Ordinary Christianity (part 7)

Spiritual Gifts Are for Building Up the Body

Lord God, we come before you this morning Just fresh off the celebration of Christmas. What a blessing it is to think that you would send your son the Lord Jesus Christ To leave his perfect fellowship with you and to come to earth.

To live the perfect life were commanded to live to die the painful death we deserve To be raised on the third day that we might become Your sons and daughters. What a blessing it is. Father we pray as we look this morning at what it means to be Ordinary according to biblical standards.

Father, would you bless each one here? We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well last week I made a comment which Stirred up apparently some small controversy. After I have to watch, you know, just when I feel the Spirit come upon me and I'm led to stray from my script I want you to please open your Bibles to first Corinthians chapter 12 because I I said something about verse 7 and I and Then I qualified it, but I qualified it under my breath.

So unless you were listening to me kind of think aloud, maybe you didn't get it. But this passage first Corinthians chapter 12, we know it's about what? What's the overall theme of first Corinthians 12?

Spiritual gifts, but here's here's the thing. What are spiritual gifts for? What's the purpose of spiritual gifts? I I think Corey said so we could show off what? Oh, okay. I'm sorry. He said edifying the believers.

It's edifying the believers, okay, and what else. Building up of the church serving one another right and if we're gonna say Building up the church. It really is building up the church in what sense numbers?

I'm sorry. Where there are weaknesses, okay shoring things up. Yes. But in what other sense is it building up the church why I can't see you at all without my glasses. Sorry, what other sense is a building of the church.

Janet. Maturity in Christ. Boy, I love that woman. Let's let's read verses 4 to 12. Would somebody read those for me, please? Go ahead Cory. Okay. So what I said last week was first Corinthians 127 isn't primarily.

Spiritual Gifts, Love, and Maturity in Ephesians 4

Mm-hmm, and I can I think you could say it's not even maybe secondarily about People talk about the manifestation of the Spirit being speaking in tongues. Well, I think even just a cursory look at this would tell us.

The manifestation of the Spirit is just given as a general heading there. And then it's kind of defined given some examples in the text there. But it ultimately it doesn't matter whether or not Tongues is for today not with regard to what I'm saying because the the point isn't Whether speaking in tongues is for today or not.

The point is what do you do with your spiritual gift and you use it and for what end? It's for the unity for the building up of the body of Christ and my point was last week if you have that gift, which means that you're saved because every Christian has Spiritual gift and you fail to employ it and it's given to you by the Holy Spirit by God himself.

How can you say that that's not sin. How can failing to use something that God has given you not be sinful? How can it be? Okay. Well, you know, I just I don't know what my gift is. So I'm not gonna employ it or I I don't really feel that great about my particular gift.

I'm not that important. Anyway, I mean this is these are all the things that Paul argues against all the time. You know the foot cannot say or the head cannot say to the foot. I have no use for you head cannot say to the hand.

I have no use for you, etc. Etc, etc, and I I think I said maybe a few weeks ago. You know, sometimes we feel like maybe we're the spiritual little toe of the church. But then I challenge everybody how much would it cost?

How much would you take to chop off your little toe and it would be quite a bit? Nobody wants to you know, nobody thinks of their own body and thinks well, that's not very important. I mean, maybe you know some internal organ that you never see but Generally speaking we value our body.

Let's turn over to Ephesians chapter 4 and this really kind of emphasizes the point that Janet was making. It's like she knows something. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 to 16. And I'll read that speaking of Jesus the Apostle Paul says In verse 11 and he gave the Apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers.

To equip the Saints for the work of ministry and these are gifts to the church, by the way He gave gifts to men. To equip the Saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith and Of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by waves and Carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes rather in Contrast speaking the truth in love.

We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body Joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly. I'll say that again when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love and again, you know, that's the picture of spiritual gifts.

Is really a picture of love growth. Maturity all these things, you know, we don't tend to think of Exercising my spiritual gift as an act of love and I don't mean mine. Specifically I mean yours. We don't tend to think of it that way, but that's exactly what it is.

I love the Lord enough and I love my fellow Saints enough. I need to stop using I the point is you need to love the body of Christ enough and the Lord himself enough to exercise your spiritual giftedness for the benefit of all and It even says there, you know what happens when we all exercise our gift together then.

