4. “I go to church so that others will see me go to church”: Recently, I heard a story about someone I know. She missed church one Sunday, because she was ill. Her next door neighbor, shocked, promptly visited. The neighbor told her that “I’ve been watching you for 32 years, and have never seen you miss church!” What an amazing story. It holds an equally profound truth about today’s Christianity, that it is proudly lazy.
Proud, because going to church to be seen of others should recall the Pharisees doing religion to be seen of men. Christ pronounced woes (curses) for this most notably in Matthew 23. Do not mistake my words, being a Christian is an overt issue. We are not to hide our light under a bushel. Yet, the “…so others will see me” argument is just that, hiding a light under a bushel. Though it is amazing that this lady’s neighbor witnessed her going to church for 32 years, why did the lady not witness to the neighbor once during three decades?!? Her going to church was not helping the lost. Beyond that, the neighbor, who is lost, does not (cannot) distinguish between spiritual truth and error. The neighbor knew that she was “going to church” but what church? Catholic, Mormon, Muslim? Going is no help to the lost, who don’t discern between good and evil.
“Going is a testimony.” Yes, I do agree with this. Going shows that we’re consistent, but the above story is an exception to the rule. Today’s irreligious world does not pay close attention to what the “religious” world does, unless it’s an atrocity published by the media. Christ never once told his followers to go to church to be seen of men. This was not how he wanted the Gospel to be spread abroad. He told his followers, all true believers, to “go into all the world…”, to “go into the highways and byways…”. Christ servants, therefore, went out at His command, which brings into focus the present church’s laziness.
The, at best passive, witnessing act of “going to church”, reflects how lazy churches are. Personally, I have been the director of a few larger ministries visitation outreaches. One church boasted more than 3,000 members, but only 2 members came for church-wide visitation. The Pastor announced visitation faithfully, advertisements were posted, and people were personally asked to come, but visitation numbers never increased. 300 people would have been a major victory, but 300 people is still only 10% of the church. What about the other 90% (if 300 came). 2 people, plus myself, made three, that is a paltry 1% who consistently and actively sought lost people. Though I cannot personally account for all 3,000 members of that church, I do know that visitation was not a priority. The same 3,000 would attend church functions faithfully, but why not even 2 hours of witnessing? Witnessing is an actively planned occurrence. If it is not actively planned, it’s not likely to be done. Some argue that they witness at work. The occasional one or two at work should not blindly halt witnessing to hundreds or thousands. I know one small church (10 members), who collectively get out 80,000 tracts a year. They plan to go a few times a week, and 10 times out of 10, someone from that church will be out witnessing. Exponentially, multiply 10 to 3,000 and 80,000 tracts would become 24,000,000. All of New York City and most of its surrounding suburbs would be reached each year, every year, if 3,000 true-believers would actively witness. The Bible illustrates a small group of believers who were accused of “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Active, not passive, witnessing does this.
One final thought. The New Testament Church never went to church to be seen of others. For one, churches met daily, throughout the day, and in homes. No Roman would have ever known about a church gathering, unless told. Christians during this time would have, and did keep their meetings very guarded. They had to be intelligent because the Roman government was actively seeking to kill Christians. There were no First Baptist Churches of Pergamos, Corinth, etc. with steeples and large auditoriums. None of those big temples came until Constantine put crosses on Temples of Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and the other pagan gods. Even then, true believers saw error and would not attend these new “Christian” palaces. Constantine did continue persecuting the true Christians who would not conform to his false-Christianity. America does not suffer from fatal persecution. We can openly gather, but such an opportunity should make us, neither proud, nor lazy.
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