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The Church of You
I’m thinking about renting a building, installing some comfortable chairs and cappuccino machines, and erecting a neon sign out front declaring it the Church of You. I could put a pithy aphorism on the marquee, something like: “Your life is about YOU,” or “YOU be the judge,” or better still, “Take charge of YOUR spiritual journey.” I could create a sleek website with matching fliers that explain that in the Church of You there is no judgmentalism, no rigid rules, no conformity. Instead it’s an inclusive community dedicated to the celebration of the unique wonder that is YOU. “Come inside the Church of You,” I can tell the curious, “and discover your hidden potential. We are here for YOU.”
Our signature hymn at the Church of You could be a jazzed-up variant of Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” (hint for those who missed the 1980s: It’s all about loving yourself). Instead of extending the right hand of fellowship to one another we can all just give ourselves a hug. Perhaps we’ll install a big mirror along the front, so everyone can come forward, kneel, and recite a loving self-affirmation.
And no need for a Bible, just bring your diary. Instead of a sermon we’ll take turns sharing our feelings, hopes, and dreams. My job as the pastor won’t be to guide or teach, it will be to affirm the lifestyle choices and wants of every single blessed member and visitor. Think of me as a spiritual coach, except that at the Church of You, nobody keeps score. Everyone is a winner here. We are devoted to the idea, expressed so eloquently by Michael Bernard Beckwith, Oprah Winfrey’s spiritual advisor, that “The average person needs to stop and have a little self-love and appreciation.” Amen, brother Beckwith.
We’ll be all about open hearts and open minds at the Church of You, and so long as people respond with open wallets, I suppose I’ll be in business for as long as I can stomach the sight of myself in that great big mirror. The funny things is, I suspect a good many people are already practitioners of my new brand of church, they just don’t know it. So over the next few posts I’ll explain how we do things in the Church of You, to show you just how popular this new way of doing “the spirituality thing” really is.
back to top31 Comments to “The Church of You”
Perhaps you should rent a stadium. I think the seats will fill up fast.
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I will be interested in these posts as long as they recognize that not everything you’re suggesting the Church of You would do is bad. For instance, “sharing our feelings, hopes, and dreams” has a valid place in the Christian community, the problem is when it is to the exclusion of guiding and teaching from Scripture.
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Perhaps a good question to ruminate on in response to the idea of the “Church of You” is: how often do I worship at said church, even when I’m in a building ostensibly dedicated to worshiping the One True God?
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Too late Tony, there’s already one of those on every streetcorner.
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4 – Amen.
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John M. (#4) I was going make the exact same post — almost verbatim to what you wrote.
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I hope Tony will take another look at “Song of Myself”, “Self Reliance”, “Circles,” or the following website:
http://www.transcendentalists.com/self_reliance_analysis.htm
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This is the kind of thing that’s avoided by taking an “intellectual” (eeeww, ick) approach to the Scriptures (loving God with your mind), a la John Calvin.
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This should help you with your music program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XHkMPA1334
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Pastor Jim (#9) points to a great youtube video. I would say that that the Church of You would have no problem finding worship music even without adapting the lyrics of many songs that are out there. Here’s one that would fit in perfectly that I’ve heard in some churches:
“Holiness, holiness is what I long for
Holiness, holiness is what I need
Holiness, holiness is what you want from me.”
Yea, right. I thought it was all about the holiness God gives me in Christ, and that all I have to offer him is sin. There are many other me-worship songs out there.
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Yeah (#8),
Taking an “intellectual” approach to the Scriptures doesn’t necessarily insulate you from making church about you. It certainly makes it harder to do so, but you and I have met plenty of people who take the Bible seriously and still make church about themselves and what they want. What I would say instead is that we need to take the Bible very seriously and constantly be humbly listening to what it says to us and what the Holy Spirit is pointing us to. We need to repent of our sins and follow Christ. Loving God with your mind is very, very important but it is not the guaranteed solution for avoiding self-centered church services.
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MLTW:
I agree with your sentiments in 11, but I think anyone who takes the Bible seriously does humble himself, and strives to love the brethren, his wife, and God. There’s no such thing as having too much doctrinal knowledge. The converse is clearly not true, if given opportunity for study. I wasn’t comfortable with the way Tony framed some of his critique of Calvin in another thread, hence my breif blurb here (I didn’t think that thread was an appropriate place for a debate over Calvin’s piety, or whatever. I don’t even mean to make a big deal of it here.)
