I Used To Go To Your

Church

Rev Rodney A Gray

There is mentioned in Acts 21:16 a man named Mnason who was “one of the early
disciples.” He was there at the beginning, and he was there at the end. Does your church
have a Mnason? Are you a Mnason? Are you the member to whom others can look and
say, “He was here at the beginning, and he will be here at the end?” How many Christians
are committed to sticking with the same local church throughout their Christian life?
Today it appears that they are the rare exception rather than the rule. When I entered the
ministry thirty years ago, it wasn’t too long before I began to meet people who, it seemed
to me, could hardly wait to inform me that they were former church members. As soon
as they found out that I was the pastor of a church in the community, they would
welcome me with, “Oh yes, I used to go to that church!” Probably most pastors have
been informed of this at least once or twice in their ministries, and some have wondered
whether the people who “used to go” far out number those who “do go.” Many people
seem to wear it as a badge of honor if they can make this claim.

There are many reasons why people leave churches. They may have to relocate because
of a job. There is occasionally the person who, because of doctrinal convictions, finds it
necessary to seek fellowship elsewhere. It might be a case of moral failure or sin that the
church is unwilling to deal with, so that a person is compelled to leave rather than lend
his support or approval to such conduct. These are all serious concerns that would cause
someone to consider changing his church association. But we will lay these aside for the
purpose of this article. What we are thinking about is the situation in which spiritually,
biblically, and theologically, the person’s position is not improved by leaving his church.
More often than not, these are cases in which people have made choices that are entirely
unspiritual, unbiblical, and completely devoid of theology. They evolve instead out of
defective views of the Christian life, the Christian faith, and the Christian church. Let us
try to identify some of these people who used to go to your church.

First, there are the “drop-outs.” These are the people who lose interest, or never had any
real interest in the first place. Part of the problem may have been that no one showed any
interest in them. But often they are like the teen-ager that drops out of school. He has no
interest, and other things are more important to him. He thinks he can get along just as
well without it. Christianity today has become characterized by juvenile delinquency.
Professing Christians are almost expected to behave like adolescents or children, and the
Christian who is genuine in his maturity annoys us. “Drop-out” Christianity is fast-food
Christianity. Churches are seen as local franchises of the same company. Wherever you
see the golden arches you can get your order to go. And whoever said that you have to
eat at the same McDonald’s twice?

Then there are the “cop-outs.” Blame shifting and excuses are their stock in trade. Such
people will insist that someone else is to blame for their “used-to-go” status. If it were
not for this person or that remark or some other occurrence, they would still be
participating in the life of that church. The “cop-out” has many time-honored excuses in
his file:
The people are not friendly.
The people are too friendly.
The people blindly follow the pastor.
The people don’t follow the pastor.
The pastor is not friendly.
The pastor is too friendly.
The sermons are too long.
The sermons are too short.
The services are too formal.
The services are too informal.
The preaching is too deep.
The preaching is too shallow.

A favorite of many is the old standby, “I’m not being fed.” Then, too, the cop-out crowd
will even hide behind their children. It is not beneath them to blame their irresponsible
behavior on their own kids with, “There is nothing here for the young people,” or “My
kids are not happy in this church.”

A third group of “used-to-goes” we will call the “knock-outs.” These are people who say
they have been driven or forced out of the church because of some incident or issue
which was not resolved to their satisfaction. When people began to take sides they ended
up on the losing side. Often such people do not even remember what it was that was so
important at the time. It was a disagreement that became an argument, an argument that
evolved into a fight. It may have gone just one round. It may have become the world
heavyweight championship and gone 15 rounds. But the result was that you have some
people who delivered the knockout punch to other people, and these people now occupy
the “used-to-go” status.

As a fourth category we might identify the “blow-outs.” They are like the tire on your
family sedan. It doesn’t give you any warning. You don’t have any trouble with it. It
appears to be a good tire. But one day you are driving down the road and you have a
blowout. You might sense a little thumping just before it happens, but before you have
time to figure out what the problem is, it is too late. Sometimes it is so violent that you
think you are going to lose control of your car and end up with a total disaster. Churches
have blowouts. People get angry. They say they have had enough of this or that or
something else. Before you know what happened, they are gone. These are people who
appear to be patient, tolerant, and contented, but in reality they are none of these things.
Suddenly, without warning, the church experiences a blowout and these people are now
“used-to-goes.”