You know the we grow we grow maturity. We grow in love for one another and that's the point of spiritual giftedness. Any questions about that? And I'm not gonna Give a discourse Speaking in tongues and we could go to 1st Corinthians 14.

I Almost can't resist having just read what MacArthur said, but I'm not going to. Any questions about spiritual gifts generally speaking? Okay. So last week we were talking about What we're talking about ambition rights and we closed by reading Philippians 2 1 to 11 and just the the picture of Humility of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I wanted to just read this before we move on to the next section this is from Horton and he says Just talking about the different aspects of humility and talking about how Jesus Sacrificially gave himself up.

And he says the point of this brief survey is to remind ourselves that our habits are not simply shaped by our beliefs. Our beliefs are also shaped by what we not merely as individuals, but as a society evolving over generations.

Have come to accept and desire as good true and beautiful. Ultimately, we have to decide which story we truly believe in the true version of the story the gospel we all learn that we Die in order to be raised as a living member of a new creation.

Justified adopted raised with Christ seated with him in the heavenly places. Says we can't invent or reinvent ourselves. We do not choose our own nature from a supermarket of unlimited options. That is a fable the world tells us.

In other words if I were to just shrink it down he's saying we need to act like what we say we believe. The world sells us one thing, you know, you can be anything you want. There's nothing you shouldn't reach for and the Bible says This is what you are.

You are in Christ. You are a Christian. You need to act like a Christian so with that said I Move on to the the next section and this has an interesting main title practicing what we preach. Which is a continuation of what he's just been saying, right live like what you say you believe.

But then his subtitle is no more super Apostles. Now I happen to think who knows what the reference super Apostle is. Familiar with that and Paul's writings in what book. Bob which one yes, it's Corinthians second.

Good choice. If you said third, there'd be a problem. And and what are the super Apostles. No Rock stars. Yeah kind of I I mean I tend to agree with. Somebody that I'm gonna be accused of calling a super boss Larry Judaizers, well, I think in part yeah, but I but I mean I think there was a bigger point that Paul was making about the super Apostles and that's that they were very arrogant very full of themselves and You know very I mean they they deprecated Paul at every turn, you know, he's ugly.

And on top of that he doesn't speak. Well and on top of that He's not very impressive. You know other than that. He's a great guy. They so they were very full of themselves but today we have. He wants to make the point here Horton does that we have some super Apostles and who do you think he's referring to?

What's that? No today modern modern wife. Who do you think who do you think he's referring to when he talks about? Super Apostles. Okay, no clues. Yeah. We there's just some there's a celebrity culture around some pastors.

I Mean big-time celebrities, you know, we tend to think pastor Mike is a celebrity. But these people are really celebrities and we'll describe that a little bit. First let's just talk about the different kinds of ministry that we might see.

Typified in churches today if I said, you know, well such-and-such church has a Moses ministry of. Or a Moses model of ministry. What would you think of what would it mean to you that a church had a Moses? model of ministry a really old guy single single leader a really strong centralized single leader who basically just controls almost everything.

But Something that's become very popular these days is the multi-site church. Multi-site church. I was just on a website yesterday one of my nephews asked me a question and I went and looked at this church never heard of the guy before and They've got a multi-site church in Montana and I'm going how do you get a multi-site church in?

Like what it eight people live in Montana, you know, I think there's more people there during, you know, various times of the year. But I just said, okay. But what does that mean? What's a multi-site church?

One guy in a bunch of TV sets that pretty much sums it up, right and in a lot of these churches like let's say you know, I'll Just say something that we would never do in a million years write that down because if it happens I'm out of here.

Where we we actually have the service here, but then we broadcast it to other places not, you know over the internet, but but we broadcast it to other places where people also gather and watch on TV and.

Can you think of some? Well, what are some advantages to a multi-site ministry? Okay, you have a big budget and maybe not so much work. Okay, what what are some other benefits of the multi-site ministry?

Yes, Janet. Okay now to defend, Montana. Because people are spread out there. If you could have you know one central place and then some satellites. Well when inclement weather comes along, it's not that big of a deal.

