Church

Church

I hate church.

I probably should clarify that a bit. I don’t hate God’s church. I don’t hate people. I hate what people have done to God’s church. I hate what it’s become.

A little history might help.

I was born into ministry. My dad had a youth ministry degree. My mom’s parents were the directors of Cookson Hills Christian Ministries in Kansas, Oklahoma. They met at Cookson. They married and became houseparents. I was born while they were still in that ministry. They parted ways with Cookson when I was 6. For a year after leaving Cookson, we lived in the Kansas Christian Church parsonage. Dad served as music minister for the church and worked a job in Siloam Springs upholstering furniture for La-Z-Boy.

We eventually found a rent house in Siloam Springs. Dad continued at La-Z-Boy and we began to go to church at Twin Springs Christian Church in Siloam. If the doors were open, we were there. Sunday morning, we were early for Sunday School. Dad led singing and Mom played piano for the Sunday Morning service. Sunday afternoon, we would be back at the church for choir practice. Dad led, Mom played. Eventually, my brothers and I cycled through the choir. Wednesday night was church/youth group. I went to summer camp. I went through the camp’s leadership training program. I became a student counsellor. I went to retreats. I did all I was expected to do.

After graduation, I had no direction. Not knowing what to do, I showed up to Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri on the first day of classes. I thought that was what was expected of me, so that’s what I did. I hated it…with one exception. I fell in love with the book of Acts. I made it through the first 2 semesters and transferred to the University of Arkansas. I learned that based on my ACT score alone, I had qualified as a freshman for a full ride to the U of A, but going to OCC had disqualified me from that benefit.

I was dating the girl that my grandfather told me I should date. Her parents worked at Cookson. Her brother-in-law was a preacher at Prairie Grove Christian Church in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. I became their song leader and choir director. My girlfriend went off to a Christian college in Dallas and I drifted away from her brother-in-law’s church. I blamed work.

I fell further away from church. I was taking 15 hours per semester at the U of A trying to get a Business Management degree. My mom had purchased a screen printing company and hired my brother and I to help her run it. I crammed all my classes into Monday, Wednesday, Friday to allow me to work Tuesday and Thursday in the screen printing shop. I would also work many evenings doing the bookwork and printing shirts for the shop. I worked nights on Saturday and Sunday as a night watchman at La-Z-Boy (thanks Dad).

I met my wife, Sarah, when we were both in a community production of Guys & Dolls. Sarah was involved in the local Baptist church. The only thing I knew about the Baptist church was what I had learned about them in the Christian church. From the perspective of the Christian church, the Baptists had it all wrong. It was a big deal for me to go with her to the Baptist church. I was surprised to find that they sang the same hymns, preached from the same Bible, and even used the same VBS curriculum.

Shortly after our son was born, we moved back to Twin Springs Christian Church. They were in the process of departing from many of the core denomination principles. The verse-by-verse study they were doing under their pastor at the time led them away from a lot of the legalism that terrorized me as a child. I became a deacon, and (in my own mind) was preparing to graduate to the role of elder some day. I helped with sound and other tech as the church began to transition from traditional hymns to some of the scary new worship choruses. The choir was phased out and a drum set appeared on the stage (though it was never played until 8 months later). A projection screen was installed, and we were off to the races.

We purchased a very large furniture store building. It was a metal warehouse building on a busy intersection. We changed the name to Community Christian Fellowship. We began demolition and construction using mostly volunteer church member labor. The project became overwhelming for the volunteers and builders were hired to work with the volunteers. We sold the old historic church building and met in the middle of the ongoing construction mess. I worked a lot keeping enough tech running for the existing services while also building the sound, lighting, and projection system for the new sanctuary. A couple years later, the construction was done, and I got hired to work at a big church about 45 minutes away.

I became the Director of Audio Services for Fellowship Bible Church NWA. I later learned that my two predecessors had both been fired from that position. I ended up being the third.

Our daughter needed something different. We found a church that fit her needs. It was Siloam Bible Church. We sang in a couple groups. I drove the church van to pick up college kids. Our daughter enjoyed the youth program and even dated the pastor’s son for a brief time. When she left for college, we began our church search again.

We found a little cowboy church that was meeting in a shed on a farm at the edge of town. We were not in the cowboy culture, but we were welcomed in. We sang from time to time. When the church bought land and built a building, I helped design, acquire, and install the technology. We loved the simplicity of that church.

Then, we moved to Pensacola, Florida to be with Sarah’s Aunt. Within weeks we found a very non-traditional church. We got very involved. We worked through a couple of pastor and leadership failures. We were asked to leave twice. We returned once.

So, there you go. Whether you wanted it or not, you now have my church history. So, why did I tell you all of that? I felt some history was necessary to support what I’ve learned about church.

