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We received this letter from a congregation member who wishes to remain anonymous
As many of you know, Christian churches in America, and around the world, are struggling. Attendance is falling worldwide and churches are closing their doors for good. While a lot of the decrease in attendance is ascribed to Americans simply not expressing a religious preference in surveys completed, this is concerning and begs the question “why do Americans express no religious preference”? Plainly, American’s express no religious preference because they are not attending church and do not feel drawn to do so. This opens the door to another “why”. We can speculate, and identify a multitude of different reasons, but I think that instead of being reactionary, that in this case the church would benefit from being far more proactive. For the purpose of this exercise, we should be asking how can we, as a church, draw the attention of the community and show ourselves as the people others want to be with for an hour every Sunday?
I thought a lot about this over the past few weeks. I thought about the answer that I received every time I have asked someone who was not attending church regularly to join me on Sunday at my church. The most common reason that really made me worry was that “church people” were too judgmental and too hypocritical and that the persons I had asked did not want to be a part of that. Well, who could blame them if “church people” really are judgmental and hypocritical?
Of course, I have always expressed that my church is not like that, but is this actually true? Sadly, I think that it is true for many congregations, but ours too? I concluded that our church is not exempt from some level of this behavior, and I think we all know of a few occasions in the last ten years where things were said or done that drove members away or deterred others from coming back and becoming members of our congregation. Sadly, I think our very human, but judgmental nature has been at the root of this. All of us are quick to point out where someone else has sinned or done wrong, but do not apply the same fervent chastisement to our own actions or thoughts.
We are all imperfect sinners. We know this, and we know that the Lord forgives us our sins when we repent. We know that Jesus died to spare us the condemnation of our souls because of our sin. We are forgiven. Many of us have also been told many times that sin is sin in the eyes of the Lord, and that one sin is not a greater or worse than another. We have also heard that we are not to judge our brother, lest we be judged. (“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”, Matthew 7:1-2) We have heard through scripture that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. (“The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”, Mark 12:31) Yet, instead, in our unforgiving and harsh judgements of others in our community, we drive those we are supposed to love away.
Again, none of us are perfect, and none of us are going to suddenly become perfect, but we are a loving group of Christ’s followers. We need to make sure that we are doing our best every day, not just on Sunday’s in church, to love each other, to have compassion for each other, and let people see Christ’s love through our actions, and our interactions. We need to remember that it is not our place to decide who is a sinner, what sins are worse, what the punishment should be for those sins, or if the sinner deserves forgiveness. That is not our role. (For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”, Hebrews 10:30) We need to love everyone enough for others to want to be in God’s house with us, and to know his grace through us, and we need to leave the rest up to God. We need to realize that all those that cross our path are part of God’s plan in our life, and endeavor to learn the lessons they bring, whether they do so knowingly or not. We need to humble ourselves and remember our imperfections may be different, but are no less damning.
Is this going to be easy? Nope. Are we going to make mistakes? Yep. Can we love each other enough to show the world we are a gracious, accepting, and loving congregation? I hope so. More importantly, we need to show each other, by leaving our judgement behind and accepting that our differences are part of God’s plan and that our only job is to pray for and love one another while working together to share God’s word and love with the world. This is something that I am going to be working on personally, and I hope all of you will join me.
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