[Church and Discipleship] A lesson from History (11/13)

By Louie Rudin

None of the ideas I’ve written about are mine. I did not come up with this “plan”. This is merely the central theme of the Gospels and is found throughout the entire bible.  I think that over the years man has added his own “flavor” to what he has perceived that church and discipleship should look like. Most of the time I believe it was in good faith, perhaps an attempt to preserve the tenets of the faith during times when the written word was not prevalent and people were not literate and rulers were evil. As mentioned earlier, there was a serious time of persecution with the early church and when the ruling class of the Roman Empirefinally repented, they wanted to “make up” for their heinous crimes to the early Christians by making it “easier” to be a follower of Jesus. Unfortunately that theme contradicts the themes that Jesus was speaking about concerning self denial and cross carrying. After many centuries the pendulum then swung to the opposite spectrum such that the rulers insisted that everyone must now be a follower of Jesus, and the persecution was now against those who resisted. An interesting (and disturbing) shift to be sure. Then when the Industrial Revolution came along, the church wanted to become more efficient and streamlined like the machines that were being produced in mass quantities, so the people involved began to devise “plans” that promoted spiritual growth and formation. Programs and activities and large scale events became popular since “bigger was better”, at least from a business perspective. We gradually moved from an agricultural society (where people lived in small communities and knew each other) to an urbanized culture where people became independent and isolated. School districts merged together to minimize costs with larger classes and fewer teachers resulting in less individual attention to students. Jobs moved from farms and small businesses to industrial centers where workers had to commute each day, taking them away from their families and neighbors for longer and longer periods of time. Our culture evolved from a producing mentality to a consumer mentality, encouraging an entitlement approach to life. The church, in an effort to survive in a culture that was passing it by, began to adapt to the culture with mall-like complexes that offer multiple options for the benefit of the attendees. If the local church wasn’t meeting the needs of the congregants then they simply left and went to a “better” church where they felt more comfortable and their perceived needs were met. The competitive nature of Wall Street was now prevalent in our churches and, sadly, still is. There is little to no growth in the church at large, only an inside migration of people shuffling from one dying church to another one that has more appeal.