Church Bashing Part 2: Positives in the American Church

 

Last week the topic was church bashing. (Last week’s post.) This week continues the topic with an emphasis on the American church today. Criticizing the American church has become very popular in the last few years. This post looks at some issues surrounding this trend.

Following is an example of the criticism of American Christianity from a recent popular blog:

“The connection economy is an arena where the church — the body of Christ — should be leading. But it’s not. The world has blown past it.

In the connection economy, building connections with like-minded people is valued higher than acquiring “stuff.”

For instance, suppose I handed you $2,000 to spend on whatever you wanted.

Your mind may default to a new refrigerator. Or that curved HD TV you’ve been eyeing at Best Buy. Or a new set of golf clubs. Or those rare coins for your coin collection. Or you perhaps you’ve been hypnotized by William Devane and you’re going to invest in gold. Or maybe you’re thinking about purchasing [fill in the blank].

By contrast, many non-Christians would rather spend that $2,000 on an event specifically designed to build high-quality connections with people who are like minded. Why?

Because they value building new relationships more that buying “stuff.”

I’m depressed to say that I find this priority of “connection over stuff” more common in non-Christians than I do in God’s people.

Very few Christian breathe this rarified air.

Sure, they may talk about it being a priority. But when it comes down to the two most important indicators of the human heart — your checkbook and your calendar (that being interpreted means, your money and your time) — it quickly drops to the bottom of the list.”

Is it really true that non-Christians in America more commonly prioritize connection over stuff? Consider the amount of time and money Christians invest in their fellowships. Many give 2, or 5 or 10 percent of their income each month. Many devote endless hours in volunteering to lead home groups and recovery groups. What non-Christian movement can compare to the hundreds of thousands of lasting caring communities (i.e. churches) throughout America? Community in general in America has also declined so we can expect people coming into the churches will be less community oriented, but it hardly seems fair to condemn churches as being less connection oriented than society as a whole. Christian community is not as prominent as a few decades ago but it is still far beyond anything that non-Christians offer.

And for serious community, there are thousands of churches under 100 weekly attendance that provide a high level of emotional and spiritual support to their members. In the end I don’t see how the above quote can be supported at all. Yet the author is a very popular Christian writer.

Of course some non-Christians are going to spend $2,000 to create community while Christians will be less reluctant to do so. This is because many Christians already have far more community than non-Christians. Also, many of the non-Christians investing in “community” are actually more focused on career advancement.

Criticizing the church is criticizing believers; the church is just a collection of people. It is also criticizing all the pastors and other ministers who give their lives for low or medium pay in order to help others become more like Christ. We should be extremely hesitant about criticizing God’s people; we need to be sure we are right.

Another reason church bashing is a serious offense is that it gives a false impression of the church to non-Christians. This keeps the lost away from the Body of Christ and away from experiencing the good news. What is more grievous than keeping people from the light of Christ they might find in others?

There is also a thread of condescension or self-righteousness in some of the criticism. I hear leaders complain about conditions in the church but then point out the effectiveness of their own church or ministry. I think that if you asked a roomful of pastors how the church in America was performing they would say “badly”. But if asked about their church most would say it was at least pretty good. Yet if most of the churches represented are doing pretty good, is it realistic to think that the church as a whole isn’t much better than society in general?

The problem is not with the people who are committed to their churches the problem is with the huge number of nominal Christians who said a prayer but never invested themselves in others through a fellowship. These are the people who make Christians look bad in polls. Surveys of highly participative Christians show significantly better lifestyles.

It is hard to be a Christian in America with so many freedoms and temptations. In less developed countries poverty or persecutions forces good community and creates clearer dividing lines between what is good and what is destructive. Some American Christians actually like to spend time outside America just to keep their devotion strong. In America we have to be very intentional about resisting all the forces that tear down our faith. Personally, I am impressed by the many believers who stay true to Jesus in spite of all the opposing forces.

Certainly there are many immature Christians in our churches. But I wonder if a lot of this is due to the nature of things. At any given point in time we need to assume that a large percentage of people in churches are immature and worldly because they are newer followers and have not yet matured in Christ. Maturity takes time. Perhaps 40% of church attendees would fall into this category. There is also a significant percentage of attendees who are immature because they are nominal and don’t take their faith seriously. This will always be so, unless there is heavy persecution. There is no way to avoid “weeds among the wheat” as the Bible explains. Churches take all comers; some will come for the wrong reasons. Perhaps 20% of attendees would fall into this category. These two groups add up to 60% of the average church being immature. The remaining 40% would be “young adults” or “mature adults” in the faith. This seems to me to be normal. Thus we need to be very careful about criticizing immaturity in churches. I would like to see some surveys of people who have been following Jesus for 10 years or more and have spent time in church ministries such as small groups or helping the needy. I’m guessing their lifestyle would be substantially more Christlike than any other group in society.

We should not forget that millions hear the scripture taught on Sunday mornings and this does impact lives. In centuries past churches did not provide nearly as much access to scripture and study of scripture. While scripture knowledge is not as high as a few decades ago it is still historically quite high. And when attendees hear and accept the words of scripture they are changed; the Spirit will work.

My plea is that we not naively accept sweeping negative statements and that we actively speak the truth about what is good. Obviously there are many problems to be addressed but there are also many sincere Christians making a difference. False humility and tearing down the church is a grievous offense to God as well as to the many believers who devote themselves to following Jesus the best they know how.