Auditing Church

Right now at Trinity, our Pastor is in the midst of a series called, "The High Maintenance Bride." It's all about a biblical view of the Church. So when I came across this blog tonight, it immediately caught my attention. It seems to me that God is shaking up some of the me-centered ideas associated with being the Church and replacing them with His mind as revealed in the Bible. This is a good word for us to consider as we surrender to God's agenda during our day. ~Jon

Is Watching A Very Good Sermon on TV or Online the Same as 'Doing Church'?

Subtitle:

Star Article

Author:

David Livingston

Date Given:

March 23, 2010

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Is Watching a Sermon the Same As Church.pdf

When you read that question, your reaction may well be, “Are you kidding? What a ridiculous thought!” Perhaps the earliest (even before the days of personal computers) and most caustic response I recall hearing about people who rationalize doing “TV church” was an in-your-face, “See if your TV gives you a hug when you’re sick, lonely, or need advice.”

More recently, Johnathon Bowers, our South Site Coordinator, commented on this topic at a staff meeting, remarking about an article’s description of the age we live in.

For the first time in church history, our generation is able to watch and hear quality Christian preaching and music seven days a week, morning, noon, and night. And indulging in this wealth breeds in some a “consumer mentality,” such that they can simply change channels or turn off completely whatever they don’t like. In this, many people fall into a similar pattern with their actual church participation, i.e., to routinely “surf the Web of congregations” instead of hanging in there with all the other imperfect people in their church.

They, therefore, ignore the plain biblical instruction for their good—that God ordains struggles, conflicts, and outright orneriness within a church body so that he will get the glory of saved sinners like them growing in their faith, practicing his “one another” commands, and showing a clueless, alienating world his alternative community of reconciliation and grace.

That said, let’s go back to the original question and more particularly to what it means to “do church.” For starters, let’s acknowledge what the majority of us actually do every weekend at Bethlehem in our multi-site services. On a rotating basis, a different fraction of us will get live preaching, but most of the time far more of us sit and “watch a very, very good sermon” on a big video screen. So, what am I doing here, throwing stones at my own glass house? Maybe.

No doubt there are more than just a few folks who have surfed their way into our services from elsewhere to hear the very good sermons and will stay only as long as the sermons remain very, very good. That’s what “doing church” is for them ... they are “auditing” church.

And that’s not all bad ... in fact, it’s way better than staying away. By all means, come and audit! For that matter, staying home to watch a good sermon on TV is also way better than watching virtually everything else on TV. Long ago, the Apostle Paul wrote that he rejoiced at any kind of gospel preaching so long as Christ was proclaimed (Philippians 1:15–18), and so should we.

The rub comes in letting ourselves settle into minimalism. In other words, it’s very sad to reduce “doing church” to listening to a sermon whether it’s at home in front of a screen or in a building with others in front of a screen. “Doing church” is far more and far better than that ... both on Sunday mornings and all through the week. Why? Because church isn’t a building to go to or programs and classes to attend; it’s a living fellowship of people who have a saving relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ ... and a saving relationship with one another as members of the family of God (consider Hebrews 3:12–13).

So, “doing church” is our identity first and foremost. It is who we are as Christ’s disciples, as our Father’s family, as the fellowship of God’s Holy Spirit. “Doing church” is therefore living in face-to-face (sometimes in-your-face) community with others who, like ourselves, are the “called-out ones” (that’s what the New Testament word for church means), called individually out of death and darkness into the communal life and light of the triune (communal) God and his communing people.

Be glad for good sermons (especially the very, very good ones we are used to) and for the means of sending them far and wide on TV and the Internet. May they be used for creating worshipful, missional, mutually-loving, accountable life together—which is what “doing church” really does!

On the way with you toward being such a “doing church,”

David Livingston, South Campus Pastor

Please indulge some grateful personal nostalgia: As I sit writing this Star article, I remember it was one year ago that Karin and I boarded a plane for Cape Town, South Africa, and began our adventurous four-month sabbatical. Our arrival there coincided almost to the day—170 years later—with that of a far more famous Doctor Livingston(e) about whom many others have since “presumed.”

Africa, England, and America all lay in the offing before us then … 110 days to enjoy God’s pre-arranged cavalcade of the places and people he would show us one by one. We can never sufficiently thank him (or you) for that gracious investment in our renewing time away ... but a very fast one year later we aim to always keep trying. Thanks again!

http://www.hopeingod.org/document/watching-very-very-good-sermon-tv-or-online-same-doing-church