Church Shopping is not biblical...

From what I can tell, the idea of church shopping (and hopping) is not biblical. It isn't that the idea and/or the action is anti-biblical. It actually is not in there...it didn't exist for the first generations of Christ-followers. The New Testament Church didn't have to deal with the issue of church shopping because for their context, there was only one church...one universal body of believers represented in localized communities. There was fall out, boring sermons, people feeling left out, false doctrine, sexual immorality and all the things that push us to find new churches. But the answer for the early church was not to start going to the new church down the road, because there wasn't one. In many cases, New Testament believers were more concerned with being carried off to prison and being malled by lions than being a part of the most relevant faith community.

If you did start a new church, you started that new church not down the road, but in another city where the gospel wasn't being preached and Christian community wasn't available. And the encouragement of the scriptures, especially Paul's writings, was to focus on unity, like-mindedness, avoiding judgment and not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together.

It seems to me, that Church shopping and hopping is actually a construct of a consumerist culture...a society that offers Christian options for worship. There are several pros and cons to this development in the Western culture. And I am not making a judgment on that development in this post. But I would advise those who find themselves shopping for a church or hopping from one to another to be careful how they use the scriptures to validate such actions. We have to always be careful how we treat the scriptures in our society...21st century Americans live under an entirely different set of assumptions about the world than the writers of the Bible did.

So, if church shopping and hopping is not necessarily biblical, does that change the conversation that starts, 'what church should I be a part of?

And feel free to post comments and disagreements about this posting...I would be shocked if those reading didn't have an opinion on this subject.

D

Comments

[Matt Icardi]

Hey so I follow your blog kind of and there's some great stuff here :). I'm Matt, I'm a friend of Haylee and Kelsey Linduff (just thought I'd introduce myself so you don't think I'm some stranger stalking you haha) Anyway, I visited Jax yesterday because I'm looking at UNF and got to check out Access. All that to say, I missed meeting ya because you were in Orlando, but Kelsey did a good job :P So, about your blog....I think that is probably why bodies of believers are not as strong as in the early Church because the early believers could not just pack up and say, "Nah this church isn't for me. I'm going to the one down the street." It probably forced them to confront their issues, or if it didn't at least Paul was their to help straighten them out :)

[Jason Baker]

Ok Derrick...so let's say I'm new in town. What is the biblical way to find a church?

[DS3]

Matt,
We'll need to meet up soon. Thanks for following the blog. I hope you'll choose UNF...Northeast Florida is great place to grow as a Christ-follower.

Jason,
As always, the answer will take a while. I would first ask the person why they moved to the new city. Did the Christ-follower hear God tell them to move, or did they make the decision for themselves? I know...that's a can of worms there. I would then say that looking for a church looks less like a trip to the mall and more like a soldier looking for a commander. We should look for a church that challenges us to be the hands and feet of Jesus to and for the world. We should look for a church that demands we take up our cross and follow Jesus into mission. We should look for a church that leads and guides us deeper into what it means to be a Christ-follower, that makes disciples and executes justice for the transformation of the world. If these are not the things that we are compelled to do, then our relationship with Christ will remain about us...not about Jesus, not about community, not about the Kingdom...all about us.

If that is not what someone is looking for when they say they wanna be a part of a church, then I would ask them if they really wanna be the church. Because it can be argued that spectators look for churches, Christ-followers look for people that they can BE the church with.

Comments? Disagreements?

[Matt Icardi]

Thanks Derrick, that'd be cool! Ya, UNF is nice!