I quit Going to Church

By Joel Atwell

“… you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood … you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God …”

Dear church,

I’ve mentioned it numerous times, but I’m going to do it again. Richard Stearns’ book The Hole in Our Gospel is a MUST READ! I’m force-feeding it to our church board at GC. We’re working our way through it 2-3 chapters at a time at each monthly board meeting during this fiscal year. Last night we discussed chs. 19-22. Can you say “challenging?”

Listen to this passage:

Let me start with this good news. You’re rich, we’re rich and the church in America is rich. And now I’m sure you are thinking that I’m wrong, that you’re not rich, and neither is your church. But bear with me, because wealth is always measured in relative terms. Brace yourselves for this good news! If your income is $25,000 per year, you’re wealthier than approximately 90% of the world’s population! If you make $50,000 per year, you’re wealthier than 99% of the world. Does this shock you? Remember, of the 6.7 billion people on earth, almost half of them live on less than two dollars a day … 93% of the world’s people don’t own a car … Our difficulty is that we see our American lifestyles as normative, when in fact they are grossly distorted compared to the rest of the world …

It’s important to put the American church into perspective. Simply stated, it is the wealthiest community of Christians in the history of Christendom. How wealthy? The total income of American church-goers is $5.2 trillion. It would take just a little over 1 percent of the income of American Christians to lift the poorest one billion people in the world out of extreme poverty. Said another way, American Christians, who make up about 5% of the Church worldwide, control about half of the global Christian wealth; a lack of money is not our problem.

So, as the wealthiest nation of Christians in the world, how do we do on tithing our income? Here’s the bad news. If we define tithing as giving 10% or more of our pretax income to the church or non-profit ministries, only about 5% of American households tithe … Listen to the words of James used to address wealthy first-century Christians who hoarded their money to spend on themselves:

“Listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days … You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. (Jms. 5:1-5)

… But this is just the first part of the equation. If we look at where the money goes after it is received by the churches, we find that just about 2% of it goes to overseas missions of any kind, whether evangelistic or to assist the poor … that amounts to about six pennies per person per day that we give through our churches to the rest of the world – six cents! (pp. 215-217)

So, why do I share all of this? Four reasons: (1) To say thank you to all of those who are, as an act of obedience, faith and worship, honoring God with the first-fruits of your finances. That’s one important expression of truly BEING the church. (2) To say thank you to all who, this past Sunday, helped GC pledge in excess of 10% of this next year’s income to be invested in the work of the Gospel in other parts of the world. That’s called BEING the church. (3) To encourage all of us who are a part of Christ’s church not to get seduced into lifestyles of tight-fisted, self-centered, self-indulgence, but to live simply and generously for the sake of Christ and his Kingdom! And, (4), to remind us – all of us who have been given so much – to live with gratitude in our hearts and on our lips for God’s lavish provision! That’s how those who are genuinely BEING the church live.

Praying for God’s empowering grace to BE the church,

Joel

I quit going to church

By Joel Atwell

“… you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood … you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God …”

Dear church,

One of the things I’ve tried to remain committed to through the years as a “lead pastor” is on-going staff development. You know the leadership axiom – “Speed of the leader, speed of the team” – so if we, the church leadership team, quit learning and growing it’s not likely that we’ll lead the rest of the church into growth and change. Therefore, we (GC’s pastoral staff) have recently gone back and revisited a book that was really popular a few years ago titled “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” (Stephen Covey). I think it’s one of the great books on personal growth and self-leadership.

The fourth chapter in Covey’s book deals with “Habit #2 – Begin With the End in Mind” in which he challenges us to think about what’s really at the “center” of our lives. His reasoning says that unless we do the hard work of determining what really matters to us and operating every day out of a “principle-center” (our vision and values) then we won’t end up where we want to go in life. (Running hard and fast does us no good if we’re running hard and fast in the wrong direction.) I agree, but with this exception. As followers of Jesus I think we’re called not to have “principles” at the center, but to have a “person” at the center – and that “person” is Christ Jesus.

Anyway, as a part of this discussion Covey spins out a number of common default “centers” out of which people commonly operate – many of which sound good and perhaps even noble on the surface, but are fraught with hidden land mines. One such center, according to Covey, is what he calls being “church-centered.” Listen to what he says,

“I believe that almost anyone who is seriously involved in any church will recognize that churchgoing is not synonymous with personal spirituality. There are some people who get so busy in church worship and projects that they become insensitive to pressing human needs that surround them, contradicting the very precepts they profess to believe deeply… (Remember the “Good Samaritan?”) I have found that attending church does not necessarily mean living the principles taught in those meetings. You can be active in a church but inactive in its gospel … In the church-centered life, image or appearance can become a person’s dominant consideration, leading to hypocrisy …”

That’s a great insight and it’s what this “I quit going to church” stuff is all about. I’m not (nor was Covey) encouraging us to “give up meeting together; as some are in the habit of doing” (Heb. 10:25). Gathering for worship and for the pooling of our collective resources in order to advance the gospel is a good and valuable thing to do. I’m simply challenging us (especially me) to be more than a church-goer. Jesus didn’t live, die and rise so that we could “attend church services.” He did what he did so that we might truly BE the church.

Living toward that reality by his grace,

Joel

I quit Going to Church

By Joel Atwell

“… you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood … you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God …”

Dear church,

This morning, as I spent a few quiet moments with the Lord to start my day, I was reading (again) the story of the crucifixion and resurrection from Matthew’s gospel. As I read I couldn’t help but notice how quickly and naturally the event and the news of the resurrection gave way to the issuance of the “Great Commission” (“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations …”). It seems almost as though what Christ provided through his death and resurrection was/is not intended to result simply in our being “saved.” But included with our receiving his resurrection life in us comes the “commission” of bearing and sharing that life with others – wherever we go in the world.

As I contemplated this I was reminded of the fact that approximately 75 people from GC are signed up to participate in cross-cultural ministry opportunities this spring and summer (that represents about 25% of our average Sunday attendance – Yea God!). A couple of our college students just got back from Guatemala where, in Jesus’ name and in connection with MNU and Heart to Heart Int., they installed water filters in the homes of some extremely poor people. (Beats being drunk and naked in Daytona Beach any day!) Another of our college students is spending a good part of her summer serving abroad in the Church of the Nazarene’s Youth in Missionprogram. 17 or 18 of us are preparing to leave for Ecuador on May 28^th to erect a building (with supplies GC collectively purchased) in which our brothers and sisters who are a part of Christ’s church in Ecuador will gather. Then a bunch of our Middle School and High School teens and sponsors will be traveling to Oklahoma andMinnesota (respectively) to serve, in the name of Christ, among our Native American brothers and sisters. That’s awesome! And I think it at least leans in the direction of Christ’s Great Commission.

But let’s not make the mistake of thinking that “bearing and sharing the life of Christ” with others is something we do periodically in other places. As Easter people we are called to “bear and share the life of Christ” all the time and everywhere – at home and abroad. Yes, Christ’s atoning death and resurrection has provided for us personal salvation, but let’s not forget that we have been “saved to serve.” We have been saved that we might “BE the church” in the way Jesus intended.

Happy Easter and thanks for BEING the church!

Joel