Loving God When You Don't Love the Church: Opening the Door to Healing by Chris Jackson

Author:Chris Jackson [Jackson, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2007-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Spiritual Frat Houses

Have you ever belonged to a fraternity? Its members have secret handshakes, inside jokes, matching jackets and a Latin name that’s got to mean something wonderful. The frat brothers care about one another and cover one another’s backsides. They eat, sleep, study, play and cause trouble together. I know that some awful things can happen in fraternities, but they certainly carry a sense of camaraderie and an atmosphere of brotherhood and loyalty to the group.

The members connect to a source of identity that’s bigger than themselves as individuals, and they have a set of instant friends to help them navigate through those tumultuous college years. There’s a satisfying feeling of security that accompanies enrollment, and assuming the newcomer can survive the hazing of induction, there is the potential for lifelong friendships. Fraternities become a type of family.

I never actually joined a fraternity like the kind I’m describing.

At least I didn’t intend to.

I never learned a secret handshake—although I did join a group of people who spoke with some inside slang that an outsider would never understand. I never had an official club jacket—but I did look exactly like everyone else in the group. Our group didn’t have a Latin name—but we sometimes referenced Hebrew and Greek words in our meetings. We never razed anyone who wanted to join—but it sure took an awfully long time for people to feel accepted, and some never did. I only wish we were more like a true family.

What do spiritual fraternities look like? You may have observed some different traits, but here are a few I’ve noticed.

1. Spiritual fraternities convey an attitude of elitism.

It’s great to be on the cutting edge, and it’s great to love your church. Some people forget, though, that the cutting edge is not quite as short as they think it is, and they forget that a lot of other people are on it, too. It’s dangerous to believe that we or our church has a monopoly on a particular revelation or scriptural insight.

For years within one of my past churches, we spent considerable time and resources in reaching a particular group of people. Confined within the walls of our own congregation, we came to believe that we were alone, or cutting edge, or elite, in our efforts to minister in this specific way. After some time had passed and I had experienced a broader range of the Body of Christ, I realized that hundreds and even thousands of other churches were passionately ministering to the same area of society with an equally great fervor to see the Kingdom of God expanded there. How foolish it suddenly seemed to me that I had felt so superior in my heart.

Like the Lord had to remind Elijah, who once told God that he was the only faithful saint still alive in Israel, He had to say to me, too: “You’re not alone—I have thousands of other followers who are pursuing Me with all of their hearts.” A word like that certainly acts as a much-needed pinprick to a swollen spiritual ego.

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