9. Church - Why Bother?

When we did a survey of people who don’t normally go to church, the number one religious question that they had was, “Why are there so many hypocrites in the church?” Why bother with church when the church is full of hypocrites?
People want to know why Christians don’t live up to what they preach, especially preachers. This issue has come into the forefront lately as sexual abuse scandals within the leadership of the church have dominated the media.
Saying one thing and doing another has always been a problem for God’s people because it is easier to say something than to do it. The apostle James tried to deal with this problem in the early church. He wrote,
Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can’t save anyone. Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, and you say, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well” – but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all – it is dead and useless (Ja. 2:14-17).

Brennan Manning “The single greatest cause of atheism in the world is Christians who confess Him with their lips and go out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.”1 Unfortunately, hypocrisy is a real problem.
However, this is still not a reason to give up on church. Rather than giving up on church all together, we need to seek a church that is really trying to live what the Bible says and seems to be doing so with some consistency.
We also need to be realistic and gracious. I say I love my life, but sometimes I speak unlovingly to her. I get upset when people fly by me on the freeway, but when I am running late for an important meeting, I do the same thing. I get frustrated when others skip in line, but if I see a friend near the front of a long line, I might start a conversation with him and casually blend into the line.
None of us live up to all our expectations of others. We are all hypocrites to some extent. The church is made up of people like us. Why should we expect it to be any different?
What is more, some doctors are quacks or pill pushers, but if we get sick, we’re going to try to find a good doctor. Some lawyers are frauds, but if we need legal counsel we’re going to try to find a good lawyer. Some Christians are phonies, and some churches are unloving and inconsistent. The solution isn’t to abandon Christianity or the church. The solution is to find a good church where people are really living Christianity.

Pause for a minute, and get into groups of two or three. Talk with your groups about some activities that require a team effort. Come up with several different things that require joint collaboration.

In the face of growing commercial feel of some churches and ministries, some people feel that the church has sold out and is not worth being a part of. The organizational cover-ups inside and outside the Church tend to make people leery of any large institution. There is the sense that institutionalization leads to corruption. That begs the question: Why bother with church or any organized religion?
I guess I have to side with an area pastor and ask, “What do you prefer - disorganized religion?”2
The benefits of organization outweigh the costs. First of all, organization provides doctrinal and ethical accountability. We have seen examples lately of the organized church failing blatantly to provide ethical accountability. However, when the organization is working correctly, the structure of the church promotes consistency in belief and action. The only alternative is lone ranger spirituality with no one to check our own potentially skewed perception.
The greatest benefit of organization, though, is that we can do more together than we can apart. There is a synergy when people get together. Through the International Church of the Nazarene, people who give money to Christ Community Church are supporting the Kansas City Rescue Mission for homeless men, an orphanage for former child prostitutes in Thailand, hospitals in India and Papua New Guinea, services to the elderly in Moscow, agricultural training in Mozambique, immediate disaster relief whenever it is needed around the world, and countless other services to humanity. Very little of that would be possible without intentional organization as an international church.

Faced with the problems of the Church, and tired of fighting the battle, many people just give up on church all together. They say, “Why bother with church when I can be a Christian all by myself?” You might call this the “Jesus and Me” philosophy. It says that all that really matters is your own personal relationship with God.
It seems that some people in the early church may have felt the same way. The author of Hebrews wrote, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near” (10:25).
In his article “Don’t Give Up on Church, Richard Kauffman had this insight, “To become a Christian disciple means not just deciding to follow Jesus, but also joining with a community of disciples bound together by their common commitment to their Lord.”3
My parents and grandparents are infamous for telling the same stories over and over and over again. One of the stories my dad has told me over and over again has actually made an impact on me.
Every time we went camping, I hung out around the fire poking and prodding it, burning anything that wasn’t nailed down. My dad would always squat down beside me and say that the fire is kind of like the church. The coals are the people, and the Holy Spirit is the fire. Then, he would ask me what would happen if he pulled one of the coals out of the fire and set it by itself. I said it would get dark and cold. Then he poked around with a stick and pulled one of the coals to the side. Sure enough it got dark and cold.
Then he said, “With out the other coals it can’t stay hot. It needs the other coals to keep burning. It’s the same thing with Christians. Sometimes, we decide that we don’t need the church and that we can make with just God and us. The problem is that when we pull away from the church we loose their heat and eventually we just die out.”
The good news is that Dad’s object lesson never ended there. We always pushed the coal back into the fire and watched it get hot again. Soon, it was glowing and burning just like all the rest. We are made to live in close relationship with each other. We experience the presence of God and live the Christian life best when we do it together. Without each other, our tendency is to fade away spiritually.

