Churchianity: when we miss the point

The ebb and flow of the [un]conscious conversations across the spaces always seems to converge on you. And, sometimes, they help you to notice stuff is perhaps more connected than you may have first thought. This blog post came about when I joined some dots, and made a connection.

In a post on his excellent blog Matt Stone asked “What’s your understanding of the difference between churchianity and Christianity?”.  His question was in response to reading Sally’s post about being fed up with churchianity.

My initial response is that churchianity happens when the church culture is not focussed on Jesus and living his way. Of course what this looks like is very much dependant on who you say Jesus is, and how you understand his mission and teachings. That being said, I don’t think any of us are not guilty of having missed the point of Jesus’ mission and teachings. After all we are all, as Scot McKnight reminds us, cracked eikons.

Even Peter missed the point that Jesus was trying to get the disciples to understand about his mission (see Mark 8:31-38). Peter had some built up expectations (that most of the Jewish community probably shared) of what the Messiah was meant to be. It was clear from Jesus’ response that Peter didn’t really get it. Too often we find ourselves making the same mistake Peter made.

Get behind me Churchianity! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.

Ironically, it is the people who do not name themselves as followers of Jesus Christ  that can often awaken us to our churchianity. I often find myself cringing inside when they speak about their expectations of what the church is and should be doing.

And it a sad reflection on the Church that their perception of what Christians believe to be important is often reduced down to issues personal morality or a set of thou shalt not rules. Of course, this is not helped by the media which contributes by focussing a light on the failure and hypocrisy of the church and its members.

Too often the people on the ‘outside’ seem to know that we have missed the point. While, the media generally doesn’t get religion, let alone Jesus we cannot really blame them for their contribution. For the most part it is the Church’s fault.

They have noticed that we have entered into some very strange and sometimes poorly considered choices and practices.  Such as providing a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Or worse still, invent a whole theological construct in order to explain why they need Jesus.

The Church has continued to use marketing tools and slogans to sell the Gospel forgetting that simply loving others is what actually works. Too many leaders in the church get sucked in by the bright lights and shiny gimmicks. Using technology because it is cool, rather than meeting a real need when and where it is appropriate.

There is no shortage in the numbers of ways that the Church has missed the point. A few of them are described in the book titled Adventures in Missing the Point co-authored by Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo a couple of years ago.

Everyone has a certain capacity for tolerating some of the stuff that goes on in the name of the God and/or the church. But, an increasing number of people (like Sally) are really over it.

The sad reality is that Churchianity ultimately results in practices that undermine the very Gospel of reconciliation that we are called preach.

Matt noted in his blog post:

The thing is, while I value conversations about church and the new forms that are emerging, I think we’ve lost our way if church dominates our conversations. What’s far more essential, what’s far more important to be talking about, is Christ.

Conversations about emerging church are only going to appeal to the already churched. If we’re authentically interested in the unchurched then we need to have more open ears to their interests and how Jesus relates to them.

- Matt Stone

Basically I agree with Matt. I too like thinking and talking about new ways of practicing the faith – as church. But, too often, we see the conversations and the practices end up looking more like putting lipstick on a pig.

The Church must always be centred on Jesus and the way of the Christ. It does this because it is called to be a living sign of the body of Christ.

Jesus Christ named what we ought to be doing – loving God, and loving our neighbour as ourselves. When we love – the church reflects the nature and presence of God who is love. When the new commandment is practiced by the church as a community of love the presence of Jesus Christ is seen in the world.

Our love is the most authentic communication of the good news.