One critic said that churches may be the most exclusive gated communities in post-modern culture. It's hard to imagine a faith community with the name of Christ closed to the world that it was commissioned to engage. Still, while the label stings, it may represent why so many people are cynical about the church, and why so many unchurched people yawn when they drive by.
Well, yes, there's perception and reality, and at times they are miles apart. Public perception is often shaped by people outside the established traditional church and their characterizations, sometimes based on nothing more than personal bias, are most often less than complimentary. While many of the unchurched are actually indifferent to the church, a good many de-churched individuals, that is, people who were involved in church life at some point, and who no longer participate, actually hype the negative stereotypes of mean-spirited, narrow minded, homo-phobic people hiding out in their enclaves of faith.
In many instances traditional congregations are (1) organized around a rural model, (2) comprised of an older membership, (3) and tend to be smaller. There's often less energy, innovation, and awareness of community demographics. Leadership is centered in family hierarchies and there's little awareness of congregational values and strengths. Sometimes they are in survival mode. As a result, reaching into the local community may be a secondary or tertiary priority. So, the gate may be a passive interaction with the neighbors because they have no means to assimilate them into the life of the comatose church.
Still, sinful behaviors can erect gates and even walls around a local church as well. Prideful arrogance, bias in every manifestation, prejudice, and racial separation create disconnects that defy any tag line or veneer the church may put forward. This may help explain why 15 SBC churches close every week, 90% of them closing in communities with growing populations. One church deacon told a consultant the church was closing because their population had declined. Actually, the population had grown. Yes, it had changed instead, and the church had decided not to reach the new residents around them. Somewhere in a changing world they had lost the mind of Christ. Racial sin was their gate.
Gates and walls were a significant theme in the New Testament. Jesus taught many lessons about knowing our neighbor, ministry to the Samaritans, and taking the Good News to the nations, the ethnos. He also declared that His house would be a house of prayer for "all nations" (Mark 11:17). In Acts Peter was given a vision so that the Gospel could be preached to the Gentiles. Paul wrote, "For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14). He also wrote, "There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Surely, loving our neighbor as our self is enough Scriptural instruction to tear down any walls, fences, barriers, or gates that may separate His church from the communities to which He has commissioned us.
Removing gates is a spiritual discipline. They're only around the church because they are in our hearts. So, putting out welcome mats or warm fuzzy tag lines on the sign is like the proverbial lipstick on a pig. The unchurched and de-churched may have little spiritual discernment. But, they do have street smarts and can detect bogus appeal in a minute. As in all things, this change must be action and not words, genuine engagement and not pretense, the mission of Christ motivated by the heart of Christ implemented by the mind of Christ purposed for the glory of Christ.
Anything short of that will just be erecting another wall---insincerity. And the gated community will stay gated.
Comments