This leads us directly to the “One Body” philosophy in 1 Corinthians 12.
A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another he gives the gift of special knowledge. The Spirit gives special faith to another, and to someone else he gives the power to heal the sick. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and to another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown language, and another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some of us are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ’s body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit.
Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not a part of the body because I am only an ear and not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? Suppose the whole body were an eye – the how would you hear? Or if your whole body were just one big ear, how could you smell anything?
But God made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it. What a strange thing a body would be if it had only one part! Yes there are many parts but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
In fact some of the parts that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary. … This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other equally. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored all the parts are glad. Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a separate and necessary part of it. (1 Cor. 12:7-22, 25-27)

When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit unites us into one body. This is the body of Christ, the physical representation of God in the world. The Holy Spirit gives each person different gifts.
These gifts are “for the common good.” In Ephesians 4:12, after listing the different spiritual gifts, Paul says, that these are all “so that the body of Christ may be built up.” A few verses later Paul says, “Under [Christ’s] direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps other parts to grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (4:16).
Each part is necessary for a healthy body. A missing body part is a hindrance and a danger.
The “one body” philosophy is one of the biggest reasons to be part of a local church. God is working in the church through the members of the church to strengthen the church, to serve the poor and hurting, and to bring more people into his family. You cannot be the Christian God wants you to be without the Church. The Church cannot be the Church God wants it to be without you.
At this point I want to let you hear from someone who has returned to the church after a long time of thinking church is irrelevant.

Testimony: Bill Todd
Insert Text (Summary: He became a Christian at the age of 56, but even then, he thought the church was full of hypocrites. Eventually, he saw the authenticity of his Christian friends and decided to become involved in a church. He now serves on the board at Olathe Christ Community Church of the Nazarene.)

Walter Brueggemann understands where over-independence leads, “We had come to believe in self-fulfillment and have discovered that even a ‘filled’ life, if alone, results in an empty self.”4 We need community. We need close, loving, relationships with other people. We are designed for deep and spiritual friendships. The Church can be the place for those friendships to happen.
I especially advocate small groups. Participating in a small group has been the most meaningful part of my church experience. A small group is a group of 4-12 people who commit to meeting together on a regular basis to study the Bible, support each other, pray for each other, listen to each other, and maybe even to hold each other accountable to living according to our faith. Basically, a small group is a group of people who are intentional about being good friends.
In a small group, we receive support and encouragement. A small group provides a forum for voicing frustration and celebrating successes. A small group provides the opportunity to love and to be loved. Kent, a member of our small group, said our love for him helps him know God’s love and grace more. Debbie, a participant in the Journey, said that our acceptance of her is helping her to believe that maybe God can accept her, too.
Another great benefit of close community in the church is that it helps us to avoid hypocrisy. For five years Joseph Willey and I have participated in the discipline of accountability. We meet together on a regular basis to make sure we are living like we say we want to live. We get honest with each other on a gut level. We talk about our temptations, sins, and successes. Accountability has been the single most helpful activity I have participated in.
The answer to the Church’s problem with hypocrisy is not withdrawal from the church. The answer is close community within the church so that we can help each other to live like we really want to live.
Consider these ancient words of wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes:
Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; the get a better return for their labor. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. And on a cold night, two under the same blanket can gain warmth from each other. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. (4:9-12)
Here is the whole talk in three sentences. 1. Even with its stains and wounds, Church is still beautiful and valuable. 2. The Church cannot be what God wants it to be with out you. 3. You cannot be what God wants you to be without the Church.



Journaling: Play: Cheers theme song
1. The biggest problem I have with church is …
2. The thing that excites me most about church is …