For Whom The Bell Tolls

It is time for the Church to die.  Yes, you read that correctly.  A United Methodist Elder just admitted something that could potentially be an end to his profession.  It really is time for the Church to die.  Overall, we have lost our identity.  We have become an utter failure in what we were raised up to do.

Now, before we go too much further, I want to clarify that I most certainly am not an advocate of the "emerging church" movement.  I am not anti-denomination (after all, I am a United Methodist) and I don't want to see any particular denomination to overshadow all of the rest.  I don't think the answer to the problems of the Western World rise and fall with whether or not our churches transform from denominational entities into non-denominational, free-from-man's-rules type worship groups.  Even though I love small groups and promote them, I'm not even saying that the small-group cluster is the answer to Christianity's downward spiral.  The only answer I see on the horizon is the death of the Church.

Now, let me see if I can explain this.  Several times throughout the New Testament we are told things like this "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?  Or what will they give in return for their life."--St. Matthew 16:24b-26

I think Jesus meant these kinds of statements.  I don't think he was talking in riddles or metaphor.  I don't think he was trying to be over-dramatic in order to capture the people's attention so that they would listen to his teaching.  I think he meant it.  I really think that what he said about losing a life...dying...is what he wanted us to do.

But unlike the little boy in 6th Sense...I don't see dead people.  I don't see very many people who claim Christ carrying crosses.  Oh sure, we wear them around our necks, stick'em on our cars (next to our fish), and we even hang them on our walls.  But I don't see people carrying them around.  I don't see the Church being very inconvenienced.  We sacrifice our money for things like new carpet, paint, and technology for our church, but we don't generally want to spend money on transients, homeless, or "illegal aliens."  We choose politics over faith and television over Scripture.  We think that family time means running around after our children for 18 years watching them in everything from sports to band concerts.  Our family meals have transitioned from the dining room table into the living room.  I don't think we're dying.

I wonder about a group of people who claim Christ...but only in the public sphere.  We want the 10 Commandments posted on the courthouse lawn, prayer to be said at the beginning of athletic events, and even insist that God actually cares more about the people of the United States than he does for those living in hedonistic places like Iraq and Afghanistan.  Yet, we don't pray at home (where we do have control).  I seriously doubt many of our finest church-goers could recite the 10 commandments much less live up to them.  And what was that we were told about our enemies?

I'm sure at this point you must be thinking that ministry has turned me cynical.  No, not really.  You see, I have fallen in love with Christ.  And as such, even as broken as she is, I am in love with his bride.  You know, the Church.  More than anything it makes me sad.

It makes me sad that we...the Church...have become blind.  We are blind to our calling.  We are blind to the needs around us and the opportunities we have to serve.  We claim to be committed to Christ, but only if the commitment comes at our convenience.

So there you have it.  The only solution, as I see it, is for the Church to die.  If the Church dies, then Christ will rise up a new creation.  If each one of us will be honest with ourselves and ask God to show us where we need to die, he will do it.  If we agree to lose our life for Christ's sake, then we will find the life that Jesus has called us to.  The thing is, that if the Church refuses to die...if we refuse to die to ourselves and follow Christ...then we will gain the whole world and lose the only thing that really matters.  As a Spirit filled entity, we will be gone forever.  Resurrection, not resuscitation, is the answer to the mess we are currently in.  If we do die to ourselves, only then we will live as God intends.  Either way, our fate is sealed.  In the words of John Donne, "therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."  Until next time...




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