The Oxymoronic Gospel

The institutional church in America is in panic mode. Faced with the prospects of dwindling attendance/membership and meager giving, she is trying her best to concoct a strategy to preserve some semblance of relevance and viability and to ‘attract new members’. Ironically, she is relying upon the same type of man-centered thinking and employing some of the same marketing tactics and gimmicks that are largely responsible for where she now finds herself. Ultimately, she is more concerned about self-preservation than the heart of God. She likes her buildings. Her pastors and administrators like their salaries and their retirement plans. She likes her perceived place of moral authority. She likes her programs and all that her hands have made. And it would seem that all of these may have blinded her eyes to Jesus’ call to ‘come and die’.

The good news that Jesus brought us is shrouded in both a simplicity that even a child can understand and a depth and a mystery that defies human comprehension. This oxymoronic gospel …simple yet deep and mysterious…has at its core a call to ‘come and die’ in order that we may ‘truly live’.

Perhaps it’s time for the institutional church to die. Perhaps it has become an idol and a stumbling block for those truly seeking God. If I’m correct, then there are two obvious ways that this can happen.

The first is for the leaders and the members of these institutions to simply continue with their current trajectory that is rooted in self-preservation rather than Christ-centered self-denial. These man-centered strategies will not work and eventually church buildings will close, programs and gatherings will cease…the institution will die.

The second is for the leaders and the members of these institutions to confess (agree with the heart of God concerning our condition) and repent (turn back to God and His infinite wisdom)…to re-identify with the death of Christ (Romans 6) and to embrace our position as a people belonging to God not to ourselves (Isaiah 43:21, 1 Peter 2:9). In doing these things, the institution (as we know it) will die.

In either scenario the ‘institution’ dies. The first is an involuntary death and it will only further dirty the face of Jesus. The second is a voluntary death and I believe it will bring days of refreshing as we throw off the entanglements and weights of man-centered religious activity and embrace the oxymoronic gospel!

(NOTE: When I speak of the ‘institutional church’ I am referring to the man-made organizations/institutions who self-identify themselves as ‘Christian churches’ or ‘Christian denominations’ with a variety of structures, forms, stated beliefs, and leadership hierarchy. By ‘institutional church’ I do not mean ‘the church, the called out ones of God’. With that said, I understand that there are many called out ones in the institutional church but not everyone who is a ‘member’ of the institutional church is truly a part of the church. Likewise, there are undoubtedly people who profess faith in Jesus and who are not part of the institutional church but who are in fact part of the church. Ultimately, there is only one true church–the body of  Christ, the elect, the called out ones. With that said, I believe the sorting out is God’s business not mine–Matthew 13:24-29.)