Have you ever been church shopping? Did the experience cheapen your understanding of the Church, or did it lead you to a deeper understanding of the God you were pursuing?
Moving Past Church Shopping: From Taking to Being
“We’re church shopping.”
How often have you heard that phrase (or maybe uttered it)? Perhaps it was a move that necessitated the search, or something went south at the last church you participated in. Whatever it was, you were back on the hunt for the right fit for you and your family. Evaluating the music, the quality of the sermon, the friendliness of the greeters, the programs for the whole family. All of these things go onto our mental scorecard, and we look for the community that checks the boxes and explore a little deeper until it becomes a habit.
I wonder what Jesus would say about that kind of an attitude?
I believe that doesn’t need to be a rhetorical question – we can actually see how Jesus walks through this search of faith with those around Him. Jesus doesn’t lower the bar, he raises it.
More than Bread
Jesus performed miracles, and as we read it in the Gospels it certainly seems like the miraculous was mundane in Jesus’ presence. The lame walked, the blind gained sight, and the hungry were fed. His reputation grew to such a level that crowds were pursuing Jesus through incredible terrain just to get in on the action. In John 6, we have a string of incredible miracles that ends with a giant question mark.
First, Jesus breaks the natural laws of the world to feed five thousand men and their families from five (small) barley loves, and two small fish. Even the diminutive, miniscule crumbs that they disciples were able to gather were described as pathetic in the face of what they were being asked to produce. Yet produce they did, in the face of their Creator, leaving a near comical amount of leftovers.
Second, Jesus sends his disciples onward across the lake while he stays behind to be alone as he so often did. This ragtag group of followers were no strangers to the undulating waves of the water. As the waters pushed against their intended path, they buckled down and took their turns rowing. They set their back to what needed to be done. Imagine their surprise then when, as their brows were wet not only from the water but their sweat, a man walked alongside them. A ghost? An apparition of dehydration? No, just Jesus doing Jesus-ey things again, climbing aboard the boat and transporting them to the shore.
The Question
But the question mark has yet to be written. The crowds are seeking more of that sweet multiplication of food, while they are still basking in the afterglow of their full bellies. They trek across the lake to find Jesus, and find a testy Jesus who calls out their inner intentions. They want bread, but Jesus is interested in something deeper than their appetites. Their grumbling bellies are telling them exactly what they need, satisfaction.
Jesus invites them to a different kind of bread – if they would open their eyes and see Him as He stands before them. Yet in a moment that I can relate to far too often, they only see the physical man in front of them, walking right past the door that Jesus has opened for them.
“I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” – Jesus, John 6:53-56 NLT
What?
Being with Jesus
Every single one of those individuals were coming to Jesus with their own intentions, their own desires, their own wants. They knew what they wanted Jesus to do, and thus missed who Jesus is. Like so many of us, wanted temporary relief from their hunger. They want instantaneous satisfaction. Jesus had shown them the foreshadow of the Kingdom, but they couldn’t grasp the full glory He was inviting them to enter into.
So they left. They grumbled, they complained, they argued. No doubt, some well reasoned speeches were made that day, and some ‘legitimate’ criticisms were levied against Jesus. They were rational, even religious, in their desires because they were doing what was best for their families and selves.
As the crowd dispersed, Jesus watched them go. At first it was only the thousands of people who had been present the previous day for food shuffling away. Then it began to seep into others who had walked with Jesus for weeks. As those disciples thinned, some who had walked with Jesus lowered their heads and sauntered away. Eventually the doubts pierced through the most dedicated, and Jesus finally spoke to the Twelve – you too?
Facing Our Unbelief
When faced with such well reasoned unbelief, our hearts often wither in the sun scorched lands. Our roots are not deep enough to draw from the Wellspring, and our unbelief leaves us vulnerable to being uprooted. We’re tempted to leave and go church shopping.
But not that day. One glorious disciple understood that day what Jesus was calling them to.
Like a flare going up in the dark of night, he spoke out words of truth, beating off the demons of disbelief that harried the disciples.
“Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” – Simon Peter
Being with Jesus is what it is all about.
Beyond Church Shopping: Lessons in Community
This is the heart of what we’ve been learning and shaping in the past few years in Nanaimo, BC. A commitment to the Gospel, and thus to one another. It is easy to leave when things get hard, and go church shopping. It is so much more fulfilling to discover true community in covenant community. When our disbelief begins to blossom and bear fruit in our lives, we need others to send up the flare and replant us in the Gospel.
Our fears in Canada may not be centralized around where our next meal is going to come from, but there are plenty of fears to go around.
What if my children don’t believe in God? If I don’t receive healing? I can’t do enough for God to really love me? If I die alone, rejected by everyone? What if I fail? If God’s promises aren’t really true? What if I can’t afford my rent or mortgage? What if God doesn’t provide the way He said He would? If my marriage falls apart?
Lies that place us at the centre of our story.
There is beauty when we don’t just choose a community, but we covenant with that community. To stick it through the difficult, rocky roads of relationship and commit to one another in life, love, accountability, and Gospel. To get into the everyday stuff of life, and let others see our deepest fears, so that they can speak the Truths of Jesus to them.
We need others who will help us beat back the demons of disbelief, and encourage us through the dark nights of the soul.
It is so much more than shopping for the community that fits all that we hope for. It is discovering and entering into a community that pursues Jesus above all else, and will stop at nothing to walk alongside me in that pursuit.