'Who needs church, anyway?'

Group, Nov/Dec 2002 by Case, Steve

10 reasons why church-less Christianity just doesn't work, and how you can lay a foundation for a lifelong church commitment in your teenagers.

There we were, in the middle of a round-robin Q-and-A discussion session fueled by a couple dozen scribbled talk-starters on slips of paper. Teenagers lined the walls of my office/youth room, the Mountain Dew was flowing, and four flavors of Ben & Jerry's were pit-stopping their way around the circle, Each young person took a slip, read it aloud, answered the question, then the whole group chimed in.

The questions ranged from basic ("If you could have one superpower, what would it be?") to tough ("What trait do you admire in someone else that you don't have?").

Then one of the kids opened a slip and read: "Do you need to go to church to be a Christian?"

I was surprised when the student, without hesitation, said, "No." The rest automatically agreed and were ready to move on. I was not. I was hoping for spirited discussion, but the group was adamant that church wasn't a Christian must-do.

Now, I know The Peter Principle' author Lawrence J. Peter said, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than going to a garage makes you a car." And I know comic Lenny Bruce said, "Everyday people are staying away from church and going back to God." And I know USA Today recently reported a shrinking number of people going to church but an increasing number of people who consider themselves to be "religious" or "spiritual."

But does all that mean my kids are right?

Well, you don't have to be in a church to connect with God. But there are vital reasons why churchgoing is a must, not an option. Here are my 10 best arguments....

1. It's about the giving, not the receiving.

All of us, at least once, have said to ourselves: "Worship is boring and long and irrelevant-what am I really getting out of it?" So it's no surprise our kids are asking the same question. But it's the wrong question. A better one is: "What am I really adding to the service-am I helping others get something out of this?"

We can reflect, meditate, pray, and even study the Bible alone. But we can't function as Christ's body alone. Simply, church is not about meeting personal needs, it's about what we're offering God as a community of Christians. It's not just someone's good idea; it's God's good idea.

2. It's all about relationship-building.

Jesus promised that whenever two or three of us gather, he'd be in our midst. Of course, we can experience God's presence when we're alone-Jesus often went off by himself. But he made a special point to encourage us to gather in his name-it's always foolish to ignore something Jesus told us to do. It's the difference between eating a TV dinner while standing over your sink and hanging out at the Taco Palace with your friends and staying long after the burritos have vaporized. You talk. Bonds build. Friendships cement. Do a Bible study on Acts 2:41-46, and then talk about the crucial role of "gathering" in the Christian life.

3. We must learn to live with others' differences and unify around our common commitments.

The subtle and overlooked message of the "Wherever two or three of you are gathered..." passage is the directive to simply love one another through our differences by gathering. In this disconnected culture, teenagers have few opportunities to live and love with people who are radically different in age, interest, and perspective than them. Church offers them a chance to connect with others around a common set of desires and commitments. Many churches have a "collect" printed in the bulletin on Sunday mornings. The idea comes from a traditional prayer that collect-ed the celebrations and concerns of the congregation. The barriers between us would grow if we "give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing..." (Hebrews 10:25).

4. God is the audience, not us.

We call it a worship service, but a more accurate description for what most of us do today is something like a "spiritual show." I think many teenagers equate churchgoing with going to the movies. It's a performance, and their role is to give it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. We treat our worship service like our favorite TV program. As long as the show is entertaining and the characters and story capture us, we'll stay tuned. But if it loses its edge, we'll flip to another channel, another show.

At a recent Lost and Found concert, musician Michael Bridges took aim at "showy" worship services: "At our church we have something really cool. We have hard-bound books in every pew, and all of the words to all of the songs are printed right there for you."

Before they reach adulthood, our teenagers must learn that God is the audience, not them. The choir, the minister, the ushers, and the people sitting in the pews are all part of the worship service, for which God is the point. The best way to turn the show into a worship experience is to get our teenagers deeply involved in the service. They can read the Scriptures, create responsive readings, do the corporate prayer, create PowerPoint slides for the sermon, plan and perform short dramas, and more. If they own it, they'll participate. Once they see God as the audience, the purpose for gathering changes.