Response to "Why we Don't See Church as 'Essential'"
If you would rather listen to this post, you can do so via the following youtube link!
After reading it, I had a few thoughts. I'd encourage you to read Elder McCracken's piece first to provide you with context for below. Extended quotes from Elder McCracken's piece are underlined.
And so we surrender the very heart of the matter from the introduction through the conclusion.
"Shouldn't we show that we [the church] are essential rather than just saying we are" (Brackets are my addition)
The church is easily given up when the church has already abandoned her chief purpose. The church is non essential when it abdicates it's role in the service of God in favor of the service of convenience. The church is non essential when it vacates the pursuit of ministering to souls in favor of the pursuit of ministering to fleshly affections.
It is easy for church goers to sit at home, and feel no "gaping hole" when all they have experienced is a personalized consumer facing theo-tainment for decades. The church CANNOT show it's value is rooted in activities that....aren't essential. Social gatherings, pursuing community engagement, aiming for "attendance" (butts in seats as one leader in my denomination said infamously said to me) rather than aiming for the pleasure of God!
As a relative of mine commented when quarantine first began stateside "the church isn't essential like a hospital". In the minds of many the church does not address or heal any tangible ailment. For many the church does not address any topic which politics, self-help books, or social-media does not discuss. In these instances, the church isn't essential, but rather is another voice in an already crowded world of echoing noises. In these instances the church is as non essential and as luxury oriented as it can get. When the church's chief end is to "glorify it's own goals" rather than "glorify God and enjoy him forever".
Elder McCracken brings up a misunderstood passage from Matthew 16:18-19 to question Christians own "gaping hole in their faith":
Do Christians themselves feel a gaping hole in their faith when the local church is missing, recognizing that the ekklesia is God’s idea (Matt. 16:18–19) and a central part of his mission?
His reference is to when Jesus speaks to Peter:
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Jesus here is referencing Peter's testimony regarding who the son of man is! The church isn't built on fellowship, or a sense of feeling or empower faith! It's built upon the reality that Jesus is the son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). The word ἐκκλησίαν (ekklēsia) here is regarding the gathering that Christ will build. As if the debate of meeting face to face or NOT during an epidemic has any power to STOP Christ's mission. Not even the gates of hell can stand up to the church!
I'm a missionary and I'm sick of this "mission" language. What mission are we on? The mission to assist Mrs. Smith through exceptional coffee and the most stirring gossip? The mission to export Americans to other nations in the name of God? The mission to give charity to those of a different language or appearance, while withholding our belongings from one another?
How can the church reclaim a position in society that is perceived by everyone—believers and nonbelievers alike—as more “essential” than not?
Elder McCracken advocates that the church is aiming to reclaim a position in society. How is this attached to the mission of the church? I see a glaring lack of status among the church in the first century as communities of faith grew through the faithful proclamation of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I missed the part in my New Testament about the political rallies, influential neighborhood parties, and well-to-do-theological conferences that grew the early church! Maybe someone can point me to where the church grew or fulfilled the mission Christ set (Matthew 28, not Matthew 16) in the New Testament as a result of "a position in society".
Perhaps we are speaking into the deep hurts of society and seeking to cure them. How? How can the church possibly aid the deep hurts of society when all our solutions are treatments of the symptoms rather than the disease? Racial inequality? We must march! Gender abuse? We must vote! Health concerns? We must do no harm! (Not seek the cure, simply avoid any discomfort)
We are sinful! We see this everywhere in our lives and world! We are hateful creatures. We hate one another, we hate our creator, we hate our neighbors. And it was at this time, at this very real moment, while we were enemies of God, that Christ died for us!!!!
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)
That is what this world needs. It needs a cure to the fundamental illness of the present human condition. This world needs the Savior, not a solution. Not marching, or voting, social policies, liberty, order, law, or justice. This world needs the grace of God poured out for the remission of sins!
27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:27-28)
That is our mission. That is the mission of the church. To tell our neighbors, our coworkers, or family members, or spheres of influence who we enter into conversation with that the problem is truly eternal and severe. And to share the good news of the Savior came to eternally redeem us from that eternal and severe problem. That mission overflows into all kinds of activities - as a result of, as a byproduct of, new lives of new people made new through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
The church isn't essential as it fails to preach the Cross and the Tomb. The church is not essential when the sin of our hearts is not confronted by the truth of God's Word. The church isn't essential when it only pursues what any retirement community, movie theater, and beauty salon pursues. Community events, entertainment, and self esteem enhancements.
If the church not gathering together stops the transmission of the news of the Cross and the Tomb, then Jesus was wrong. Hell's gates would prevail against his church. If our not meeting together face to face for a time ends the essential reality of the church, then that church and it's activities were not essential at all.
Elder McCracken ends his piece with some haunting and revealing words
We need faith that is rooted in strong, serving, multiplying local church communities—the sort of faith that makes such a difference in its tangible presence that everyone notices, and laments, its absence.
That church isn't essential at all. I'm not telling you anything, that's simply what many in the church has SHOWN during this time. Did the world lament Christ's absence? Did Jesus not do enough to show that he would be missed? Was Jesus short on faith? Was he lacking in strength? Did he not serve? Was his healing and miracles not tangible enough for the people of the first century?
The church, when it is at its best, is Christlike. Christ was murdered for his faith, his service, and his mission. His enemies wanted him gone. If the church is missed for it's social programs, it's fellowship times, its "tangible presence", then maybe that church has traded the imperishable of heaven for the breath of this passing world.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (John 15:18-20)
The church has a mission which is unique unto itself. It received that mission from Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church. The work of the church is essential in so far it submits to the work Christ has prepared for the church. This epidemic is revealing a great many frivolous activities that are not essential and it is a refining fire that sanctifies the body of believers who cling to the realities of Christ's incarnation, Christ's atonement, Christ's resurrection, and Christ's ascension.
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