And people can still meet and they still get the the same teaching in each of the locations and you know. If you have one really good pastor, then it makes it easier. Can I just tell you from a very pragmatic standpoint why people would want to do that?

People have said in the past, you know, would we ever do a you know, I said would we ever do a church splits? No, that's that's not right. Would we ever do a church plant? You know where we would send off some people and do that.

Well, it's like, you know people say Grace Community Church. Why don't you do church plants? Well part of the problem with that is if you live in I'll just stick with Grace Church because it's easier if you live in the Los Angeles area.

And you have say a 20 or 25 minute drive to Grace Community Church. Would you really? Say drive. Ten minutes less and go hear some guy you've never heard of preach every week or would you want to be at John MacArthur's Church and.

The answer is probably most people would say I'd rather go to John MacArthur's Church. And so it really wouldn't leave the the situation all that much. But going back to Montana, you know it it sort of does in Some ways it seems like it solves a problem.

Because now you have you don't have to have six guys who can preach the word you only need one and You just broadcast the message to these different places. But what a lot of churches do now is The the pastor because these places aren't so spread out.

What they do is the pastor shows up like let's say you have four campuses is what they're called. For campuses, so the pastor shows up unannounced at one of the four, you know, it's kind of like the lottery system.

We we got the pastor this morning and then you know, everybody else gets the video screen. I Guess if they're too close though, you could just drive from one to one, you know, make sure you get there.

But what what do you think the problem? What's what's one of the problems or some of the problems with that form of ministry? Yeah, you're not you're kind of excluding a lot of guys. Maybe from preaching because and I mean think about this if it's a big deal to have The guy up on the screen then what about the week when the guy isn't up on the screen, you know, what a letdown, right?

You know just to show you how some people are and and nobody here certainly but In LA people would come in in the morning and we'd be walking in To church and somebody driving to the parking lot say, you know, if John MacArthur's preaching this morning and you say no.

It's gonna be Phil Johnson or no, it's whoever and they just turn and they drive away. Okay. We'll go somewhere else. Because people aren't coming for the word. They're coming for you know the person.

But some of the other other problems not just not equipping men was there Brian. Did you have another idea? I think you just exercise the gift of prophecy. Brian says I'm not gonna live forever. That is just terrible.

I don't know about that. So yeah, I mean, I mean there is that but how about this if it let's say, you know. You're a church every week. Because you want to hear the preaching you want to have fellowship everything else and you know for like eight nine weeks in a row.

You wind up drawing the short stick and you're you know, watching the video thing. Do you feel closer to the pastor or more distant from. I think you feel more, you know. There's a there's a distance building almost into it, you know.

And you know, does the does the pastor get to know you do you get to know the pastor? I don't I don't think so and that's kind of the point, isn't it? The pastor is just too big of a deal to actually talk to you.

Church discipline would be at best awkward, right? Because you're gonna get up and you're gonna announce somebody's name and everybody's gonna go. Who's that? What campus is that? You know, and okay, we're gonna pan right down to her seat today, you know there.

That's where she usually seats sits, you know, but she's not here today. Yeah, that that would be bad that'd be very tough. Any other thoughts on that. I I mean I I just I can't even wrap my head around it because what it really says is.

You know this. This ministry is just too big to be held in one building, you know, so Janet. Okay, go ahead Cory it's even worse than having two services, you know. I mean because you don't even you're not even in the same building, you know, it's like no.

No, you're not. Do you have something else to it? It really it's easy to be anonymous. I guess a good way to say that right, you know. Just kind of slip in it and I think there's I mean, that'd be that'd be a good book, right?

Anonymous Christianity because that's that's a lot of it today. Yeah, Brian hmm. Now that's interesting where they would drive one that the pastor around and he would preach at all these different buildings.

I mean it does sound like much like the old Methodist preachers. He used to just get on the horse and ride from town to town and preach. Those guys didn't live very long and I sort of think that's a that's a problem there, too.

But I'll tell you what, but I think maybe the hardest thing is I've only had to preach two sermons the same one in a day, but I did once through. You know my own Fiasco Ness, I can't even think of a good word here I wound up doing that I was doing a no co a Saturday show by myself and For reasons that I cannot explain I wound up doing the same thing three times in a row.

