CAUGHT IN CHURCH
RICHARD E. SMITH

Not too long ago the teenage members of a Bible class were asked by their teacher to write what they would like to be doing if “the Lord came today.” The responses were both interesting and revealing. They were published in an article in one of “our” papers as solid evidence that our young people have their hearts set on the right things. The writer made the statement that he feels that their responses reflect the views of a great host of young people in the Lord’s church.

Two-thirds of those responding to the question expressed the desire to be found worshiping “in church,” praising or praying to God. A third wished to be found teaching someone about Christ, doing good, or helping someone. The majority seemed convinced that the most noble and desirable activity was to be “in worship” or “in church.” In light of the writer’s elation over their responses, this point of view obviously squared nicely with his own. The validity of the basis for his elation is what we would like to examine here.

On the face of it the fact that most of the kids want to be in the church house when the Lord returns sounds pretty good. If they have been taught that this is the ultimate expression one can make to please the creator, the response is a most logical one. However, logical though it may be, the response is, in the eyes of this writer, a very disappointing one.

A quick look at the “religious” activity of Jesus doesn’t give us much cause for the above mentioned elation. The inspired writers don’t seem to focus much on the time he spent “in church.” At 12 you find him amazing the scholars in Jerusalem. Almost 20 years later he makes a comment in the Nazareth synagogue and is violently ejected by an angry mob. At the temple we find him tipping over the money changers’ tables and driving the animals out with a whip. Seems as if he stirred up trouble whenever he got near a “church”. His deep moments in prayer seemed to be experienced on a lonely hill top or in a quiet garden. His favorite teaching spots included a hillside, a community well, Martha’s living room and the dinner table. His “church-related” experiences don’t help us very much.

The nearest thing we can find to a discussion of church houses or religious places by Jesus is in his conversation with the woman at the well. His language there makes it pretty clear that God isn’t worshiped in some place but in Spirit, He seems to say, “You Samaritans here and those Jews over there make a big thing about doing the right things in the right place, but you’re both wrong. God is a Spirit and he is truly worshiped by your attitude toward him, wherever you are.”

The essence of Jesus’ message is to live abundantly not go to church abundantly. The only definition given of “pure religion” concerns itself with helping widows and orphans, not with church house activities. With Jesus came the first “religion” which claimed the body of man as its temple and God’s real dwelling place. A man can no longer enter a “sanctuary” to pray or worship. He is the sanctuary. He is the holy place. By virtue of the indwelling of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, a man’s feet are forever on holy ground. He is continually “before the altar” and in “the House of God.” Thus his every activity takes place in the presence of God. His whole life becomes an offering, a living sacrifice. Whatever he does “in word or deed” he does it all in the name of the Lord. The everyday has thus been clothed with a nobleness and a holiness which it did not have before. The kitchen sink or the corner gas station becomes a holy place by virtue of the one who labors there who honors God by acknowledging his presence in the Spirit. The whole life becomes one grand act of worship. Everything is done in partnership with God. Wherever one goes he takes with him the Holy Guest. When every thought is “brought into captivity” and one attains the mind of Christ, it is never possible to leave the House of the Lord or “go home from church.” Every activity becomes in this sense a holy one when one’s life is hid with Christ in God.

Two-thirds of the young people wanting to be found “in church” at the Lord’s return is not encouraging to me at all. I submit that this desire is the result of a deformed and distorted concept of Christ’s teaching and represents a faith based on religiosity rather than a real understanding of God’s will. It seems as if we’re wanting to make a last minute good impression on the Lord by doing the right things in the right place. If we share the view of these young people we have been deceived into thinking that the assembled church is holier than the dispersed church, that there is a time for religious activity and a time for secular activity, that God is more pleased with the former than with the latter. But for the saint there is no secular activity. His whole week, is devoted to the glory of God, not just the moments when he is assembled with other saints.

What then of the assembly? Is it to be despised? God forbid. It should be a precious time, a period of refreshing. The saints come together to share (koinonia) and it is a delight to be a part of it. One is lifted up, encouraged, inspired, made whole again by the experience. The Christian assembly should be to the week’s life what a hearty meal is to a day’s work. The meal is not an end in itself but rather a means of strength and sustenance for the day. The assembly sustains one in like manner for the week.

A hand holding a hymn-book is no more noble than one with a hoe. To drink from a communion cup is no more to be praised than to sip water from a bucket while raking hay in the hot sun. (Though certainly the former may be far more precious and meaningful to the participant than the later, though he should feel heartfelt thanks for both.) The relationship “in spirit and truth” is no less in the hayfield than it is in the church house. If anything the odds are in favor of the hayfield. The Psalms of David seem to have been inspired under the open sky. Some of the great literature of the New Testament was written in prisons in Rome and on Patmos. None of it seems to have been written “in church.”

As I discussed this article with my own teenaged daughter she called my attention to the fact that the few scriptures which seem to refer to what people will be found doing at His coming are all concerned with the ordinary affairs of life; working in the field, grinding grain, in bed asleep. No account is given of anyone being “taken” from the church house though surely some will be, I sincerely hope, because that is where many seem to spend quite a few hours of each week.

In essence it seems to boil down to two basic questions: 1. Do we really believe that God dwells in a man and not within some building? 2. Is God really more pleased with “corporate worship” than with anything else we do? I would hope that we could answer “yes” to the first question and “no” to the second. I contend that the fewer “church meetings” we could get by with, the better off we’d all be. I know this has been said before but I have often wondered what might take place if some church of 500 or more members simply canceled the Sunday night sermon and went out and visited—say by twos—in 250 homes that night. No filmstrips. No tracts or leaflets. No invitations to the church house. Just an effort to show love and concern. We would hope that in such visits the conversation might naturally get around more to Jesus than to “the church”. Yet even if we didn’t manage to talk about anything but their needs, their concerns and their anxieties, what a difference it would make to lonely people! Might it not be far more uplifting to our own souls than just hearing another sermon? Would God be disappointed or delighted? If this happened every Sunday night in lieu of the usual, the one congregation we’ve described could have an impact on 1,000 homes a month. An impact of love! Perhaps a “miss-a-meeting” clubs of this nature might produce more results than missing a meal. Surely we cannot believe that God is more pleased to see us huddling by ourselves in our church house, listening to sermons when we could be out giving comfort to lonely people, hungry for some attention or affection.

No, I don’t have any particular desire to be caught in the church house when Jesus comes again. Though I’ve had some grand experiences in church houses and have been much refreshed by such, I know that I don’t have to be there to obtain refreshing from the living water which wells up within a man unto eternal life. I would hope I could feel just as “ready” for Jesus if I am at the office, tossing a football with my son, or cleaning out the garage. My security lies neither in where I am nor in what I am found doing but rather in whose I am and the knowledge of His presence in my very being. What more could one want?—Dallas Junior College District, Texas Building, Dallas.

It is not the greatness of a man’s means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.—William Corbett