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Yeah,
Give me enough space and I can tie this travesty around Calvin’s neck too. Not that I’m going to do that, because we here at the Church of You aren’t into judgmentalism.
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Good, Tony. I’ll watch for signs of Calvinism in your next few installments re: C of Y.
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Me too, Yeah. I can’t wait to see what I’ve been foreordained to write next.
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Foreordained? Don’t you know God’s guess is no better than yours?
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Yeah,
There may be no such thing as too much doctrinal knowledge, but it is certainly possible to have the knowledge without applying it, and to be proud of knowing more than other people – even while knowing that that pride is a sin, and at least on some level wanting to be freed of that sin. I say that from personal experience.
I didn’t know any way to relate to people – or to God – except on an intellectual level (combination of high IQ and emotionally messed up parents). I honestly wanted to serve God, and to know His Word better so I could serve Him better, but the one thing I really did well was soak up knowledge, so I did that and then I couldn’t help but feel proud of how much I knew, more than the other people at church or Bible school.
It took until I was a senior in college before I developed the kind of relationships with other people that challenged me with how ugly some of my attitudes were, and to really beg God to change me. I’m probably an extreme example, having had no real friends for most of my childhood, and having pretty much closed myself off from emotional interaction with anyone. But the emphasis in the church I attended as a teenager on knowledge of the Bible, and the way they disdained feelings as untrustworthy, just increased my lopsided approach to life.
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In this economy, expect a boost in attendance at the Church of Stop Shopping.
http://www.revbilly.com/
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The most intellectual Christian I knew was a man who ended up leaving his wife for another woman. He was able to rationalize it in some convoluted way. He had studied to be a minister, knew the Bible, theology, etc., but none of those things kept him from doing what he did.
Having said that, I am not anti-intellect. But the Bible tells us to love God with our minds, yes, & our souls & hearts & our strength. We could debate all night which is “best”, which would most likely safeguard us against error, but the truth is that we need to love God in all those ways to also guard our hearts.
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It doesn’t take cappuccino, preaching focused on self, songs about yourself, etc, to make church about you. If your church has a special building and a hired preacher, then your church is in an economic SYSTEM where it will consume 75 – 85% of the offering plate money just to buy those things (PRIMARILY)for the people who put the money in the offering plate. This is a church system PRIMARILY about the attender, his personal convenience, privacy, and . God never asked for crowds of people to get into one room, line up in pews to sing songs and hear a Bible lecture from a hired expert. God did specifically ask for believers to “consider how they can spur one anther on to love and good works” and to “let the word of Christ dwell in your richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom…” Heb. 10:24,25; Col. 3:16, 17. God asks for one another dynamic, not one-way communication. Preaching and teaching is never spelled out as lecture with no participation from any other believer. God’s Word tells us ordinary brothers are capable of teaching the saints “free of charge” 1 Cor. 9:18. The pew/pulpit system is really God’s people outsourcing their responsibilities to hired experts. This is all very comfortable, so many people like it and will defend it just like Catholics who still want to pray to Mary and honor the pope as head of the church even though the scripture does not teach this.
When believers meet in homes, fully prepared to build one another with full participation, then 100% of the giving can go out the door and 100% of the saints are giving to each other. It is now ALL about reaching the unreached and building up other believers.
I know it’s hard to sniff out bogus traditions because they are expertly wrapped in cleverly warped scripture AND they gratify our flesh so nicely we enjoy it. It is difficult for us to consider that men who men who spend zillions of hours studying the Bible could possibly be wrong about key issues. (When men get their paycheck from a system of thinking, they will not question it. They parrot it forward with greater emotion. )
God, in his mercy is able to accomplish some of His purpose when saints insist on justifying 75 – 85% pooling and 15-25% giving, 80% of the work being done by 20% of the people, and 99% of the personal expression of truth during the “worship” hour being done by one man. Christ gets more glory when we obey His instructions on His body. Only when we obey fully is it truely about Him.
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Tima,
I’m not sure why I bother to read your posts, since you always say pretty much the same thing, but I will simply comment that your idea that no giving is to be kept “inside” is vastly unbiblical on several fronts. First, the laborer is worthy of his hire; both Old and New Testament show men who earn their living by their proclamation of the Gospel–and the Old Testament even had paid musicians. The Old Testament had care of the temple. And care of the poor in our midst is a biblical responsibility.