Besides all these who used to go to your church, there is yet another category, known as
the “burn-outs.” They have done everything in the church, or so they say. They held all
the offices, taught all the Sunday school classes, took care of all the finances, and fixed
whatever was broken. They cleaned the church building, maintained the church grounds,
and shoveled the snow. They were always there and supported the ministry faithfully and
sacrificially. In their view, they were the only ones who took responsibility for anything.
No one else, it seemed, was willing to help. To make matters worse, those who would
not do anything criticized those who did. Finally, they got fed up with the whole
situation and gave up on it. They were “burned out.” They walked away and never
looked back. Often they end up in another church, but not always. They may become
cynical and disillusioned about all churches. They are pessimistic about ever having a
happy and productive church fellowship. They have joined the ranks of those who used
to go to your church.

Now what is the problem here? Why do we find ourselves living in an age when people
float in and out of churches at will? Is it fair to say that all of these “used-to-go” groups
share in common some basic assumptions and ideas that are simply not in keeping with
the Bible? Possibly so, and in our next installment we will evaluate some of them.
Perhaps you have already uncovered a fundamental problem just in the expression, “go
to.” Is church something believers “go to,” or is church something else? A biblical
understanding of the Christian life, saving faith, and a gospel church will go a long way
toward remedying the “used-to-go” problem.
 I Used To Go To Your Church
Part 2

In our last article we considered some of the people who used to go to your church. We
identified them as drop-outs, cop-outs, knock-outs, blow-outs, and burn-outs. In the
end, we raised the question, What is the problem here? In this article we propose some
answers.

The first problem is that we have a defective view of the Christian life. The Christian
life begins with a new birth. In fact, it is possible only if there has been a new birth.
Have you been born again? Have you received spiritual life? Have you been born of
God? Many years ago Henry Scougal wrote a book called The Life of God in the Soul
of Man. It transformed George Whitefield’s life. Do you know anything of this life of
God in the soul of man? We make serious mistakes when we fail to take this matter
seriously. Christians are people who have spiritual life because they have had spiritual
birth. It is the supernatural work of God’s gracious Spirit to give new life to man’s spirit
that is dead and unresponsive because of sin. The problem with much that is called
evangelism today is that it tries to short circuit this basic truth and produce children of
God by some artificial means.

Christian life includes a new heart. It means that you are now changed and changing
from the inside. God has given you a new heart and out of it are proceeding all the issues
of a new life. We do not want to force, threaten, bribe, or beg you to live for Christ, nor
do we need to. You have a new heart.

Christian life means that there is a new creation. The Christian is a scale model of what
God is doing in Christ. To be in Christ is to become part of the new creation. The old
things have passed away and the new has come. This is fact, not possibility (II
Corinthians 5:17;Galatians 6:14,15;Ephesians 2:10 and 4:24).

Christian life is new life. It is in fact, life (Romans 6:4). This life is not comatose. It is
not sustained by artificial life support systems. It is not a “life form.” It is not life that is
constantly in doubt. Jesus came in order that we might have life, and have it in
abundance. He spoke of springs of living water springing up within us. To the Samaritan
woman Jesus said that he gives people living water, and that “whoever drinks the water I
give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
Can we assume that those who continually complain that they are “not growing” are even
alive? Can we believe that those who exist on the remotest perimeter of local church
involvement have ever been born of God? Is it possible that those who perhaps have
done everything in the church but for years have never learned anything of the gospel can
know what it means to have a living union with Jesus Christ?

The second problem is that we have a defective view of the Christian faith. Christian
faith has a specific object in view. The person and work of Jesus Christ is the object of
true, saving faith. It is not merely a matter of being religious or going to church. These
may in fact be among the most anti-Christian things you can do. The tragedy is that
many church members seem to think that this is what it means to be a Christian. You ask
them if their friend or acquaintance is a Christian, and they say, “Oh yes, he goes to
church.” But Christians are not simply “people of faith,” an unfortunate catch phrase that
happens to be all the rage today. Most people think they are people of faith, but the
question is, What do they believe? Biblical faith has an object, a focus, a direction. It is
faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and the forgiveness of sins. It is faith in Christ as
he is set forth in the gospel. In every way, and only in the way, God presents Christ to us
in the gospel, is he the proper and trustworthy object of our faith. This means that it is
necessary to believe the right things about the person of Christ, such as his two natures of
absolute deity and sinless humanity forever united in one person. It is necessary to
believe the right things about the work of Christ. His saving work actually and infallibly
saves.