Because I've made a hash out of the first two recordings and here's what I found the third time I was doing it I honestly couldn't remember if I was repeating something if I was about to repeat something that I had said earlier in this show.

Or if it was one in one of the previous shows. You know what I mean, so I'm like, I can't imagine giving I mean the the same sermon three times because I'd be like I already use that illustration. It would be very hard.

Yes Joanie asked, you know, would it be harder to keep false teaching out of the church that way and I I think it kind of I think that sort of builds on what I was saying a little bit earlier with kind of the removed sense of Shepherding.

I think there is a sense in which you know other teaching other ideas and even You know other other men could kind of get in. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that can be more of a problem. When you think about what a church is supposed to do.

What is a Christian Church? Supposed to do what are some things that it should be doing in other words and he frames it this way. What's ordinary ministry, you know, there's extraordinary ministry where you have to be on a TV screen because there are so many different campuses.

You know people can't keep up with you and I'm not a Grace for years and years they stayed away even from the side. You know video screens and stuff like that because they didn't want to do it. But I mean at some point They have gone to that.

But what about that. What is a church? What is a church called to do a local church. Preach the word would be one thing. I'm sorry. Love one another. Okay, good equip the Saints for the work of ministry.

Okay, we're gonna mature together to grow together. Yep. Pray together worship together. We could also say things like Why I think we could say things like Ordinances, you know practice the ordinances the Lord's table and baptism kind of mentioned Fellowship evangelist would be something the church should be about right.

Christ Builds His Church, Not Celebrity Pastors

Now What are some of the differences between the extraordinary and ordinary ministries. And why is it important to make these distinctions? He asked this question because an extraordinary ministry is the one that has you know, the the.

The huge deal I how many of you guys have ever been to Saddleback. Maybe a few of you. I don't know if you remember much about the trip there. But do you remember what your first impression was of Saddleback the parking lot ministry?

What do you mean by that? I mean they have they have a group of people. Of course, it's pretty easy in Southern, California, right to stand outside. Not gonna get pelted by Snow or anything like that.

But they're standing outside and they just kind of it's. They've just got people waving in the whole way. And so it's like once a lot after another after another. So yeah, I mean right there in the parking lot and then when you as soon as you get out.

They're talking to you. You know, it's your first time here. Here's the program, you know. Do you need to know where the nursery is? You know that it is go. It's pretty amazing and you walk on the campus.

The campus is Pretty amazing. I mean, it's more like being at a Like the park of a university or something. I mean, it's pretty spectacular. But there are other there are some deficiencies as well. But I think that you know, maybe some of the the differences between that kind of Let's put it this way and I'm not after Rick Warren this morning because I don't have any Rick Warren quotes.

But when there's a leadership meeting at Saddleback. And Rick Warren speaks don't you think that pretty much settles it and people say what about when MacArthur speaks? Well, what about when MacArthur speaks he gets overruled by his elders.

Any number of times usually when he wants to do too much but if you have somebody who is a celebrity, how do you shut him down and It's it's a lot more Difficult and I think what we've seen over the last few years is that kind of celebrity status can be a real problem for a local church.

The biblical model of course is a plurality of elders meaning a multitude of elders. Just give you more balance not a one-man rule. Let's look at Let's not look at that. What let's just talk about. What are some problems with elevating a Pastor over The other pastors or the other elders in other words making one person more important than the rest now.

It is true that the person who generally speaking occupies the pulpit is going to have a little more pull in the in the congregation because He's the guy up in the pulpit all the time. He's the guy preaching and teaching so you listen to him and you think Okay, I like him I like what he teaches and therefore I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt now this is not talking about Factionalism, I'm just saying there's a natural tendency toward deferring to the senior pastor.

But what do you think about the idea of purposely elevating somebody and saying okay what he says goes? Okay, he's a sinner just like everybody else and sir. And especially just think about that really what you're doing if you set one man apart and you just say you're the man.

You know, we're gonna follow you. It's almost like you are over inflating his head and you're just waiting for it to blow, you know. The clock's ticking. It's just a matter of time. Yes, and it's always a problem.

Yeah, Paul did mention, you know people. The factionalization of first Corinthians people following the different leaders there and saying they were of this man and that man. And That's even a problem when it's just one guy because well, let me just put it this way.

