They know that they are human, fallible and will not be pastor of that particular church forever. On the other hand, some minister fall prey to "believing their own press" and actually begin encouraging the "personality-based" nature of their church's growth. Books have been written about the dangers of a whole ministry resting on the shoulders of one imperfect human being. Believe me when I say that this is not good or healthy for the church or the minister!

     7) The Mega-Church mentality. Spending countless offering dollars building a monument... sometimes losing sight of the mission. Not all large churches are like this, but it does seem that the larger a local congregation grows, the easier it becomes for the thinking to creep in that they must, in fact, really be special... and that probably everyone in their geographic vicinity should attend their church, even if it means abandoning smaller congregations to do so. There is nothing wrong with becoming a large church... but if "becoming large" consumes a substantial portion of any church's budget, leadership time and creativity, along with other resources... you might want to rethink the mission of your church related to the 1st Century church which grew to influence the world... WITHOUT EVEN A BUILDING!

     8) Becoming just another "Social" Organization. Some churches get so caught up in good social "causes" that they may lose sight of the fact that the business of their existence is a "spiritual" business related to an eternal message that the historic Jesus Christ gave them. Yes we should be generous in good works... but we should also remember that there are untold numbers of organizations devoted to helping the needy, trying to influence politics, and making pronouncements about international issues. But if the church does not stay on mission to preach and teach about ETERNAL values... who will share that transcendent message with your community?

     9) Pursuing ritualistic habit at the loss of encountering God. People who take the time and effort to show up at church need a decent chance of encountering the Living God there. All too many churches go from Sunday to Sunday just wading through a religious ritual so predictable that even God Himself might have a hard time breaking into His own service! You may think you're not like that because you are just "Spirit-led"... no ritual at all. Before you tell me that, let me just say that I've been to churches like yours too!   It may sound "free and unrehearsed", but if you attend long enough, you learn exactly when is the "appropriate" time to be loud or soft; when to stand and shout or be seated and quiet; when to say "Amen" and when to do all kinds of religious things related to your particular church. If you really give it some honest thought, you may realize that your church does in fact have its own form of ritual... it's just not printed out in a bulletin!

    10) Hypocrisy! Look it up in a good dictionary and you will find words like "double-standard", "pretense", "insincerity" and a lot more even less flattering. Sadly, hypocrisy is something we have come to expect from many aspects of society in general, but we must never expect it... or accept it within the church! None of us is perfect, but at least we should be sincere in our striving for that goal. My own grandfather became so disillusioned with deacons in his church bragging about how they had cheated a man out of some money that he totally gave up on church for the rest of his life. Would you want that on your conscience? If you are a member of a church then, fairly or not, society expects a higher standard from you! And believe me; they are watching! If you fail, confess you failing and ask for forgiveness of those wronged. Let sincerity and honesty be your hallmarks!

    11) Jesus showed His disapproval of some of the religious leaders of His day by saying they "strained gnats while swallowing camels." I'm sure the imagery was not lost on his common-place, common-sense audience. What about your denomination or church? Do you condone your own "sacred camels" while building whole intricate doctrines around obscure verses perhaps even from questionable contexts? The religion of Jesus Christ was not complex. He boiled it all down to only two things... "Love God with all your heart, soul and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself." How about we leave off with the gnats and the camels, and get on with these two transcending goals!

    12) I read a very insightful book about 30 years ago titled "THE SEVEN LAST WORDS OF THE CHURCH"...the subtitle was "We've Always Done It This Way Before". I believe the author was Dr. Elton Trueblood. Anyway, if in your church's planning and committee meetings you hear a lot about "the way it's always been done", you've got trouble. What do you do? I guess pray for revival, or look for another church. Think about it... the status quo was never comfortable around Jesus Christ! That should tell us something!

Well, that's my dozen. Now it's your turn!