A Few Thoughts on the Deinstitutionalization of the Church

California Update and Vacation Plans

Hey everyone for those who follow me regularly, I am still in California as I'm recording this. And it's our afternoon the one afternoon we have here to go to the beach visiting family. I haven't been able to see them since before kovat and originally I'm actually from California and many of you don't know that but So that's where I am.

And just having a great time seeing family. Had a great time on our vacation, so I mean we just got it the visiting family and the vacation out of the way and First time since after kovat. So it's been nice to get out and looking forward to hitting the ground running when I get back to a more controlled environment next actually the end of this week and So you'll get some better quality podcasts.

I think once that happens as far as the audio quality and I'll have some slideshows and the content will be a little different but For now, I want to just share a few thoughts with you that I've had about.

Rend Collective and the Meaning of “Build Your Kingdom Here”

It was sparked from a tweet that I saw Ren collective the band some of you know who that is. Some of you don't it's a Christian band. That they play a lot of it was kind of like folk ish. It's like folk rock kind I don't know how you'd categorize it folk rock.

I guess is the best I can come up with music. That was their musical style. I actually saw them in concert once years ago. Back when they had an album called the campfire album and I liked a lot of the songs on the album I really liked run collective.

I remember at that time and They had a song called build your kingdom here. And I remember thinking like this is a great song. Like I just it's had a great beat and I just thought the message was great and I'm realizing now I think that when they what they thought of by building God's kingdom here Was different than what I thought of by build your kingdom here.

I think they were on the social justice train more and this was kind of pre social justice being big and evangelicalism. I was thinking more like people are gonna get saved and you know, the society is gonna change you know strip clubs are gonna shut down and bars aren't gonna you know not gonna be as many bars and these kinds of things.

Cuz people are gonna be saved and you know, that's the kingdom of God is the church expands and it's you know Build your kingdom here more people coming to know the Lord. And I think they were saying a little a little bit more than that I think they were.

I think they were the way they weren't actually saying the same thing. I'm pretty sure now, but Anyway, one of the things that I saw them post on social media the other day was it was just graded me. So I'm gonna share it with you.

You're getting my little rant about it. They said we are a worship band for Christians who don't go to church. We are a worship band for Christians who don't go to church now. Wren Collective again, I said years ago I like their album.

I didn't know much about him other than I like their music. I know the Gettys have performed with them. I don't I'm guessing they must have been more solid at one time. I'm not I'm not sure I'm not sure where they're at.

Maybe someone else knows but that statement is a very troublesome to me. Why would you want like they're saying like this is a good thing that you know they want to be the worship band for Christians who don't go to church and I'd like to suggest number one.

The Church as an Institution and the Call to Gather

There can there be Christians who for a time aren't going to church? Okay, I'll admit that there can be someone who is saved who is a Christian but being a Christian means following Christ that's what it means is a little Christ and Going to church being part of a body using your gifts to edify the body is part of following Christ.

That's why the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts we're supposed to place ourselves under the authority of elders and in the accountability of the body. We're not supposed to forsake the assembling of the Saints we We were there's no Lone Ranger Christians out there.

If you're a Christian, you should be going to church. It's just a given. I mean, it doesn't it really doesn't make any sense to say that. We're you know, we're we're a band for all the vegetarians who eat meat.

It's like well, could there be some vegetarians who for a time eat some meat and then go back to their veggie? I mean, I guess but it's just weird, right? So anyway, this is Rank collective experiment and what they think of their fan base and who they're trying to cater to apparently and they think this is a good Thing and what I've realized is there is something bigger going on here.

This is just a symptom of it. There's something much bigger and that is the deinstitutionalization the deinstitutionalization of the church the church is not a respected institution anymore in In society, I mean there's places in the south and in traditional areas where you might find that but in general Pastors that the clergy are not respected and and church isn't respected anymore.

There's a lot of people who say they're spiritual even Christians now will say that sometimes I was very spiritual. I'm not religious, you know, I don't follow a religion and I think you know a lot of times there's like little clever catchphrases that people will use.

It's not a religion. It's a relation and I get what people are trying to say. I understand but I think There's something larger going on. That's motivating a lot of this trying to get away from religion.

Like look at all the churches that are built now like the new churches. Do they even look like churches? Most of the time they don't they look like malls. They look like something corporate and usually the the emblems that they have the their slogans and their their graphics They use for their emblems.

It looks like a new fast-food chain. It's it's corporate. It's not. It's not a traditional looking, you know, it's not institutional church kind of thing in fact, I remember a few years ago my wife and I went to this new church and She knew the pastor was good friends with him kind of grew up knowing him.

Why Churches Look Like Malls and Corporate Brands

And we went in this church and the name I'll try to withhold some of the facts just because of connections like the family connections potentially but in the name of the church was the word cross and I remember being at this church and And you know some fine people there, but there's no cross Anywhere.

Oh, it's just kind of weird. And then there were like pictures of the local area. I felt like I was in a bank. I was like, I'm walking into a bank and this was their new building and then and I'm like, you know.

Oh, it's such a pretty building and people are like, oh the building so good. I'm like, I Mean, it's a nice building. It's just not it doesn't look like a church and Most churches do not have graveyards anymore.

I mean that used to be the you would walk past the graveyard. You'd be reminded of eternal things. You'd be reminded, you know, you're heading somewhere else and People don't like to be reminded of that anymore people live in the here and now and It's like their fitness club the restaurants they like to go to their their church their just their whole lives are becoming more streamlined and It's it's like it's like a drive-thru in some ways.

I mean just everything's becoming fast instantaneous and What seems to be happening is the church is? Trying. I think what's happening is and this has been going on for decades. Neo-evangelicals especially are doing this but it's it's not just new evangelicals other denominations are starting to do this.

