WHY
YOU SHOULDN’T GIVE UP ON THE CHURCH
by Barnabas Piper
I
grew up in the church. No really, I grew up in the church. I am a PK and
spent countless hours in church and doing church activities. I am a church
native and familiar with all its quirks and cultural oddities, with all its
strengths, and with all its failings. As the son of prominent evangelical pastor
John Piper, I not only saw the inner workings of my own church, I was exposed
to church leaders from around the world and saw the good and the bad from their
churches too.
Many
people like me, who grew up immersed in church, have given up on it. Church is
archaic, domineering, impersonal, hypocritical, irrelevant, contentious, petty,
boring and stale. It’s institutional instead of authentic and religious but not
relational, they say. I have seen all this in church and can agree that each
accusation is true in instances. A PK sees all this up close and far too
personally and feels each fault even more intensely. It really is enough to
make one want to bail on church.
And
I had my chance. Despite growing up steeped in sound Bible teaching and a
loving context, I grew up empty in my soul. I believed but didn’t fully
believe. I obeyed but kept parts of my life for myself, bits of dishonesty and
secrecy. I knew Jesus and knew He was the only way to be saved from my sin, but
I didn’t give my life to Him. In the end, it blew up in my face and I
was faced with the decision: stay in church and work through my mess or leave
and be free. I stayed.
While
leaving was an option, it was one that I looked at and saw emptiness. Sure, the
church can cause a lot of pain and annoyance, but it’s where Jesus’ people are
connected. And really, that’s what it is about—Jesus. That’s what made it so
clear to me that staying was best.
The
church is a messy place by nature. That’s what happens when a bunch of sinners
come together anywhere. But it is a messy place designed by God to be his face
to the World, and all those sinners reflect Him in unique ways. Nothing
reflects God to the world like the church does. No, we don’t “do” church 100
percent correctly, and we never will. No, church is not a perfect place.
Yes, church displays the sins of all its people very
publicly. But none of that changes what it is or can be.
To
leave the church is to hurt yourself and to hurt
others. I don’t mean hurt like a slap in the face (though in some cases it’s a
bit like that). I mean hurt like malnourishment. We were created by God to
connect with others and, in that connection, reveal more of Him to each other
and to the world. When we depart, we deprive ourselves of those aspects of God
others reflect and we deprive them of those aspects we reflect. Leaving is
starving our souls and others’.
Solitude
is wonderful. But many things in life, maybe most things, are better enjoyed
with others. Including God. That’s why we’re called to
worship with others, to study with others, to pray with others. And church is
the outlet for that, an imperfect outlet, but the outlet nonetheless. God wants
us to experience Him to the fullest and that is done with others in
song, in study, in reflection, in prayer, in tears, in confession in
celebration—with others, doing church.
Leaving the church is escapism. You may find stresses
relieved and conflicts avoided. It may feel like a breath of fresh air to leave
behind traditional stuffiness and legalistic hypocrisy. Even now, I often want
to slap the stupid out of the church. It can be such a maddening collection of
people. (And I suspect I contribute to the stupid that needs slapping just as
often.) But none of that changes what it is: the organism of God’s
presence and kingdom in the world. It is His means of connecting people to the
gospel, to hope, to life. No matter your frustrations and hurts, it cannot be
abandoned. You need it now whether or not you know it, and someday you will
have a need nothing and no one else can meet. And the church will be where
Jesus shows himself to you.