I didn't like church as I was growing up, and it didn't grow on me over time. In fact, the tension grew until I could leave it behind.
I didn't particularly like dressing up on Sundays. I wasn't into sitting still for an hour or more while the adults participated in something I didn't quite understand. The music was strange, and the coffee hour was full of old-people's snacks.
But that wasn't what bothered me most. The biggest problem was spending time with people I didn't know. The only time we saw each other was on Sundays. Somehow, our paths never crossed during the week. There were no social calls, no shared events, no shared missions... except work day at the church once or twice a year.
The message was simple. The church meeting was important, but the people? Not so much.
The idea that the church could be described as a building is alien to the New Testament. A persecuted group doesn't hang a big sign outside a regular meeting place to advertise to the authorities where they can be found and gathered up for prison.
Equally alien would be the idea that the church was a denomination or a system of governance. Even a quick reading of Paul's letters shows that the early church was out of its depth and still trying to work through this new thing God had done.
In Scripture, the church is people. It is a group of people who have given their lives to Jesus, have been united by the Holy Spirit, and are called to love and serve each other as they work together to establish the Kingdom of God.
Today, we hear a lot about nomad Christians. An emerging generation who accept Jesus as their Lord, but have abandoned the church. This is a problem for at least two reasons (in fact, there are several more). The first is that the call to committed community is Jesus' idea. It is his intention that we come together to serve each other and serve the world in a cooperative fashion. To say that Jesus is Lord and then not follow him is a contradiction in terms. Jesus called us to reform our priorities and our way of life.
But another problem must be addressed. Are we the church or are we just having church? Many youth are walking away because their church experience looks a lot like mine did growing up. If church is impersonal, driven by activities that keep people busy without them connecting personally, divided up into small speciality groups (age, activity, interest) so that a larger community doesn't emerge, if it's all about information transfer instead of encouragement and a shared, personal journey then it will become impersonal. If the emphasis is on right doctrine, but there is no room to share doubts, struggles, or to question, then personal growth has taken a back seat to "getting a good grade" in church.
We have "focused on the family" when God asked us to focus on the community. Jesus told us that families would be divided because of their belief in him, but he came to create new community. Which is the priority then?
There is no Christianity without the gathered, connected people of God. "For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body---whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free---and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." (I Corinthians 12:13) There must be a real, personal connection to the body. But we must ask two questions: First, am I really willing to respond to Jesus' authority and follow him? Second, has church become another activity and obligation like work or soccer practice, or is the church part of my relational identity, a group of people I work to get to know and love, people I've included in my larger life?
If the faith that Jesus established is still going to be influential for the next generation then these questions have to be dealt with.
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