Christian faith has a specific nature. It is entire trust and commitment. It submits itself to
the lordship of Jesus Christ. It is obedience to the gospel. It includes repentance for all
sins. It is expressed in good works. It has an eye to all the commandments of God. It
manifests itself in a humble, contrite, and teachable spirit. It is perplexing, if not
astonishing, when someone insists he is a Christian believer, yet he is committed to
nothing other than his job and his vacation. How can a claim to true Christian faith be
reconciled with a patent disregard for solemn vows? Does Christian faith lead people in
the way of brazen dereliction of duty in their relationship to the local church? The world
takes notice when people walk away from their commitments and act as if they are
accountable to no one. Should gospel churches accept such behavior as normative?

Christian faith has a specific source. It is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. The
Bible never deals with saving faith as if it is something inbred which all men possess, and
the business of Christianity is just to persuade people to focus it on Jesus instead of
something else. No, faith is the gift of God. It is not ours to produce, to manipulate, or to
control. God gives us faith to believe on Christ for salvation. But many seem to think of
“faith” as having come from themselves. They wear it as a badge of respectability. It is
theirs’, after all, and they will do with it as they please. They will take it wherever they
wish. They will run it up the flagpole and take it down again as it suits their purposes. It
is no wonder that many sincerely believe that, as far as church is concerned, they are free
to do pretty much as they please.

The third problem is that we have a defective view of the Christian church. The
church is not something we “go to,” although it is unfortunate that church is only that to
far too many people. As far as Scripture is concerned, church is what we are. A gospel
church is based on true Christian life and true Christian faith. If you do not have gospel
life and faith, you cannot have a gospel church. Church is an assembly or gathering of
people who believe in Christ the Lord for salvation. They are committed to live out that
faith together under the lordship of Christ. The simple, but tragic, fact of the matter is,
that if you do not have that kind of people, you do not have a church. It makes no
difference what it says on the sign or the bulletin. A gospel church is a believer’s church.

A church is a visible expression of the body of Christ. This means that every member is a
part of the body. Every member is alive, functioning, and participating in the life of the
body. Every member of the body is serving the best interests of the body as a whole.
Members of the body are not heard so much asking, “What can the body do for me?,” but
“What can I do for the body?”

A church is a visible expression of the kingdom of God. This is so because it consists of

people who confess that Jesus is Lord. His person is preeminent and his word is law. A
gospel church exists to do his will, to promote his interests, and to make his name more
widely known. The difficulty we face today is that people are more self-absorbed than
ever before. They are preoccupied with their feelings and their happiness and their
“needs.” Instead of “God-esteem” they are concerned about their self-esteem. Much of
this is due to the fact that they do not acknowledge Christ as Lord and King. He may be
a “coming King,” but for now they are king.

R.B.C. Howell wrote in The Terms of Communion at the Lord’s Table, “If God has
some secret code by which he saves those who habitually violate his revealed will, it is
for his own government, not ours.” Many today have accepted a mythological
Christianity. The myth is that you can have Christianity without commitment. You can
be a perfectly respectable Christian without ever troubling yourself with serious Bible
study or doctrinal discernment. You need not concern yourself with spiritual issues. The
Christian life is what you want it to be. It is supposed to fill your life with fun, frolic and
friends. And if you are part of a church that does not give you these things, it is high time
to move on. People can be Christians in lots of different ways, and it is not necessary for
everybody to believe in Christ in such a way that you are willing to live and die for him.
Many see the church as just “being there for them” when they need it, and most of the
time they don’t need it. A new birth, a renewed heart, a radical change in nature, a new
life, a new creation – these are not to be taken too literally or seriously. Certainly they
are not decisive or supernatural. They are a forgotten language to many who used to go
to your church.