Why is the evangelical church so full of pretense?

I’m no behaviorist, but I don’t need to be to understand this truth- that which you punish you get less of, and what you reward you get more of. We don’t like punishment, and seek to avoid it. We do like reward and seek to find it. In God’s economy, however, nothing fails like success and nothing succeeds like failure. The question is, will we do things our way, or His way?

The church too often sees itself as in a competition with the world, that it is one option among many that claim to provide the good life. To win that competition we need to lift up, put center stage those who are living the good life. This is how we frame our testimonies. “Before Jesus came into my life everything seemed great, but it wasn’t. Then the façade came crashing down and Jesus rescued me. Now, everything really is great.” Sure, we’ll cop to the reality that we still have small troubles and challenges, but nothing to worry about.

On the other hand, when things get really ugly we hide them. Why do you suppose #metoo has come home to roost in the evangelical church? Not because of systematic underground embracing of sexual abuse. No, because of cover-ups. When a pastor seduces a sheep, when the youth leader exploits the troubled child our first thought is to protect not the reputation of Jesus, not the victim, but of our church. When people decide a church is unsafe it has already shuttered its doors, whether it knows it or not.

The church, however, if it has any reason to exist, exists to be that place where we who are not safe go. It is the assembly of sinners. Not former sinners, not purified sinners, but sinners. To be sure, not unrepentant sinners, not complacent sinners, not comfortable sinners, but sinners. It is supposed to be the place where we acknowledge what we are. It’s supposed to be that place where we confess our failures, not trumpet our faux victories. It’s supposed to be the place where the desperate know to go for healing.

How do we get there? We celebrate His victories while confessing our failures. We rejoice over the forgiveness of sin while laboring for the cleansing from sin. We acknowledge not just that men are totally depraved, but that I am a sinner, saved by grace, that my sins were, and are so grievous, so ugly, so damnable that only the agony of Christ’s passion could pay for them. The message of the church should never be, “We can help you win.” It must always be, “Jesus has already won.”

That smiling guy beside you in the pew? Three days ago, again, he looked at porn. That woman in the row in front of you, the one holding her husband’s hand? She drank herself to sleep last night. That man up on stage singing his heart out for Jesus? He knows where to find anonymous sex with men. The one they are worshipping? He died for them all. The church is not where we go to learn how to have a good life. We go to church to hear what to do about the truth that in our sin we destroy our own lives- that we run to the One who gave His life for us.

This is the eleventh installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday September 15 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 12811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.