When Does Faith Stop Being About Me?

23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching-25.” Hebrews 10:23

 

A good friend of mine who is an avid BBC news reader, recently sent me an article from the BBC News about Christians in the UK and church attendance.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6517807.stm

Interesting article, and I am sure the same thing has been written here in America. The wonderful blessing of the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution is that we have the freedom of religion:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

–Oh, and by the way, you can thank Baptist leaders like Isaac Backus and John Leland for this amendment. Thomas Jefferson is always mentioned as leading in this addition to the Constitution, but it was because of the requests of others that he acted.

Because of this we have the freedom to choose whether or not we want to attend church, and which denomination we want to believe in. For Christians no one can deny the fact that church attendance is in decline. Why? Shouldn’t our love for Christ compel us to follow him, and be obedient?

According to the SBC’s website, there are more than 42,000 Southern Baptist churches in the United States. Using the Leavell Center’s findings, fewer than 13,000 of them are growing churches. In other words, 70 percent of Southern Baptist churches are still plateaued or declining. (http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=19542)

That study is three years old, and from studies dating back to 1998 it is only getting worse. Being a pastor in this day and age is not an easy task, but then I am not sure that God ever intended the pastorate to be easy. Considering that the pastor is often likened to a shepherd, I can see why it can’t be easy. It is a job fraught with struggles, loneliness and the constant attention required of sheep wandering to close to danger at every turn.

However, the pastor can only do so much. Interestingly enough, Jesus made it clear that for the one who would follow him, life wouldn’t be easy either, and it would constantly require that the faithful disciple would have to forfeit his own personal desires for the will of God.

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25

That is really what God’s Kingdom is really all about anyway. The Kingdom of God isn’t just a physical place, but often when Jesus used this term, he was speaking of God’s rule in our lives. Therefore, if God’s rule in our lives is sovereign, we have to look beyond ourselves. It becomes for us a choice. Maybe that is why Jesus often began his teachings on following him with the condition “if.”

There are several quotes from the BBC article that got my attention, they are statements that reveal one of the fallacies of following God. That I can be a Christian and do it my way.

But is an expression of faith with no commitment to going to church just religion for the “me” generation? In today’s “post-modern society” people want everything on their own terms – that includes Christianity, says Dr Elaine Storkey, a Christian academic, broadcaster and president of Christian charity Tearfund, which commissioned the study. “People are used to instant gratification, they are used to having what they want, when they want and without putting in too much effort. Some view religion in the same way.” Having a connection with Christianity is not a problem for most people, it’s when something is asked of them that they start to struggle, she says.

Justification in God’s eyes is the easiest thing we can do, because it is a gift from God that Jesus Christ purchased for us on the cross. Not only do we not have to do anything except believe in Jesus Christ to receive it (Romans 10:11), but we can do nothing in and of ourselves to earn it. (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, ongoing sanctification and following Jesus as a disciple is seldom easy, and it demands, that we move from a “me” centered thought, to a thought of “others.” The church in Acts was formed through persecution and struggles. It became a body of believers, that did “life” together. Scripture tells us plain and clear, that some will choose to not meet together, but as Christians let us encourage one another, meeting together so that we can spur each other on towards love and good deeds. (Hebrews 10:25) These things can only become reality when we are worshiping together with God on a regular basis. The church building doesn’t make the body, but I have never seen a body continue to live and exist separated and spread apart.

Honestly, it seems to me that most often those calling themselves Christians would be most happy joining themselves together, every opportunity they have in sporting events, bars, Nascar races, and any number of events where people spend hours on end, but they will find any number of reasons, most of them biblically incorrect as to why they don’t need to join their Christian brothers and sisters for a few hours every week together in God’s presence, lifting one another up, and finding hope and healing from the previous week, for the next week. Maybe that is why the statement, “Sin separates,” is so true.

Study to know Him,