I’m on the phone to a friend in Scotland and we are talking about church and faith. But the conversation is slightly different than you might have imagined. I’m making the case to him that his church needs to become more sinful!
Let me bring some context.
Many Christians live in two worlds. The world of the week – busy jobs, hard deals, tough bargaining, hectic hours, constantly pushing forwards.
Then on Sunday they go to church ……and they enter a completely different world than the world they have lived in for the past 5 or 6 days. Their church world speaks the language of the ‘saints’. They talk about being separate from the world; they talk about holy living; they sing songs that speak of purity, of living a victorious Christian life; songs about truth, love, commitment, loyalty.
In many ways their church language of faith is a very ‘high’ language.
People are urged to count the cost. Sermons on sacrifice, denying self are well preached. People are reminded that they will suffer rejection for the name and the cause of Christ.
To all this they, like me, would say ‘Amen’. The bar is set high.
But then for so many here’s what happens. Monday arrives and they return to their busy living …..and it bears no resemblance to the language they heard or used on the Sunday.
If you look closely many Christians seem to be two different people. A Sunday person and a very different Monday person.
This is not unfamiliar …in many ways it's the reality of most Christians whether in the UK or the US. We live double lives. We are the saint on Sunday and we are the sinner on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc. [Check out the problem with this on a preach I did on April 29,2007 Mastering the Art of Living “Be One” – download or listen at http://www.reedleyfbc.com/ click on Messages.]
Now this is where our conversation came in. As we talked about church and faith I suggested that while most people would say the problem is they’re too much of a sinner on Monday and they need to become more of the saint on Monday – I argued the opposite. I suggested that the solution is – they should be less of the saint on Sunday!!
Here’s an interesting thumbprint we’re noticing in our church. People come on Sundays – not trying to play the saint – but being vulnerable and authentic enough to admit they are the sinners.
How worshipful, how godly is it, when a group of people gather on a Sunday and pretend to be what in reality for most of their living they’re not? Is it not better to be honest in the presence of God than pretending!
Now you might say … “well Gilbert what about the Scriptures teaching on being holy, on being set apart, on sanctification.” I would say – absolutely – but is a part of being holy, of being sanctified is it really being dishonest on a Sunday!
What part of sanctification is about causing our people to pretend to be what they really are not?
Maybe if we are more honest on a Sunday, more authentic true and real …..our Mondays and Tuesdays would be less removed from our worship and we’d begin to move to something nearer what we should be.
Maybe if our Sundays were more sinful we’d be less sinful on Monday.
Did Jesus not teach that it’s the pure in heart who shall see God? Am I not more pure in heart when I’m most honest about my sin compared to Sundays when I pretend to be the saint I’m not. Maybe there’s more purity on Monday when I’m honest about who and what I am …and maybe then I’ll see God …..which cannot leave me unchanged!
I’m arguing that a movement in spiritual formation is not just the movement away from being sinner to saint; I’m arguing that some of our movement is from being the saint to being the sinner. I think God is more pleased and God’s Spirit can more do His work when sinners are honest, rather than when saints are dishonest!
So …how sinful is your church??
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I love what you had to say about the church being more sinful! So appropriate!
Our church in Moodiesburn is looked down on by some of the religious people around here because they see that the "sinners" come and hang out with us a lot, but the people who come and find Christ are often heard saying that what attracts them to this church is that we are "real." Don't Christians who are real with each other on Sunday as well as the rest of the week have a lot more chance of reaching real people with a real Christ and a real Christianity...and then seeing a REAL change in their lives as God doesn't have to reach behind their masks to get to them?
I praise God for what He is doing in Reedley as people there are being reminded that God is real...and that He wants people who can be real in the church so that He can show Himself as real in the world the rest of the week.
Perhaps the solution to the Sunday vs. Monday Christian is not that they need to be "more sinful", rather they need to be more confessing.
Sunday Christians, predominantly in America, are very closed and opaque. They are not transparent when it comes to their sin problem.
Everyone is a sinner. Those are the people God uses. In fact, the more unwise (by the world's standards), the more foolish, the more weak, the more lowly, the more despised: These are the people God will use on Monday.
This could be why James 5:16 instructs us to "Confess [our] sins to one another..." When we become transparent before our brothers and sisters in Christ we encourage them to do the same. The result is a church who is praying for each other day-by-day. Confessing sins eliminates gossip and meaningless speculation.
Therefore, our confession shows our sinfulness which would probably make us look "more sinful".
Thanks for a great blog.
There is a great chapter in The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning titled “Paste Jewelry And Sawdust Hotdogs” that discusses this very subject. Brennan goes on to say that Sunday Christians are actually horrified when they find a sinner in their midst.
What's the solution? How do church leaders encourage real-ness and transparency? How do we lead others into corporate confession?
Post a Comment