The more I get into Letters to the Church by Francis Chan, the more I just want to reprint the whole thing so everyone will read it (as if "everyone" reads this blog!).
Chapter 4 is titled "The Gang" and contrasts the idea of "going to church" with the concept of being part of a group committed to each other...like a gang.
We live in a time when people go to a building on Sunday mornings, attend an hour-long service, and call themselves members of the Church. ... But have you ever read the New Testament? Do you find anything in Scripture that is even remotely close to the pattern we have created? Do you find anyone who "went" to church?
Try to imagine Paul and Peter speaking like we do today: "Hey, Peter, where do you go to church now?"
"I go to The River. They have great music and I love the kids' program."
"Cool. Can I check out your church next Sunday? I'm not getting much out of mine."
"Totally. I'm not going to be there next Sunday because little Matthew has soccer. But how about the week after?"
"Sounds good. Hey, do they have a singles' group?"
It's comical to think of Paul and Peter speaking like this. Yet that's a normal conversation among Christians today.
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Chan then introduces us to an elder of his church, Rob, who spent most of his life in gangs but who met Jesus while in prison.
Rob tells me stories of gang life and the fear he felt when he left his gang to join the body of Christ. ... It wasn't just the physical torture or death he feared; he dreaded the rejection by those he loved. The gang was his family. These were loyal and dear friends who looked out for him 24 hours a day. There was love and camaraderie from being in a gang that he enjoyed since childhood. Now he would lose those relationships and be hated by them all.
When Rob describes gang life much of it sounds like what the Church was meant to be. Obviously, there are major differences (drugs, murder - you know, little details like that), but the idea of "being a family" is central to both gang life and God's design for the Church. ... Could you ever imagine gang life being reduced to a weekly one-hour gathering? No group would meet briefly once a week and call that a gang. Imagine one gang member walking up to another one and saying, "Yo, how was gang? I had to miss this week because life has been crazy!"
We all know enough about gangs to know that's ridiculous. Yet every week we hear Christians asking each other, "How was church?" Something that God has designed to function as a family has been reduced to an optional weekly meeting."
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Truth is...Don't you long at least a little bit for that sense of belonging and mutual commitment to each other? Isn't there something within each of us that can't be satisfied by going to church instead of being the Church?
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