Review

I was trying to find the church website and came across the Google reviews. I hadn’t really noticed that people review churches, I find that kind of weird, but a guy gave us one star with the following review:

“It’s a church, something unnecessary in the modern world.” 

There was a part of me that wanted to respond to him with all the reasons why we are so necessary. Think about all the children we feed, the food pantry, and the hospitality to those who are homeless. Look how necessary we are! 

And that’s when the brilliance of his critique was revealed. 

The church is unnecessary in the modern world, yet a vital witness for life. That’s the tension where we live, especially as we approach the mystery of death and resurrection.

It’s easy to be scandalized by the decline, the abuses, and the unneeded role of the church. It’s tempting to start jockeying for a position in the modern world that is necessary and will keep us from going extinct. The church has never been at her most faithful when she is trying to prove how powerful and needed she is. 

I live as someone who is passionately in love with the triune God revealed in the person of Jesus. This puts me in a weird place because I am embarrassed by the popular message of Christianity with the angry Dad who demands a blood sacrifice as payment for our sins and I am weary of the self-righteous desire to fill in for God and set the world right. I feel like these two camps of Christianity pull people into a place where the church is needed either to save souls or to save bodies. I think both those places stroke our egos and miss the point.

The church is not necessary. It’s like being a chaplain in a hospital room full of necessary people. Everyone has a job to help the person, but the chaplain is simply a space for the patient to be human, body and soul. It can be awkward and it’s so tempting to be helpful, but our mission is to provide space and community where the abundant life of the triune God is made visible.

I know I won’t convince people to abandon seeing the church as the ticket to heaven or the church as a social service. We like to feel necessary, but I believe we would be more faithful if we lived as a witness to the abundant life of the triune God. It is a life that gathers, feeds, loves, forgives, speaks truth, rejoices, grieves, listens, and sometimes simply sits with those who are hurting. We are not necessary, but we are a vital witness to life. I’ll give that five stars.

(This is a repeat from our newsletter - I had to work on a speech today)