I rather think that you are so “anti-institutional church” that you fail to see that where God has specifically said something (such as ministers being paid) it’s definitely allowed, and some of these other things might be debatable but not biblically “wrong.” (In other words, you can legitimately prefer meeting in a home to meeting in a church building–you aren’t wrong in that preference. I think you ARE wrong in your assertion that everyone else must do so also, and in your apparent assumption that those of us who don’t follow your lead are somehow disobeying God.)
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TIMA,
Pastors make so much money that there are literally hundreds of thousands beating down the door to collect.
1 Timothy 5:17-18 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
1 Corinthians 9:14 So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.
Mike
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The Church of You can refer to two forms of popular Christianity. One sees God as a celestial daddy whose role is to solve YOUR problems and make YOU feel better. The other sees God as a task master and holiness as something to be achieved by following a long list of dos and don’ts.
The narrow way of actually glorifying God the Father and HIS works above our own is traveled by few.
It is possible to stray to the left and do whatever you want ignoring God. But what few people understand is that it is also possible to stray to the right, as the Pharisees did, exalting their own righteousness over that of Christ. They celebrate their own works and traditions and operate on a system of merit, not knowing that their own righteousness is as filthy rags.
Pharisaical Christians ignore the grace of Jesus Christ. They don’t know that we are accepted by God not because of anything we do, but by what Christ has done. God favors us because of the work of his Son. We are no better than anyone else.
And so, Pharisaical Christians thinking they are holier than everyone else look down on sinners and other Christians who don’t measure up to their own standards. These hypocrites don’t even meet their own standards, but point the bony finger of accusation against others.
These people also worship at the Church of You, sanctification being all about them and their own holiness, not the holiness of Christ.
Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. Isaiah 30:21
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#11- Menliketreeswalking- “There’s no such thing as having too much doctrinal knowledge.” Oh yes there is– when doctrinal knowledge pushes out knowledge of God (versus “about” God). When that happens, the church of Me has the intellect front-and-center in the podium.
#12- Yeah- “Taking an “intellectual” approach to the Scriptures doesn’t necessarily insulate you from making church about you. It certainly makes it harder to do so . . . .” Can’t say I agree with you at all about that. Taking an “intellectual” approach to the Scriptures lands you right with the intellect, and not God, front-and-center in the podium.
Calvin and others may have started the church of the Intellect, but it’s the thinking person’s own intellect that’s front-and-center, even when it’s the “pastor” in the podium giving that intellect a mental massage.
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We are supposed to be babes with respect to sin’s pleasures, but it is not desirable to be on stuck on a milk diet when it comes knowledge. Of course knowledge is never to be divorced from faith in and love of God.
Occasionally it seems Calvin has been poked at for seeing God as knowable. I’m not sure why that would be present a problem. God is only knowable insofar as he reveals Himself to us and this is generally by accomodation to our puny minds. Calvin never rejected the idea of the incomprehensibility of God due to His infinity. God is both transcendent and immanent.
Mike
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Most of the above contributors would do well to ask themselves, What is the opposite of the thing I criticize, and am I doing it? The opposite of Calvinism, for example, says, I decide to be saved and I keep myself saved when I avoid unpardonable sin. The opposite of intellectualism says, I obey the experts in my denomination like a good soldier, or I ignore doctrine, just gimme that emotional high.
By asking myself such a question, I learned something important from Xion. Yes, I easily slip into wrong attitudes about my long list of dos and don’ts. (Note to self: Add “Reject long lists of dos and don’ts” to my long list of dos and don’ts.)
Yet, it remains that those lists stem from what God reveals about human un-holiness. For example, if fornication destroys holiness, then doesn’t public attire that provokes sexual desire also erode holiness? In place of God’s Word or centuries of application of God’s commandments, I arbitrate right and wrong. So, if I burn my list of such dos and don’ts, how shall I emulate my holy Father?
You say you are saved by grace; but how will you prove it to me? How will you prove it to the lost person who just waits to spring the label of hypocriteupon you? How will you reassure yourself that it was a heart decision and not just an intellectual exercise?
The opposite of Phariseeism, toward which Xion leans in his criticism, easily leads to the fall of many. Xion should make the point, then, not that lists of dos and don’ts are “wrong;” but rather that the dos and don’ts form the vocabulary of love notes to God, written not in lip service, but in deeds.
Even people in the Church of Others can unwittingly attend the Church of You when service becomes a foundation for self-righteousness. Any strength and any pet peeve can tempt us to join the Church of You.
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#26 “Xion should make the point, then, not that lists of dos and don’ts are “wrong;” but rather that the dos and don’ts form the vocabulary of love notes to God, written not in lip service, but in deeds.”
