It’s 11:00 A.M On A Sunday, Are You Wasting Time?

No, I am not asking are you in “church” this Sunday, I am asking are you doing what should be done when the church meets.

You see I have come to the conclusion that for the most part, I won’t get much out of a Sunday service from most churches. I have also come to the conclusion that neither will you, and most of us, will sit in a pew Sunday after Sunday becoming more and more atrophied until what is abnormal become normal and we go through the redundant weekly “service” and convince ourselves that we are doing the right thing. Now this may sound odd, but so would it to a man who has been convinced that he is paralyzed when he can slam dunk.

The Spurring

The purpose of the coming together for those who received, read and or heard the letter to the Hebrews was not for them sit and be passive consumers. It was for them to spur one another along. Lately there has been a good amount of writings on this subject, mostly through post but also a few publication. Some would argue that 1 Corinthians 14:26-32, was probably the most detailed look inside a regular church meeting, others believe this was only a descriptive peep that has no bearing on the church today. As you can tell I am of the former rather than the latter.  The biggest reason is that I am hard pressed to see what goes on today in church buildings having even a remote similarity to what went on in houses 2000 years ago.

Now you might say that was 2000 years ago and since that was an infant church, which had many struggles, that this is not to be the regular meeting of the church and what we have today is really what should be going on. I beg the differ for one big reason. It seems that the meeting, again at least from the writer of Hebrews, was to spur one another along and my friends, 1 Corinthians 14:26 looks much more like a spurring meeting than does our consumerist model today.

Consume, Consume, Consume

Here is another point. Our models today build consumers of gatherings and very little does it develop contributors. Here is what I mean. Today people argue about the “seeker sensitive” churches or even more recent “the consumer driven church”. This usually comes from the mouth of people who believe their preaching is more “biblical” than say Joel Olsteen’s preaching thus they are not consumer driven they are Christ Centered because they preach better sermons and have “biblical” membership. Hogwash my friends, hogwash. People go to Piper’s, Driscoll’s, Sproul’s and MacArthur’s church to consume! Yep I said it. They just go to consume a different type of product. While the product at Joel seems to be great worship music and encouraging messages, the product at the afore mentioned churches are good sermons, that make you fill tingly all over, sprinkled in with some greek usage, theological terms and clever wording. Again in neither church is there much of any spurring going on amongst the body, the stage and its occupants  in both instances are doing all of the spurring while those in the audience (especially in churches where sermons are cabled in) are passive consumers, ready to do it again next week!

Even if we look over the corriders of history we see quite easily this consumerism has always played a part and the person with the best product wins. From Llyod-Jones to Spurgeon, from Olsteen to Jimmy Baker (not putting the two in the same category), it doesn’t matter come, sit give your money so that we can entertain you again and if you give some special money we can even entertain you and your kids better, we will give them their own pastor   . And we start our children off with this consumer Christianity and they will only perpetuate the norm.

So What Do You Contribute???

So often the only time anyone else beside the paid professionals are allowed to contribute is doing money time. You have practically sat passively by consuming a product (rather good sermons, music or a combination of both) but now you are called forward to “worship God with you giving”. As if the other stuff you were doing was actually worship.

You see the one/two gift domination is not contributing to the growth and development. It is true that they may can do this much better, shoot they should they are paid for it, but to substitute the responsibilities of all members encouraging, building up, and spurring while the church meets for success in the short-run seems to undermine the Holy Spirit who has indwelled every believer in order that they may be responsible to helping others grow up into the Head! Here is what David Norrington says on the subject of the sermon:

Many church-goers enjoy sermons and may become connoisseurs of sermons wedded to one particular form. Others, through lengthy exposure and internalization of ecclesiastical dogma, accept the sermon as the only valid form. yet others enjoy the passivity and anonymity of merely listening and would find more active methods threatening……God’s people frequently misunderstand deliverance when it is offered and prefer the familiarity of bondage to the uncertainties of liberation; the emotional security of institutionalized immaturity to the rigours of responsible adulthood (To Preach or Not to Preach, pg 91)

You Were Really Called To Be A Priest So Function As One

Look, you are really a priest and much like all priest function in some capacity and contributed at some capacity so should you and I. We only have one high priest and his name doesn’t begin with pastor, reverend, doctor, nor any other title. His name is Jesus to Son of God. He is our one High Priest and now calls us to function together for the good of His Kingdom.

I know this may sound overly simplistic, or even outright heretical and I am ready to engage with both responses immediately upon posting this. But I think the reason people move from group to group is not because there is something particularly wrong with that group, it is the because that person consumption changes and when you are only use to consuming when you have eaten one field bare and the land is no longer stable to yield fruit people just go to the next one.

However, I believe if that person is in tune with the Spirit and has opportunities to contribute while simultaneously being edified this musical chairs church thing would become much less frequent.

Anyway I will end where I started. Will you be wasting time consuming this Sunday or will you have an opportunity to be a contributor/edifier? If the former ask your pastor can you contribute to the teaching this Sunday and if not why? If it is the latter how?