Stop Going to Church!

John F. Alexander argues in his book Being Church: Reflections on How to Live as the People of God that...

"1.  At the heart of normal Christian life is stopping "going to church" so we can become the body of Christ, the extended family of God.

2.  We all need to do this, not just special disciples or those with special callings.  Church as community and family is one of the central theological categories of the Bible.  So we must be calling others to it.  If we aren't doing it in ways that normal Christians can, we'd better find way they can.

3.  Those without a deep commitment to living as Christ's body are fated to remain spiritually stunted and to experience little of the abundance of Christ.

4.  Until those with such a commitment increase, our world is fated to remain in its terrible darkness, with no way to see the light set on the hill.

I believe that "going to church" is such a serious problem in our time that we must find ways to stand against it.  We must find ways to make it clear that church is the full-time occupation of all Christians, the only full-time occupation.  Church happens on Thursday as well as Sunday, at work as well as in a particular holy building, and it has more to do with being an extended family than with watching a priest (or pastor) perform.

       Now I'm taking a tough position here, and I mean every syllable of it.  However, I need to be clear.  First, when I say all Christians need to live as an extended family, I mean that they're mistaken if they don't.  I don't mean that if they don't they are not Christan or even that they aren't faithful. Similarly, I mean that churches that understand themselves mostly as putting on performances are mistaken; I don't mean they aren't churches, and I most certainly don't mean that we should depart from them. Churches that mostly have solid preaching, teaching, and public worship are at least 50% churches, which is quite alot." 

Amen and Amen! I could not agree more heartily.