Why I Believe in the Church

I think Christian kids should get involved in Boy Scouts. And local theater troupes. And dance and Little League and Junior Lifeguards and orchestra and every other club under the sun. But above all this, I think Christians should be involved in church.

And that's for one simple reason: the church works.

I've just returned from a camp put on for 3rd-5th graders last week in West Virginia. Now in its seventh summer, the sponsoring church plans and programs and staffs the entire week on its own. Most of the leadership staff are parents, but most of the counselors are high school students, which means after seven years that the camp is starting to re-cycle some of its original campers as counselors.

And this is creating a culture of "give-back" ministry in that church that is really something to admire. Here's a common sentiment expressed to me by a 5th grade boy who just finished his fourth and final year at camp: "Next year I'm going to junior high camp, and then I'll go to senior high camp, and then I'm going to be a counselor at Camp Quest." One counselor, also a former camper, shared his mock frustration midway through the week: "I want to get upset with them, but then I look at all four of my kids and think, 'Each one of them is exactly like me!'"

The value of this is that it creates a localized mission field where young kids are eager to be cared for and older kids look forward to providing it. Not only does the camp fill every year, but perhaps more encouraging, there's a waiting list and interview process for counselors; not everyone who volunteers is chosen. The younger kids return from the week in awe and their teenage mentors spend the next year larger-than-life and proud to be recognized back home by their former charges.

I'm a big believer in the church and in ministry. I think we should use the church to leverage whatever spiritual advantages we can, especially for kids. As I wrote last week, Christian kids don't exist in a vacuum. They either have a group of Christian friends with which to affiliate themselves, or they will gradually shed their identification with the church. But for kids, it's not enough to just "be" together; they want to "do" together. When the church is doing what it should, it is bringing people together to meet each other's needs - in other words, facilitating ministry. It's not just maintaining a physical space where people gather to sing and hear a nice speaker. Coming together isn't sufficient; the church needs to create reasons and opportunities to meet. When that happens, people are mutually edified, they're cared for, they're strengthened in their faith, they're reaffirmed as part of the family…and, there's a reason to grow. As long as I remain a child - always receiving, never charged with giving - there's no urgency to my spiritual development, because pretty much all I'm expected to do is show up. Give me a problem to solve or a team to lead or person to guide, though, and I'm obliged to get my act together. That, I think, is the essence of what Ephesians 4 means, especially v. 16: "From [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

"Being part of the church" today means something different than it did in the New Testament. Then, it was primarily an identification - you belonged to the church because you were among those who believed Christ was the Messiah. Today "joining a church" is more like selecting and joining a health club or buying a new car: we find the one with all the features that we want and that feels right, and when our choice gets old we move on to another. This consumerist approach obscures the reality, which is that every believer "belongs" to the Church regardless of where, or how often, they may physically frequent one.

So let's live like it! Stewardship experts often speculate what the Church could do if everyone who attended, tithed. But how much richer would our lives be if we were all meaningfully engaged in ministry?