Whose church is this? And as soon as it becomes Mike's Church or Steve's Church or somebody else's church. You've got a problem and the problem is it's about the man and not about Christ and it should never be that way.

I mean, can you say in shorthand? Well, you know, where do you go to church? I go to Mike's Church. Okay, as long as everybody knows, you know that that's not what you Mean, we're not here to serve Mike necessarily.

You aren't I am. So we can have this kind of celebrity culture about Pastors, which is not a good thing. But when you think about Timothy and you think about what it says about him in the New Testament.

Just in 1st and 2nd Timothy, do you tend to think of him as being an uber pastor or just a regular guy? Number two regular guy Corey says why is that? Because you read things like Let no one disregard you because of your youth or you know encouragements to fulfill his ministry and that kind of thing.

Why. Because. It wasn't like he had some massive personality or that, you know, it was necessarily easy for him. He was just a guy called to faithfulness. I mean if you compare the things that. You know if you compare Paul and Timothy, it'd be a it wouldn't be a very even match there.

Let's go to. Just to kind of put this in a little bit of balance and perspective, let's look at Luke Chapter 22. Because sometimes you you watch some of these churches and whatnot you go. Did they not learn anything from what the Lord said?

So I got Luke 22 verses 24 to 30 and what somebody read that place. Luke 22 verses 24 to 30. Thank you. It's almost like sometimes there is a tendency to try to Jostle for the best seat at the table, you know to say Essentially, you know, I want to be known as the greatest.

I want to have the greatest ministry. Can really lose sight of what is important and what's important isn't. Who has the greatest reward in heaven. What's important is faithfulness here. Obedience here just doing what you're supposed to do.

Let's look at Matthew chapter 16 and again to just kind of emphasize something we said earlier. But I think this is also important especially in light of the celebrity Culture we see these days. Matthew 16 verses 13 to 20.

Matthew 16 verses 13 to 20 and who would read that please? Go ahead Brian. And this really emphasizes a few things that we've been talking about. One is whose church is it? It's Christ Church. He says it's my church.

But that is an encouraging passage for a number of Situations for example pastor Falls. We've seen that on a number of occasions lately. Does that mean that the entire church is gonna collapse. It might but it shouldn't.

Kind of depends on what it's built on right? I mean, is it gonna have some ramifications in the church? Yes. But should that mean the end of the church? No, why? Because it's Christ Church. He's building it and that's why when you see all these, you know modern methodologies where we have to do this to increase the numbers or do that to increase the numbers and this kind of change will Bring in more people and it's more more more more more more more because we have to apply our wisdom to build the church.

It's not what Jesus said he said I'll build my church and we have the prescription for how to do that in the New Testament. What else can we say or what else can we? How else can we apply the idea that the gates of hell or the gates of death the gates of Hades?

Various translations have will not prevail against Christ building his church. What else does that mean? It has a very specific meaning for me Brian. Right. Yeah, I. Yeah, I think you could apply it that way I mean there are other places I think you know where no one can pluck them out of my hand, you know.

And John 10 that kind of thing. But yeah, I think that's a principle there. What about this and This is one as maybe as soon as I say it you'll go. Oh, yeah. Well, of course, I knew that I wasn't gonna say it because everybody knows that.

What about the idea that the truth the gospel itself could ever vanish from the face of the earth. When you see what Jesus says there in Matthew 16, do you suppose that that's possible? Because he it says I will build my church and nothing will stop me from doing that.

He's not talking about the building. This isn't some, you know, great Illustrious, I want to say Coliseum. That's not right. What's the big? Well edifice. Okay. It's not a massive building is the point he's building as.

As Brian was saying he's brilliant bring Building up the church the individuals in the church the Saints the local bodies. But the gospel will never leave. Why because that would stop the growth of the church that would stop people from growing grace and knowledge of the truth.

So the gospel is never going to disappear. Therefore anybody who tells you that the truth was gone for 17 or 1800 years would be wrong. Yes, Cory that he's going to overcome the defenses of hell. Okay.

Yeah Horton writes this he says the gates of hell are no small matter at least for us. We're quite anxious. We have to do something about this this being whatever we're shocked by at present America's in a moral freefall.

