MUSELTOF COUNTERCULT AND APOLOGETICS
Recently, museltof christian ministries UK were asked
a question which was more than tinged with a little sadness, but
it must be a question which many have asked! Here it is, and our
response follows:
"I find myself once more at a crossroads. Many
years ago I was almost completely put off the Christian life by
learning to implicitly trust Christian ministers, only to
discover that they were either plainly devious and dishonest, or
that their own lives were a mess (which they managed to conceal
rather well).
I did not go to church for years as a result of some of the
things I saw and experienced. So I mostly worshiped alone for
many years; thats how saddened and disenchanted I became with the
church, ministers and pastors, and, yes, Christians too. Yes,
occasionally I would go to church, especially at Easter, but I
would always go as a non-commited 'visitor'.
There was no doubt in my own mind that during this long period I
remained a Christian even though some regular church-goers seemed
to find this hard to believe! But the pain and hurt of the past
was just too much for me to put myself through the whole 'church
member' experience again. Yet I must admit that I truly pined for
the love and support of a close-knit 'church family', even though
my past experiences had made me strongly doubt whether such close
and supportive 'church families' really existed.
Finally, after 12 long years of estrangement from active church
membership, I found another congregation. I had moved to another
state (the writer of this letter did not wish us to quote her
denomination or new state), and there was a congregation of
about 200 people there. I went a few times and liked it and the
preaching was straight out of the Bible and truly wonderful -
My, how I had missed this! I did not find the people
over-friendly, which can be a put-off, but the pastor was nice
and seemed genuinely interested in me as a person. I continued to
go off and on, perhaps 2 or 3 times a month, and I began to
notice that the people were indeed not 'over-friendly' - in fact
they seemed a little cold....or was it me?
I kept going and was inspired by the preaching - had I found my
true spiritual home at long last?
But I continued to be a little perplexed that the congregation
folks were very reserved - they did not seem to wish to make
contact at all.
It seems that - in no time - I had been attending for 10 months
or so and the inevitable started to happen: the pastor started
dropping hints about me becoming a member. I arranged a meeting
with him because I was scared about the 'dough angle' - did he
just want to add another tither to the church? I was happily
surprised that he thought that tithing was legalistic. I asked
him about the lack of friendliness which I had found. He said,
'You can do your bit to help us become more friendly!' I was
pleased with this attitude of honesty. Yes, I really could see
myself becoming a member here!
Well that was two years ago now; but just 6 months ago, my
husband left me for another woman. My husband was not a believer
but he had never interfered with my Christian beliefs in any way.
But when he suddenly left me it was a great, great shock and
surprise to me.
Now I felt that I needed great support, compassion and
reassurance, but.......... I received none at all - just a
few kind words from the pastor and his wife, but not too much
from the 'friends' I felt that - in the fulness of time - I was
finally making in my new spiritual home.
So again I was having to confront this thing which really puzzled
me:
How can Christians be so cold, indifferent, unloving and
unsupportive??
Were they even truly Christians??
This was the most truly biblical church that I had ever attended
- no false doctrines here! - so how can a truly biblical church
be so cold and unloving??
Again, I have come to feel that church-attending Christianity has
let me down - will I ever find that close-knit warm and loving
church family which I have sought for for so many
years??"
K.M.
My Response
I am afraid that congregations of Christians are
a mixed and motley bunch!
I am reminded of that old saying,
'It is no good searching for the 'perfect church' because if
you ever find it....THEY WON'T HAVE YOU!'
And yet I am very sympathetic to this lady because her
experiences, I fear, are all too depressingly common!
This lady should have expected love, concern, compassion and real
emotional support yet she did not receive it from those who claim
to be the people of Christ!
How can this happen? Also, how can especially biblical
congregations sometimes be colder than liberal churches??
It does not seem to make any sense!!
And yet I know, from our own experiences, that especially
biblical churches where false teachings are opposed at every
stage, are sometimes rather cold places. How can this possibly
be?
