WorldlingWatcher wrote:There's an interesting story making its way through the religious news about novelist Anne Rice "
rejecting Christianity". As the details become clearer, she says she still believes in and follows Christ, but she's rejecting the organized religion that's been built around Christ in general and the Catholic Church in specific.
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I tend to agree with her that too many Christians let their religion get in the way of living their faith, but I'm reluctant to conclude we can reject the church in a wholesale manner. Setting aside the question of whether one can be Christian and not be a member of the "body of Christ", what are your thoughts on being a Christian without affiliating with a congregation?
I am way past reluctant on this issue to declare that sometimes we MUST reject the church in a "wholesale" manner. At least we must sometimes be uncompromising in our rejection of the corruption we we find in it. Sometimes this fractures the human organization but the end result, as we see in the reformation, is that the whole spiritual body of Christ is healed as a counter reformation puts a lot of the wrongs in the original church to right. I absolutely reject the sentiment that the reformation was a trajedy that was a result of man failing -- this was an act of God. The usual rhetoric quoting "God is not a God of confusion", is a misapplication and misuse of scripture. Read Genesis chapter 11 and you will uncover the lie: God will most certainly create confusion when the situation demands it. Look at the natural world and you will see that unending diversity is one of the the most consistent and universal strategies of God in His work of creation.
It is in fact unity that is one of the more consistent strategies of the devil. The unity of the axis nations and failure to resist authority of those that came to power was responsible for the most terrible attrocities in human history. I believe that the same kind of unity was the heart and soul of human civilization before the flood and that is the true meaning of the story in Genesis 11, that when God saw them organizing again after the flood "lest we be scattered abroad the face of the whole earth", God said "this is only the beginning of what they will do" -- why? because He saw the same pattern before the flood. The modern era PROVES that this has NOTHING to do with any objection by God to the acheivements of mankind but rather has to do with the annihilation of hope that occurs when mankind becomes united in a corrupt society. The diversity of culture and nations on the earth may be a source of conflict and war, but it is also the only hope for the freedom of men to pursue a relationship with God as well.
BUT, there is a balance in this. Excessive self-righteousness and a failure to compromise can also put you in a congregation and society of 1 all alone. Even though the body of Christ is a spiritual body organized and governed by the resurrected Christ and NO man can pull it down or apart, the Bible also makes it clear that this should also be reflected in the organization of groups of believers. So I certainly reject another legalist and extreme approach that rejects organized religion to the degree that you cannot even meet on Sunday to worship together or cannot plant a church to reach out to the community.
What are the benefits of being a member of a Church?
• It identifies a person as a genuine believer (Eph.2:19; Rom.12:25)
• It provides a spiritual family to support and encourage them in their walk with Christ (Gal.6:1-2;Heb.10:24-25)
• It gives them a place to discover and use their gifts in ministry (I Cor12:4-27)
• It places them under the spiritual protection of Godly leaders (Heb.13:17; Acts 20:28-29)
• It gives them the accountability they need to Grow (Eph.5:21)
So everything you quote in that list is certainly true, but you must not forget that these should only facilitate and not replace a relationship with God and so one must be wary that these things are not carried to an extreme where they do more to obstruct than facilitate. If this becomes a tyrrany to apall everyone who sees it and gives their conscience a reason to blaim and blaspheme God as an evil and oppressive presence in the world then I would suggetst that it has gone too far. This will not only inevitably drive away your own children but become an obstacle to anyone else seeking a relationship with God through your organization. This in fact should be the heart of any church that calls itself evangelical that it remain a place that people will be attracted to rather than repelled by. The evils in the world are many and if your church is a place of life and spirit as well as a place of santuary and comfort then people will come in out of the desolation and chaos because of this. The church must discern between the evils of the world and the life in the world to reject only the former and to welcome the latter.
