We live in a precarious day. Notwithstanding all the shifts in culture, politics, world events, and technology, things within the church, particularly the evangelical church, are to say the least, moving pretty fast.

Consider that for every young man entering the pastorate today, by some estimates there are 2 older minsters leaving, retiring, or burning out. Consider that the church planting movement is now a multi-million dollar industry with conferences, books, seminars, weekend retreats, and thousands of blogs and pastoral bloggers all involved around starting churches. Consider that a great number of new churches that have started over the past 15 years have loosely modeled themselves after Willow Creek, the trailblazing church that set the pace for the modern church growth movement, (under the genius mind of Bill Hybels, part pastor, part C.E.O., part Billy Graham and part Bill Gates) and that Willow Creek has recently confessed that their original model was flawed. Consider that Christian contemporary music has now passed Jazz and Blues to take a larger market share of the industry than both combined. Consider the emergent, emerging, neo-reformed, house church, and simple church movements. Most can’t even keep up with the names.

We are living in some dangerous, exciting, historical days. And while the church of Jesus Christ expands and His Kingdom advances, there is also a back door through which many millions have chosen to leave through. Speaking of the American evangelical church, everyone from Barna to Dobson has been lamenting the mass exodus of hordes of people from the church for years.

The angry. The misunderstood. The theologically moderate. The wounded and confused. The bored. The busy. The books written about this migration out of the church could sink a battleship, so I feel no compulsion to add to their already significant research.

But in light of all these tectonic shifts, the enormous volume of my generation that leaves the church for the aforementioned reasons, and knowing what I know (and having seen the ugly side of Christians and church life), there is really one question that I keep asking myself, and I think you need to ask yourself as well.

WHY AM I STILL IN THE CHURCH?

What keeps me coming back over and over again? And for many, this is just a Sunday question because Sunday is about it, as far as attendance and involvement goes. But for me, church(es) are my life and my livelihood. At least 4 days a week most weeks, I am at a church, with a church, in a church, with church people. After 21 years and with so much angst from my generation toward a church that they think cares little for them, their needs, the enviroment, the poor, or even the gospel, why do I stick around?

There are many answers, but I only want to mention one today. Take it or leave it, argue with it, do what you will with this, but this is the over-arching , all-encompassing reason I still love the the church, and all the other reasons must be secondary to this one.

I STILL LOVE THE CHURCH BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. IT IS RIGHT BECAUSE THE CHURCH IS GOD’S IDEA, I BELONG TO GOD, AND I OBEY HIM.

I can (and probably will) give many more reasons, but they all flow from this reality. I did not invent the church, nor did you (nor did powerful rich white men, the Illuminati, or anyone from the DaVinci Code, despite what some books would have you believe). The church was God’s idea, His way of continuing His work in the world that He began with Abraham, through Israel, through Jesus Christ, and now through His Body, the community of faith. The church IS NOT AN OPTION. It is a necessity, the vehicle through which the sacrament of salvation is served to the cosmos, a family with wierd cousins and creepy uncles and fights and splits and arguments. BUT IT IS STILL THE CHURCH and I still love it.

The bottom line for me is that I belong to God. I was purchased by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. From that moment, I ceased to be my own anymore, meaning that when He became my Lord, I began doing what He wanted me to do, not what I wanted to do anymore. So for me to deny His family, to remove myself from His body, and say that I don’t need it, is akin to taking back Lordship from Him and saying, “No thanks, God. I tried you out as Lord, and did not like your leadership or your church. I will now take back control of my own life, thank you very much.”

I can hear the bloggers in cyberspace reading this and saying, “But you don’t understand. It’s not that easy. I have been hurt, the church is corrupt, my pastor had an affair, we had to wear DRESSES AND LONG PANTS!”

I would never minimize the hurt and pain that church issues cause people. But I will also not minimize the Church of the Living God, His very body, because some of His children can’t quite get it right and fight over how to make it work, either.

So I still love the church because, simply put, it is right to love the church. Even with all it’s trouble and splits and plagues, power struggles, ego-maniacs, and denominations, the church will always be God’s idea, God’s people, and ultimately, God’s business. Since I am also His, I choose to continue loving, and living in, His church. And in my opinion, so should you.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 8:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.