The Discipline of Church

I recently read a couple of Mark Sayers' books, Facing Leviathan and Disappearing Church.  Using a historical framework, Sayers weighs in as a pastor and commentator concerning western culture and its impact on church culture.  In a world which floods us with countless offers and attractive pitches, we can be deceived to think we can become the people God has called us to be without regular church fellowship.  I have borne witness to many people who drift in and out of church, looking for something ambiguous they never seem to find.  Ironically these discerning ones tend to drift and never settle anywhere.  I almost cheered when I read these paragraphs in Disappearing Church:

In an age that encourages maximum autonomy and the transgressing of limitations, perhaps we need to adhere to Todd Hunter's advice to see the institution of church as a spiritual discipline.  We get the idea that making the choice to wake up early and read our Bibles or to commit to regularly giving away our money to a charity or to fast may not always be pleasurable, but in the discipline of these things that we become more Christlike.  Yet we expect church to always be pleasurable, enriching, and exciting.

Maybe the limitations of church, the discipline of regular attendance, the commitment it requires, also teach us to be Christlike.  Maybe we need to reimagine church in our minds as a spiritual discipline, which teaches us the value of delayed gratification, of personally investing in change, of becoming more like Jesus.

Ronald Rolheiser captures this truth well when he writes, "Church involvement, when understood properly, does not leave us the option to walk away whenever something happens that we do not like.  It is a covenant commitment, like a marriage, and binds us for better or worse."  We and our Gnostic predilections ultimately fear church because we fear that it will take something from us, that it will restrict us.  And on this point the Gnostics, both ancient and modern, are right.  For as Rolheiser writes, "What church community takes away from us is our false freedom to soar unencumbered, like the birds, believing that we are mature, loving, committed, and not blocking out things that we should be seeing.  Real churchgoing soon enough shatters this illusion, and gives us no escape, as we find ourselves constantly humbled as our immaturities and lack of sensitivity to the pain of others are reflected off eyes that are honest and unblinking."  Ultimately, we fear church because it crushes Christian Gnostics, who pick their bruised and beaten bodies up, and discover that they are not gods, but humans fearfully and wonderfully made. (Sayers, Mark. Disappearing Church: from Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience. Moody Publishers, 2016.)

It is easy to find fault with a pastor or church, but unless fault-finders commit to fellowship in obedience to Jesus Christ the logs in their own eyes often remain.  Church is a place to be fed, to serve, and to seek the LORD in humility with others who are born again, love, and trust Jesus.  A new venture of faith may not be leaving a church but actually committing to serve Jesus there without longing for something different.  Labour to promote health in the Body of believers where God has placed you; you be the salt and light Jesus has called you to be.  Should a member of Christ's Body remain in self-imposed exile because church doesn't measure up to the ideals of an imperfect person?  If we will use God's Word as our guide, there is infinite room to extend love, grace, patience, mercy, and compassion to others with joy.