They are trying to survive. They're trying to get they want their churches and their ministries to survive and the way they think that they can do it is by Being something other than what they are. By being something more corporate.

By being something that's purpose is more related to helping the community and less related to helping individual souls on their path to eternity and So it's very focused on the community the programs that they have all these kinds of just gimmicky things to get people to come and Participate and I'm not saying all that's wrong.

I'm not saying it's wrong to have all these community things. I'm saying there's an emphasis shift. That's what the point I'm trying to make and the emphasis shift is that It's more focused on this world than next the only reason the church as an institution was significant in society was because it Represented the world to come and that's why often the church even in the south a New England.

It was definitely this way but even in the south. The church had a central location in the town often in southern places. It was like you had like a town. I Don't know. They call them town halls now, I guess but like their their their government building or whatever.

But the church was right there and that generally the steeple, you know was the highest thing in that some work so there's some towns that have an ordinance where you can't build anything higher than not than the tallest steeple and There's a reason for that.

It's pointing up. It is important it is the place you go to answer those eternal questions for marriage and the institution of marriage for You know baby dedications or baptisms for Funerals, I mean it is the church that plays that significant role For the beginning of life for the end of life for the significant eternal things that God has implemented within life and that's where you go to have your questions about those things answered and it's it's very identifiable building and Now Christians want to figure it out on their own they want to go to Google.

They want to go to search engines I guess and figure it out people who profess to be Christians who are really more they profess to be spiritual now. They're doing their cafeteria style Christianity and they don't need the institution.

They don't need they don't need People that have dedicated themselves to studying the word to explain to them what it means to help them understand it. They don't need The community of believers or the spiritual gifts that accompany that in their minds.

All they need is themselves. It's very inward focused inward directed, right? It is not Focused on eternity and eternal things and I think that's what Wren Collective is tapping into. I think that they're they see a market base for this and they think it's a good thing.

The people who are Christians who don't go to church are gonna listen to their music and this is such a good thing and What they don't realize is they're sawing off the very limb they're sitting on because If there is no Institution of the church if it's not important if you know, people can just figure out all this stuff.

They have all their needs being met within themselves personally then there's no reason for a body of Christ, there's no reason for elders or clergy or any of that stuff and those answers that the gnawing answers that we all have about why is there evil about The nature of reality itself the purpose of life all these things.

That you're there's going to be a void created it already is and There's going to be other things that will end up filling that void because I don't care no matter how much you want to be distracted by your cell phone or entertainment.

Eventually, there's going to be a moment where you're you're sitting there maybe at night laying in bed or something and you those gnawing questions come to you and Rather than kick the can down the road.

You're gonna want them answered and the logical place to go is church. There they used to be very it was it wasn't a mystery where to go to try to find answers for that. Now people are very confused. They're very displaced and I see the Christian evangelical industrial complex Falling into the same trap of disparaging the institution of the church making the church something that it's not downplaying its significance.

Making it about the here and now and once you do that you lose all the significance. There's no reason for a church if it's just about helping the community if that's the main focus. Well, we help the community that's that and so you'll listen to us more because that's something that you value.

Yeah, you may value it, but there's other places that can help the community. You don't need a church for that. So anyway, that's a long kind of rant I guess but that's that's what I attribute that that's the what read the collective collective posted is a symptom of a much greater disease and Because it doesn't make any sense because it's an oxymoron to talk about Christians who just don't go to church and that's somehow that Being a good thing, you know that it's like they have everything they need for spirituality in themselves.

It just means there's long-term gonna be less sales for Ren collective. No one's gonna want Christian music if there's if you really don't think there's any significance to the church but you will be left with those eternal questions and somewhere along the way they're gonna need to be answered and Where where is it gonna be if it's not the church if it's not that institution and the church also I should say this I mean they also filled they filled a role in society and for years with Establishing hospitals and and things that are genuinely Beneficial for society again, that's not the main purpose of the church.

That's that's a side benefit just like education is about learning not socialization. But but today so many people make out like education is about socialization. It's about this experience of college of going to school and being around others and stuff like that's gonna be a side benefit.

That could be good. That's not the purpose of education just like the purpose of the church is Not to build hospitals and to feed the hungry and all those that's not the purpose of the church as a whole that's.

Why the Church Exists Beyond Community Service

That's related to I mean I I guess I could see because feeding the poor and doing good works and these kinds of things. Those are things that Christians are commanded to do but they're not the thing that sets the church apart from other other Institute or other Organizations in society that can also just as easily feed the poor the church does it for a different motivation and the church does it for eternal reasons and the church represents in the eternal realm and You take that away you downplay that and there's just no reason for the church anymore.

But once you get rid of the church as an institution all those side benefits Also go with it and something has to fill the gap and it's gonna be the government. I think the government's already this is already happening.

The government's gonna take over those things either either corporate Corporate interest or the government will take over those things and people will will be there'll be less of a personal relationship and less You'll be treated more like a number.

There'll be more of a distance between the board controlling who gives out the Medical supplies medical benefits charitable Donations all these kinds of things. There'll be a board an impersonal board of some kind that controls that not loving pastors and a church where you can be part of it and It's just it's a different world.

We're heading into and the red collective tweet just made me think of it. And it's kind of dumb in my opinion, but alright, so there you go. There's a rant for you. Maybe it'll make you think about Some of the ways that your church might be doing doing what I mentioned Acting more like a corporation that benefits the society rather than its primary purpose being an institution that helps people Navigate life so that they can be prepared for the next life.

You know, so maybe you'll start thinking about some of the things that I'm mentioning and you'll start seeing them and and I hope that's Beneficial to you. That's why I make these videos is for you and for your benefit, so God bless.

I hope you're having a good time out there wherever you are enjoying the last days of summer and There'll be more videos coming soon. Bye now.