It is because there is no theological equation which states that
correct doctrine equals the love of God! Perhaps we all
tend to feel that there should be when we find the damage which
false teachers/teachings do, but - as I state many times -
holding all the correct doctrines will save nobody! It is
impossible not to be reminded of 1 Corinthians 13 here:
'Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will
cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there
is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we
prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect
disappears'
(1 Corinthians 13:8-10 - NIV).
The truth is, it is only true Christian love - the love of Christ
- which will be found to be truly abiding and we just cannot
explain or excuse the fact that all too many congregations seem
to be seriously lacking here. As I state again and again, modern
Christian congregations in the western world just do not (for the
most part) live up to the standards of total commitment to each
other which we see in the early chapters of Acts; this is partly
because we mostly now enjoy a much higher standard of living
whereas the early Christians were mostly quite poor.
It is also partly explained by the fact that while the early
Christians were all in one organisational situation, modern
Christians might be found in Prebyterian, Baptist, Methodist or
any number of other organisational settings. In reality, this
tends to diffuse and weaken any 'across the board' Christian
support within any local community. Yet, while seeing these
difficulties which the first Christians would not have been faced
with, it remains the case that while some congregations are truly
loving and supportive towards each other, many many others appear
to fall short and this is always depressingly
disappointing.
I may say that congregations in places like India, Indonesia and
Africa often put us to shame here and there is frequently a most
amazing - and truly New Testament level - of Christian commitment
in many of their congregations!
On the other hand, I think that the lady who wrote to me is
probably expecting a little too much of the organised, visible
church. As I stated earlier, we really are a very mixed bunch.
Let us never forget that the true Church are those saints whose
names are written in heaven - the truly called and converted
members of the body of Christ and they will undoubtedly be found
scattered through several denominations. Local congregations will
be a mix and - whilst I hope I am not offending anybody here - I
tend to believe that the average congregation only has about 20%
of it's people who are truly walking with Christ at any one time!
I used to think that this statistic rose sharply among
congregations where the preaching and teaching is always truly
biblical but, lamentably, I have come to think not - don't
forget: all the correct doctrines don't necessarily grant us more
of the love of God!
So, what advice did I give this undoubtedly sincere
lady?
Don't expect perfection among Christians in this present life
because it just isn't there. Also bear in mind that folks stand
at different levels of spiritual strength and development in all
congregations: some are on the road to making a decision to serve
Christ, but they have not reached that point yet (whether
baptized or not!), some may be backsliders and may seriously need
to rejuvenate their walk with Christ - they are not lost, but
they need to urgently seek a closer walk with Jesus. Perhaps
others need much longer. Without doubt, there may be still others
who are not and never have been believers in the fullest sense of
that word. Why are they there? Because they are in sympathy with
the Christian way of life, perhaps other members of their family
attend and it just seems the 'right' place to be on a Sunday! We
must realise that some such people may be very pleasant people by
nature and this can frequently give a false impression of their
true standing with God!
But we can celebrate and take real joy in the fact that just
about every single congregation is going to have a few folks who
are genuinely involved in an active walk with Jesus Christ
- But! - does this make those people perfect and without flaws
or shortcomings?? ABSOLUTELY NOT, and please do not expect
it!
Just looking at the New Testament will reveal that even
genuinely converted Christians are far from perfect and
sometimes tensions can exist between folks who are genuinely
walking with God. We can note New Testament evidence of some
tensions between people like Paul, Peter, Barnabas and John Mark,
for instance.
I have advised this lady to stay where she is and persevere, but
it will be her choice of course. And yet there is a time to move
on to a different congregation in many Christian's lives and we
have to recognise this, yet it should be seen as something of a
last resort since experience shows that it is very hard to
re-settle in a new congregation.
The best advice is to pray and seek the Lord's counsel at such a
difficult and depressing time, and - oh - also to
forgive!
Museltof
2003