The Role of the Church

I work a lot with the 4^th and 5^th graders in my church, and I absolutely love it. To see a childlike faith, yet still being old enough to begin to grasp what the gospel truly means has been truly exemplary in my own walk with Christ. Yet there is something that troubles me that came to mind during one of their services.

The pastor was doing a series called “Force Field,” and how a relationship with God acts like a force field to protect Christians from certain things in life. The 10 second version of the message is: it’s better to have a strong force field than a weak one. (This idea is fairly obvious for anyone who follows Star Wars.) I thought this was a genius way to describe the protection and the salvation that one can find from having a personal relationship with Christ.

During the sermon, the pastor asked the question “How can we strengthen our and others’ force fields?” There were many great answers given. Read the Bible, pray, be nice to other people, Help out our friends, but the very first answer was the one that got me thinking. Bring our friends to church. Now for a 4^th grader, this answer is absolutely fantastic, and really an accurate answer. One can truly improve their relationship with God, and help others’ relationship also by going to church, so long as the church is sound and healthy. But this led to my other thought

What if that were the mentality for the entire church, instead of say a 4^th grader. What if we as Christians were told from the pulpit and believed that the way to build a relationship with God was to go to church? The scary thing is, many Christians are, and many Christians do. I think about how often church preaches church instead of Christ. Not only does this offer a cult-like following to the leaders of the church, but it robs Christ of the praise that is rightfully His. This belief that church is the answer leaves many Christians confused and ignorant, possibly leading to someone becoming bitter toward not only the church, but towards Christ. This forces Christians then to figure out what exactly is the role of the church?

In high school I had the mentioned mentality. Deep down, I believed that I could bring the friend to church and magically, God would move their hearts, and they would become Christians. What I failed to realize was that church is just a partner in the entire walk of someone learning about God. Tom Gartin had an interesting way to sum it up. He stated that “often we think of it as a relay race instead of marriage vows. We bring the friend, hope they become a Christian, and look for someone new, as opposed to being a commitment that we are all in together.” I think about the Great Commission when Christ says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” (Mathew 28:19). And the Early Church in the 1-3 centuries that were persecuted, where often they did not have a church, as we know it, to bring people to.

The church as we know it is an invaluable tool in helping bring people to Christ, but it is just that. A tool. Ultimately, that responsibility falls onto you and me. It is our job as Christians to lead people to, and develop those new believers. After all, it isn’t four walls and a cross that the Holy Spirit lives inside of. That’s us.

Thanks to Brian Metz for the image from his flickr.