By Ben Spalink
If you only go to church on Easter and Christmas, or if you’ve nearly stopped going to church altogether, you are what the literature calls “de-churched.” You are among nearly forty million people who came from some kind of Christian or Catholic background that have gradually slipped away from church in the last twenty-five years. Perhaps life got busy. Perhaps you couldn’t stand the blatant hypocrisy you saw in church. Perhaps you have gay friends or family and just couldn’t see yourself going to a church that didn’t affirm gay marriage. Or perhaps religion no longer seemed necessary for your life. You decided you had better things you could do with your Sunday mornings.
I get it! I completely empathize. There have been many times where I’ve questioned what I believe and whether or not faith really works. When I see what is done in the name of Jesus, I wonder if I even want to be associated with Christians. Thankfully, I followed the call of God and became a pastor, and this has forced me to keep my heart and mind open and my eyes fixed on him. I’ve stayed the course even though it’s been incredibly hard at times. God has never let me down. Let me tell you a couple stories.
A lot of my friends are recovering alcoholics. They’ve been going to AA meetings where they met a higher power that loves them, cares for them, and will help them stay sober. God enables them to do what they could never do on their own. If it weren’t for God, they’d be drunk and passed out by a sewer on the side of the street. Or worse. I’ve seen the most amazing transformations - people who were homeless turn their lives around, get jobs, reunite with families, and become productive members of society. They pray more than most church people.
Then there’s a member of our congregation who has glioblastoma, a deadly and fast growing brain cancer. After diagnosis, most patients only survive about a year. The person I know is going into her fifth year and she still travels to Florida to see her grandkids and comes to church every Sunday. She shares her love and encouragement with other cancer patients at the transfusion center. She radiates love and joy. How has she survived this long? It’s all through prayer. She claims God has kept her alive because he still has a purpose for her on this earth.
Another man I know from Ridgewood walked by the church often but never came in. He was a sworn atheist, but somehow, he came to believe that life without a god of some sort meant only hedonism. After all, he concluded, if there’s no ultimate authority or higher power, then why not just completely live for myself, for my own pleasure and satisfaction? Something in his heart told him to have an open mind, and he’s been coming every week for more than six months. The old fashioned congregational singing and sermons move him in ways he can’t quite explain. He’s praying more and more and coming to God not only with his needs but with gratitude and has come to appreciate little things like the beauty of the sunlight, his children’s smiles or his parents coming for a visit.
Each of these examples features people who have experienced God in different ways, and that has helped them significantly. You could argue it’s just some sort of placebo effect, that having God can do wonders even if that God is only a figment of the imagination. But in the Bible, God works in particular ways. He claims to be the God of the impossible, the God of redemption, the God of history, the God of love, the God of faithfulness and righteousness. The Bible’s stories explain why these other examples make sense. They teach that he is good, he cares for people, and that if you put your faith and trust in Jesus and in what he has done for you by dying on a cross, he’ll give you eternal life. He can redeem your pain and trials and give you hope. The Christian God is a God of resurrection, and that shows in the experience of ordinary people.
You might be de-churched because a lot of churches are not nice places. We can’t claim to be a perfect church. It’s an unfortunate reality that churches have and will let us down. Many of us have had those experiences. But here’s a reason you might want to consider joining one instead of only coming on Easter and Christmas: the miracle of Christmas doesn’t have to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. When you’re really seeking God, worshipping, growing, learning, and hanging out with other Christians (what we call fellowship”), you’ll find miracles are happening all the time. It’s an incredible journey. There’s a lot you may not understand, and you might find some Christians are a little snooty. But you’ll find more who are down to earth, a lot that will pray for you and give you the shirt off their back. You’ll find a community that ultimately wants you to experience and know God’s love more and more and are willing to demonstrate that in the way they welcome you and your family. There’s a lot of love at Grace Church. I hope you’ll keep coming back and realize there’s a lot more to God and church than we normally think.
Merry Christmas!
A great word in season :)