The media are persecuting us. Churches seem to be losing their way. Well, so this one radical Islam is on the march not to mention the perfect storm of AIDS famine and War that have taken millions of lives in Africa.

What are we to do panic? No, we go back to that central truth. Christ will build his church and nothing will stop it. When we get caught up in trying to stop AIDS famine war. Any of those kind of things which in and of themselves are good things.

I think it's good to stop AIDS, but or famine or war. But when that becomes the focus of the church, then what stops being the focus of the church? Christ in the gospel. Exactly. Well, he says here he goes.

Here's the good news. It's not your ministry church. And these aren't your people you do not have to create or protect a personal legacy. You know, what's what's gonna be your legacy when you retire pastor it's not my legacy.

He goes on he says our job is to simply distribute and guard Christ's legacy. And I'm like, that's that's right Christ's Word. That's all we need to do. Now listen to this it should be personally encouraging to you because you don't have to live the gospel.

Be the gospel do the gospel. You don't have to lead the troops to redeem the culture. You don't have to reconcile the world to God. We are not building a kingdom that can be shaken with violence like other realms.

But we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Just in the last few minutes we have here I want to talk about Something we've spoken about but just develop a little bit more contentment. Contentment.

This is interesting. Do Wealthier people or wealthier societies. Are they happier than other societies? What surprised you that even adjusted for inflation like I know it's impossible to leave over the last few years, but incomes in the United States over the last like almost 60 years Have doubled.

So we have more money in the United States than we did 50 60 years ago. But what do the surveys say about happiness levels? They're lower than ever. We have more stuff than ever. I mean you can you can play games on your iPad till 2 o 'clock in the morning or 3 o 'clock in the morning.

You can just entertain yourself to death. So why aren't people happier because those things are never gonna make them happy. Money isn't the isn't the issue contentment. Contentment has to have an object and as Christians our object or the focus of our contentment is Christ.

Horton says it this way says there must be someone or something that is so satisfying that we can sing Let goods and kindred go this mortal life. Also, I Mean when you think about that Him a mighty fortress is our God.

What does that line even mean? It doesn't mean I don't want this stuff, or I don't care about these people. What it means is these things are Good, but they're not the ultimate good. My ultimate good my ultimate satisfaction comes through Christ or Christ alone.

It's interesting because he talks about greed he calls it avarice, I mean if I said avarice how many people would even know what that is. Read it's that is an old-fashioned word, right? I mean we don't think about I actually had to look it up because I want to be able to give a brief definition and It means the lust for wealth.

That's what the dictionary says the lust for wealth but you know people actually consider that a good thing now and Not just in the Gordon Gekko, you know greed is good sense. But there are some people of a political stripe that say this that the best Form of government is one in which everyone works on their own self-interest because if you work at your own self-interest then That develops into the greater good.

Well, is that true? It's true up to a point right. I mean it's good when everybody has some kind of Interest in improving themselves and working hard. It's not good when that ambition or that avarice that greed is Unregulated and unchecked and there's no there's no way to stop them because then you you wind up You know with monopolies and all kinds of things real problems.

Mmm trying to move things along here now today. He doesn't make this point about the Prosperity gospel because I mean just think about this a so-called gospel that's tied into a person's worst kind of weakness their worst desires of Greed and longing for money and then you're going to tell them this is what God wants for you.

This is what God commands for you. You know, you need to speak wealth into being and that kind of thing. I mean, this is It's like the worst collision of bad things so completely false but I just need to I need to get to the end because we're gonna be starting a new series next week, but Just the idea between the difference between having a view of things Generally relationships as either a covenant or a contract.

Covenant or contract I should have done a quiz like true false covenant or contract. Here's a tricky one is marriage a covenant or a contract. Let's put it this way is your marriage more of a business deal.

Covenant. Maybe if you say contract, that's a that's problem. It could be a problem. Here's one that I don't think people Think seriously enough about Church membership contract or covenants. You know, there are in fact Mark Devers church uses this down in DC they have membership covenants where you actually agree to do certain things and I'm like, I personally like that.

But why do you think the I I think that and I'll ask you why I think this. I think that most people view church membership as more of a contract. Why do I say that if the church doesn't do for me then I'm free to leave.