Walmart and church

"Have you quit beating your wife?"

Back in the 80's when learning logic, dialogue, debate, etc, we discussed how you have to unpack the question itself before you answer it or you're at the mercy of the person asking the question.

The above question was one of the sample questions we unpacked because it had so many assumptions built it.  For example, it assumes 1) the person is married, 2) the person they're married to is a woman and 3) that they have been beating their wife.

A person answering that question would need to confront and counter the misleading options or statements in the question, otherwise they're walking into a verbal trap.

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"If you don't go to church, how will you be spiritually fed?"

One of the common things I hear from people on this journey over the past several months is that question.  

It's not a bad question, but it assumes a lot of things.  Like the question at the top of the post, it's one of those "trap questions" where the answers are narrowed down and pre-decided for the person being asked.

It assumes 1) there is something called "going to church", 2) that "church" is something you "go to", 3) a person is spiritually fed through this thing called "going to church", 4) if you don't "go to church", you'll not be spiritually fed, and 5) there is something called "being spiritually fed".

There are MANY other assumptions packed into those assumptions as well, but I think you probably get the gist of it.

There's not anything in scripture that is called "going to church"  That idea or phrase is something we say, but scripture only refers to believers gathering together to share, encourage one another, and learn together.

The writer of Hebrews encouraged people to get together because they really needed each other - the Hebrews were facing serious heat for their belief in Jesus and some were considering "going back" to the Old Law and Judaism because of peer pressure - some losing jobs, property, etc.

The writer said don't forsake or walk away from getting together ("assembling together") but instead plan on seeing each other and think, ahead of time, about how you can encourage one another to continue on in this new life of love and good actions that come from it. 

The writer did not say "go to church".  

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"Church" is a word that means a building, a congregation or collection of people, and is a description of all God's people in Jesus.  But originally, it was an identifier of people, not a building or a time when people got together.

It's kind of like how we use the word "love" for tacos, our spouse, a favorite band, an outfit, a TV show, etc.  Scripture even has at least four different words for love that mean different things, but we just say "love" and miss out on the actual meaning.  Same with the word "church".

The main time in the New Testament that describes a gathering of believers is 1 Corinthians 14 (some would say 11-14).  There Paul doesn't call it "going to church" - he is referring to their gathering as believers in a large (for that time) and diverse city.

We don't know for sure, but it seems likely that Corinthian believers probably gathered in their own homes on a regular basis and on occasion all tried to gather together across home-lines, cultures, backgrounds, etc.  

Paul's words in chapter 14 are his solution to the problems they were having when they gathered to share their life in Jesus, learn more from each other, and to encourage and strengthen each other.  

Instead of coming together for that, they'd all come to show off what they knew, to attempt to dominate each other in terms of time and attention, and generally speaking to attempt to lead each other to be like them or to imitate or admire their interpretation or approach to knowing and interacting with God.

Paul said to knock all that off and do only things that will encourage and strengthen each other in their understanding of what God has done for us all in Jesus.  

If you read 1 Corinthians 14 in context, he's setting them up to think about what they did when they gathered cross culturally to love and serve each other - he wanted them to serve one another through the lens of the love he described in 1 Corinthians 13.  He wasn't just giving a random set of verses that we all might use at weddings - he was instructing what their interacts would be like IF they would "get it".

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Back to the main point or question I have heard a lot "If you don't go to church, how will be spiritually fed?"  That makes complete and total sense if you buy into the assumptions of our time and are good with ignoring the reason early believers gathered.

When discussing it with people, some have said that a walk with God and his people "without going to church" is akin to people who are part of the organic or back to the earth movement where you have to "source" your own food, fibers, and such to be able to have food, clothing, etc.

Why would a person go to all the trouble of growing a garden, etc when they could just go to Walmart or the local grocery store and get all they needed at bargain prices with amazing convenience?

In the same vein, they'd say, why would a person go to all the trouble of learning and doing all the things you do "at church" by yourself at home when you could just "go to church" and get it all there at bargain prices and with amazing convenience?

You might be surprised to know that I agree with that 100% - it is convenient and it does, potentially, provide a person with the opportunity to learn, grow, and be encouraged. 

My "beef", as it were, is two fold: First, is that with all the potential for that, "church" doesn't do that a lot of times.  

Maybe the group you're part of does that, but most don't.  Most are a gathering led and directed by a few individuals and hardly anyone else is asked or encouraged to "participate" except to sing, give money, affirm what's being said by "the leaders", etc.

Paul's point was you need to be together to hear each other's story and struggle and then, respond "organically" and with the Spirit, to what's actually happening in each others lives and with God - not just show up to hear a favorite voice - which Paul spends a good time addressing in the early chapters as well.

The result of that is most believers are completely dependent on some pastor or priest or leader of some kind to tell them how and even what to think about life in God. You're eventually dependent on them for everything related to God and life and it often ends up being a cultural slavery with a lot of peer pressure to fit into a group and its norms and preferred ways which may or may not have anything to do with God.

My second "beef" is the larger one and related to the first "beef" - and it's that the idea that you need to go somewhere and meet with someone in order to be right with God and/or "to be fed".  

Jesus was pretty clear with the woman at the well that the time had come when what God is looking for is NOT people who want to make a relationship with him all about where they'd meet "for worship" but rather for people who worship him "in spirit and in truth" - you know, inside themselves - in their soul.

We'd know him personally and not have to go somewhere to "meet him" or "invite him to join our group" or other language that we use with "going to church".

You don't "go to church" to get some God like you'd go to the Walmart super center to get some milk and zucchini.  He's not a product you get off the shelf, he's a person that is always with you and interacts with you directly, not through other people.

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What's the point of gathering with other believers?  Paul seems to think it's to encourage each other, strengthen and supply each other - sometimes literally - and to use whatever gift you have from God to do that encouraging, supplying, empathizing with, teaching, etc.  

You can see those gifts laid out in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and to some degree in 1 Corinthians 14.  And using those gifts doesn't require that everyone gets together "for church".  The gathering is to know one another, see how God has blessed each other, and to see how God might use you to do those things.

Rarely these days do "churches" encourage believers to live in confidence with God, knowing he is directing them through his Spirit, fully engaged with them to the degree they can be engaged with, fully equipping them for anything they might need to do anything he might ask of them - that they are currently, as they are, 100% good with God.

Most groups want you dependent on them and their slant for their approval - so you can know where they think you stand with God.  

And there's nothing wrong with that - just say that's what you want.  

Allow people to know that's your approach so they can know whether they want to trust the leaders of that "church" to be their go-betweens with God and them OR if they'd rather work with God directly as he promises he is doing.

But for many, that's too dangerous.  It's better to keep the Walmart going.  

And I "get it" - too many need that because it's how they came to know God and making a big change would take some time to learn to walk with the Spirit and with God directly and not to be dependent on a favorite personality or approach to talking about God, Jesus, etc.

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But it seems like God is making that happen anyway across the land.

In different ways, through different approaches, it seems he's softening up some dirt and planting ideas with groups and people that there can be more and that people don't have to invest into real estate to have a relationship with God.

"It" truly can be a movement or a way of life that connects people to be "the church" but isn't dependent on our current pop culture way of envisioning "going to church".

More again sometime on this...

Peace and goodwill.