We, as humans, tend to take what God gives us and overcomplicate it. Look at Jewish tradition. God was very specific in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy when he gave Israel His laws. They were complex. They were not easy. They were long. They included everything from how and when to circumcise a baby boy to the specific punishment for killing your neighbor’s donkey. One would think, with laws that strict and complex, there would be no desire to further complicate things. The Jewish leaders did just that! For example, the law given by God required the priests to wash their hands before performing their tasks in the tabernacle. The Jewish tradition expanded that to all Jews must wash their hands before every meal.

The Hebrews aren’t the only ones that do this. Christians do it too. Look at alcohol. The Bible says ‘don’t get drunk’ as a part of a bigger concept of wise living. But many Christians completely condemn any alcohol use.

Church is no different. We’ve taken a simple concept of joining together to pray, eat, worship, and care for the needy. We’ve turned that into feuding factions each having expensive buildings and staffs. It’s insane!

There are approximately 200,000 churches in the United States. The average debt load per church in the US is $1.5 million. That is $300 billion! I had to go find a calculator with that many digits! That doesn’t begin to touch the cost of staff, utilities, and miscellaneous expenses that almost every church has.

There are approximately 80 million church-goers in the United States. The average individual salary in the US is around $64,000. If each church-goer tithed, that would mean over $500 billion per year. If we didn’t have the burden of $300 billion in debt, plus paid staff, utilities, etc., imagine what the church could do. Missionaries would never need to ask for money. Poverty would be all but wiped out.

That’s just the financial side of it. It’s nearly every month that I hear of some church leader getting caught in some sort of corruption. What’s wrong with church leaders??? That’s horrible! I didn’t pay much attention to it until it happened to me…3 times…in a row.

It’s not always a problem of who we hire as church leaders. It’s that we’ve gotten lazy about keeping them accountable. Many church leadership structures put the pastor in charge. Anyone who really wants that should not be a spiritual leader. Did you know that the Bible does not outline a process to hold a pastor accountable? Do you know why? There are no pastors in the Bible. There are Elders. I Timothy 5 outlines a process to hold Elders accountable. I believe that the current church leadership structures eventually lead pastors into failure. Failure can come in many forms. Here’s a few I’ve witnessed: Burnout, Fadeout, Egomania, Sexual Sin, Corruption/Financial, Abuse (in many forms). That list is much longer than what I’ve presented.

Now, before you get too riled up, yes. I know that many translate the Biblical term “Shepherd” as pastor. Others translate the Biblical term “Overseer” as pastor. There are also even some who translate the Biblical term “Elder” as pastor. Do you see where I’m going? The term “Pastor” is a modern day construct with attempts made to base it on Biblical truth.

Jesus chose and trained the Apostles. Personally, I include Paul in the 12. Jesus appeared to him personally and selected him. He taught them to teach others…to spread the Good News. In Acts 6, the Apostles instructed the believers to select 7 men as Deacons. Their primary purpose was to oversee the distribution of food so that it happened in a fair manner. They laid their hands on them. They were filled with the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit, Stephen starts to preach. He became the first martyr for his efforts. Another Deacon, Phillip, filled with the Spirit began to preach. He’s the one who took a chariot ride with the Ethiopian eunuch and baptized him. Neither man was given the job to preach. They were filled with the Spirit to the point that they couldn’t help but to preach. Where does this idea come from to hire a guy, put him in charge of everything, and have him carefully prepare a 40 minute sermon to deliver every week?

Another church thing that I find strange is the order of the service. This strikes me as so odd. Almost every church I’ve ever attended has basically the same order of service. Occasionally, you’ll see a church or a pastor branch out and change it up some, but it’s the same puzzle pieces in a different order. Why?

I’ll try to stay away (mostly) from discussions involving preference. I’ll mention a few of my pet peeves though since this is about why I hate church. I will say that I am not seeing the value, in my own life, of many of the modern worship songs. I really dislike the click-track mentality in worship leading. I hate the “clean stage” trend. The tech, in my opinion, is completely out of hand. Things like the entire back wall of the stage turned into a video wall, dramatic lighting, haze, overproduced sound, cameras everywhere, and even projectors. I spent part of my career in church tech. It’s all useless garbage. It’s a huge waste of God’s money.

This stuff bugs me. It has finally become so bothersome for me that I am stripping it back. I’ve quit church for now. Now, before you go throwing Hebrews 10:25 in my face, here’s two things. First, go read the rest of chapter 10. Stop using one verse at a time. Understand the context. Second, my wife and I have started a Bible study group. It’s small for now, but we’ll let God handle that. We decided to start with the book of Acts. Acts contains the story of the birth and early years of the church. I’ve read Acts many times. As I mentioned earlier, during my failed year in Bible college, the Acts class was the bright spot. The difference this time is that I’m specifically focusing on what God desires His church to be.

Will God show me something completely different than the modern church, or will He bring me right back to the padded seat in the third row? I don’t know…but I need to know.