Nicely said Rich Wheeler. What I am decrying is the merit system as a way of finding favor with God.
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. Rom 11:6
Once this is clear, that we already have God’s favor because of the grace of Jesus Christ, then we are to move on to do good works.
You see, one follows the other. And there is no temptation to pretend we are better than those sinners over there, since we are all sinners before God.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Eph 2:8-10
We have no grounds for boasting. Good works are what is expected of us now, but it makes us no more holy than a criminal or prostitute. We are to go on and bear good fruit, but it is a result of Christ’s work in us, not our own righteousness.
Your point is well taken though. Am I guilty of the same self-righteousness I accuse Pharisees of? Perhaps. Though Christ accused them of these same things. His criticism while he walked on earth was of the religious. His criticism after his death was of the churches.
I think Christians would do well and take a lesson from Christ: criticizing ourselves, i.e. the sinners over here, rather than the sinners over there. We get all bent out of shape about sin in this world and ignore it in our own hearts. I am looking in a mirror here.
The Church of YOU becomes the Church of US meaning “We do God right!” The tendency is to look down on the world outside our doors and other churches.
And yet, even so, we are to gather together. We are to strive for an unfeigned love of the brethren. We are to strive for unity of the faith. But it sure would be easier though without all these people!
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Why are these the only options? My church, the good church, and everyone else’s church, the bad church? Is this productive?
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TIMA, thank you for your post.
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Cheryl & Mike,
Yes, I am quite aware of the scriptures that teach “the right to be paid to preach”, and so are you. Most everyone who spends time in a pew will hear these scriptures. It appears evident that you are either unaware of the scriptures that teach “refusing the right to be paid” or you are like your preacher – you are aware of them but will not allow them to interfere with your much enjoyed system. How could anyone not enjoy devoting 75 – 85% of their “giving” to mostly their own interests? Only someone who is willing to be a Berean, examine what they were told to see if it’s true.
Mike, you gave, 1 Cor. 9:14 Please read this in context with the whole chapter. The first part is Paul’s lengthy justification for a paid to preach system. He uses the OT, logic, nature, etc to prove the right. Then he ends his point by declaring the right to be paid should be refused in view of even all these reasons. Paul was suicidal about this issue. He would rather die than get paid by the people he is equipping. He also suggests that if he is paid to preach, his reward will not be the one he really wants. Look it up, read the whole thing, and you’ll see it.
Consider Acts 20:17 – and see what Paul said to the Ephesian pastors/elders about “meeting his own needs” while he taught them. Observe that here is were he quotes Jesus as saying “It is more blessed to give than receive”. There is a greater blessing from God when we give the gospel and not receive back money. That is giving and receiving.
Consider 2 Thes. 3 where Paul tells them his example in refusing the right to be paid was specifically an example for them to follow.
Consider that there are no examples in the NT of anyone being paid by the people he is serving. In Philippians Paul thanks them for supporting him when he was with the Thessalonians. Then he tells them to stop the giving because he his needs are met.
If you consider what commentaries might say about these things, they will either say nothing at all or say something like “Paul only meant this for himself.” This kind of interpretive dynamic is completely bogus. The scriptures about the “right to be paid” must be interpreted in light of the greater blessing and reward Paul teaches comes with “refusing the right to be paid”. The right is still there. The refusal is greater. Which do you want – the lesser or the greater? Which should your pastor want if he is a “leader”?
Consider applying your “right to be paid” assumptions to cultures where they do not have the money to pay a preacher to give them a weekly Bible lecture. I was born and raised in the Philippines where this is still true. In most places they must devote 100% of their giving to buy the clergy package. How now can they obey Christ’s specific commands to serve the poor and send missionaries to reach all nations?
Am I really wrong in asserting this is God’s desire for His church?
Yes, I am against the institutionalized faith. When examined with the scriptures is shown to be very selfish – a church of you. Don’t allow 12-15% giving to distract you from seeing the tragedy of 75 – 85% pooling and calling it all giving.
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I believe the ultimate fallout from churches that are all about us, is that people begin to think of eternity in terms of us, and not Jesus. I think this is why so many people believe that church attendance will get them to heaven. We’ve presented us, and not Jesus, so unbelievers think in terms of church activity, rather than union with Christ! This is not a minor thing. Will Jesus be made a mere figurehead and allow us to usurp His place?
I’ve written extensively on this subject, and have also recorded a song about the state of so many churches called “Nice Little Church”.
http://www.songsofjesus.com/nice_little_church_indepth.htm
God’s word is plain enough, “”For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5
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