Some of the most awful ideas sound great at first. The idea that everyone “belongs” in church is especially terrible because it is accepted without question. Christians quickly affirm that no matter what you’ve done, what you believe, or how you behave – you “belong” in the church. For a couple of decades, some people have been preaching a message that says folks must belong before we teach them what we believe or how to behave. The problem is, that is exactly backwards of how disciples are made.
At some point in history after Peter preached, “Repent and be baptized,” the church figured out that making people repent causes a decline in Sunday morning attendance. Calling people “sinners” is a horrible church growth strategy. In order to “remove barriers to the gospel,” the church became “seeker friendly.” The friendliest thing we can do for seekers is affirm church membership on them the moment they walk through the door. Some churches are so inclusive, they put signs outside declaring, “You Belong Here!” It’s not even necessary to go inside.
There’s a rather vocal group of Christians proclaiming the gospel of belonging. They proudly wear their anger as a badge of honor and suggest there is something wrong with me for not sharing their indignation:
“It really makes me angry when a church says for example that you first have to stop being homosexual before you can join us, or that you first have to stop sleeping around with your girlfriend or boyfriend before you can join us—something is wrong with this picture.”
Actually, there is nothing wrong with that picture. There is nothing sinister in establishing standards for membership in any group. In fact, without standards for membership, there is no group. No group is open to everybody. The church was NEVER open to universal membership.
Imagine what would happen if other groups adopted the “everybody belongs” mentality that you’re suggesting for the church. Imagine opening your mailbox to find a postcard from the KKK that reads, “You belong with us!” On the back of the postcard is a testimony from one of the KKK’s most passionate members:
“It makes me angry when the KKK says that you first have to stop treating non-white people with compassion or that you first have to be a racist before you can join us – something is wrong with this picture.”
Look, your problem is the word “belong.” The word you’re looking for is, “welcome.” I realize that screws up your beautifully alliterated catchphrase but that’s too bad. You can’t tell people they “belong” until they know what your group stands for.
You can tell people they are “welcome” to find out what you believe and how you behave. You can “welcome” people to attend your services and experience your community. You can “welcome” people to move among you. But they are outsiders. They do not “belong” to the family of God until they agree to the standards of membership. Those standards are established by God and you do not have the authority to monkey around with them. In other words, stop telling people who don’t belong that they belong.
Jesus told us what it costs to “belong” to Him. It costs a lot. Belonging to Jesus requires more than sitting in church sipping latte and singing Chris Tomlin choruses. And even though you’re “really angry” about it, certain behaviors do exclude people from the church. Those behaviors are called “sins” and Jesus finds them so unacceptable that He allowed Himself to be killed in order to eradicate them. Ignoring sin so you can present yourself as loving and tolerant is also a sin. You should repent.
And now we’re right back where we started. Repentance is how people transfer their sin to Christ and become members of the church. They go from being “welcome” by the body of Christ to “belonging” in the body of Christ.
It feels good to tell people they belong. Please make sure it’s the truth when you do so.
Clique Members: If you want to share this article with non-subscribers (to flaunt the excellent content they are missing out on) here’s a link: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s10/u/0/sh/fbb54ba1-f216-469a-af58-6f5a7d4731e6/b61199954e88c303b6ff8f27cccfeacd
3 Responses
Well put, John. In short (based on this post as well as others), you want people to be more sensible. So do I. But we both know that they don’t want to, and most would not know how.
A boy can dream, can’t he?
Something has always seemed a bit off regarding that “you belong here” phrase, but I hadn’t taken the time to think it through until now. Thanks for sharing this insightful analysis … as usual, you nailed it perfectly. (Come up with 94 more, and you can nail them to the door of the “modern” church!)