You wake up on a Sunday morning and put on your church best. You walk past the greeters at the front door to the church with a smile. Find the seat that doesn’t have your name on it, but my goodness, if someone sits there, then they’re in for it. Lights go dim and the conc… I mean, worship, starts.
The fog machines are working, the lights are all over the place and the singer your church found off “American Idol” is leading “Oceans” for the third straight week. You feel good as you raise your hands in praise. Question is, what are you really praising? The Lord or the band?
Over the last couple years, the emergence of megachurches in America has blown up. Elevation. Transformation. Hillsong. Just to name a few.
These churches have expanded on the idea of getting people in the door. According to a Washington University study, more than half of all Americans now attend the largest 10 percent of churches.
A megachurch is described as a church with 2,000 or more congregants. Imagine a large building, a couple services and a talented worship team. By no means is this a bad thing. The point of focus is where people’s hearts are during the service.
This is where I believe we have a problem.
As humans, we come into this world with what the Bible calls inherent sin. This is the belief that we are born in sin, and we are not taught to sin. Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God, we now inherit sin from them.
With that inherit sin, we automatically will try and protect our own skins rather than help others. It’s not something we learn but we are born with that mindset. With this mindset, does church become a chore?
There is a lot going on in church; Sunday is just when it’s most prominent. There are mission trips being planned, lessons and sermons being prepped and countless other events being brought in. So, when you are in a service, are you focused on the service or God?
Services often do things that evoke emotion. Lights, cameras, etc. A Taylor & Francis Online study said worship expresses personal feelings, and often these are emotional states we bring to worship. “In worship we express our joy, our tears, our feelings of exultation, humility, or shame. This may be more obvious in some liturgical traditions than others.”
In simple terms, people often use God as a drug.
They use the Almighty God as a form of enjoyment rather than someone to be revered and worshipped. When you walk into a megachurch, you see smiling people, dancing in the aisles and pews, and often interracial mixtures. This experience of unalloyed joy is seen in many megachurches, hence why it is called a “drug.”
Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, actually experienced physical pain because of his religious need to confess. Then he read the Bible for himself and found something. The truth is that redemption is obtained by God’s grace, not by religious addiction.
Christianity is not a checkbox that we mark off after Sunday morning. It’s also not something we blindly follow from our parents. Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with Jesus Christ.
In the American church, Christianity, which takes up approximtely 60% of the religious composition, many people go to church as a chore. However, it’s not just a Sunday activity. Being a follower of Christ means that God is the first person you turn to when things are hard or when things are easy. A couple weeks ago, Nate Carr, former Iowa State wrestler and Olympian, came and spoke at chapel at Campbellsville University.
“Just because you are in the oven, don’t make you a biscuit. Just because you go to a Christian school, don’t make you a Christian,” Carr said.
Christianity is not an aesthetic. Oversized t-shirts, a cross necklace, posting a picture of a coffee and a Bible study. This is not what defines Christianity. Being a Christian means one simple thing: Love.
Not loving just because, but loving God and loving people because God first loved us. Even when we are sinful or making bad decisions. Before we were even a thought. When Jesus was hanging on a cross, He thought of your name.
So don’t go to church because it’s “cool” or because it’s just what people do. Go to church to be better equipped to learn about the Word of God. Dive into the Bible and unpack what it really means to be a true follower of the God who sent His son to die for the sins we have committed.
