Anyone who knows me well knows that I’ve had millions of questions about the church and the way we do church in the modern free world. There’s been so much of it that I haven’t been able to separate from the ways of the world that I continue to ask myself, “What IS the church?!” I have often asked, in relation to that question, “Am I even a Christian? Are we living as Christians?”
This will be my first written attempt to address these questions—to bring some order, hopefully, to the questions I’ve had. I will be quoting from a series of books written by Richard Wurmbrand, Eric Foley, and Merv Knight on the underground church because these books gave a lot of vocabulary to the questions I’ve had about the church. Using quotes from the books and mixing my own comments and thoughts will hopefully weave a more coherent narrative of what are my actual questions about the church.
“Christians in the free world simply can’t imagine an opponent motivated and capable of systematically persecuting all of them…put great faith in their governments…they are confident that their country’s law and culture will protect them from losing the right to believe and freely practice their faith… Christians in the free world also have great faith in the power of their churches…it is usually very influential, wealthy, educated, and well-connected internationally.”
This is exactly the attitude that is prevalent and what I believe weakens our faith. We put too much faith in our “country’s law and culture” and fail to see that any government—whether communist, socialist, democratic, etc.—that is not submitting under Christ’s leadership and authority is “an opponent motivated and capable of systematically persecuting all of them.” People think it’s better to be a Christian in the free world, but I would only go so far as say it’s more physically comfortable but infinitely more challenging to “beat my body” to not go with the flow of the free world and its selfish spirit.
“The question is not where it is more pleasant for us to live (in a communist or capitalist society) but where it is more pleasant for God to live, where he finds himself welcomed… [God] is equally reviled in North and South Korea “because he is no more the God of the sexual revolution than he is the God of the communist revolution.”
Where is it pleasant for God to live? Where does he find himself welcomed? Does he feel welcomed in our churches? our Sunday services?
I love my church, but when I enter our Sunday service, I often feel as though it is more about people than it is about worshiping God. There’s many practical reasons for it: we rent space from another church so we are busy setting up sound/lights/everything often to the last minute, which creates a bustling sort of vibe; busy metropolitan Christians will find Sunday before and after service the only time they can socialize with other believers, so a lot of vibrant conversations will be happening inside the sanctuary even when the service has started; we always try to make it friendly for any “visitors” or “new-comers,” as do most churches that want to be seen as welcoming.
I’m not saying all these things are bad, but I started to wonder, ‘Wasn’t Sunday Service meant to be the one time a week that we gather as a congregation to worship God together? How come it feels more like it’s about us getting our fill of what we think we need or of doing things the right way in terms of technicality?’ I’m not saying we don’t worship God on Sundays. We do. But I wonder if it’s at the front and center of our hearts and minds—because our actions do not seem to reflect that. If anyone was to see it from the outside, I would say our priorities look like we are making sure things go smoothly and to make new people feel welcome. And I don’t think this is necessarily something specific to our church—I think churches in the free world are usually modeled somewhat like this (maybe not to the tee with the examples I provided, but I hope you get the gist of what I’m saying).
Speaking on the early church, “Before individuals were invited to worship, congregational leaders would visit and talk about their lives and why they follow Christ.” And this is the norm in underground churches as well.
“In an underground church, there’s no need to grow large in order to cover a pastor’s salary or pay for a building. So instead of begging people to come, we can treat participation as a precious privilege.”
This is what I think many of our modern, free churches lack: the sense that participating in the worship of our living God is a precious privilege. Right now, every Sunday service is a mix of lukewarm, non-believers, believers, and everything in between. Reading the quotes above made me wonder, ‘Is there any modern Christian gathering where I have ever worshiped alongside people that I knew were all in for Christ?’ and I think it’s always a mix with committed/not committed people in any “worship” gathering. It’s weird if you think about it, because if we were to go to someone’s birthday party, we would all go in with the assumption we are going to celebrate this person and that we are all intimately connected to this person to the degree that we got the party invitation. Everything that day and at that time would rightly revolve around the birthday boy. But why is that not the case when we “gather to worship God?”
I’ve been trying to consider these congregational gatherings as a precious privilege and trying to go early if possible to sit and pray and set my heart, mind, and body in a position of worship towards God. So far, that’s all I feel in my power to do to go against the current.
If anyone has any insight on any of this, please feel more than welcome to share. This will be the first installment of many more blogs to come. This is only scratching the surface of the many things that have been roaming in my head about church.
**Every quote is from the books <Preparing for the Underground Church> and <Planting the Underground Church>
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