How Did We Get Into This Mess Anyway?

How many of you remember the 1980’s American Express Card slogan, “Membership hath its privileges?” I am sure that it did… but they forgot to mention in those commercials that an American Express Card membership also had its price! This was long before the days of “no-fee” credit cards!

The story of Christianity began way, way before even that… in a long ago time when there were no credit cards at all! Can you imagine…  no computers, no internet, no cell phones, no cars, no radio or television, no planes, no printing press, no electric power… nor even democracy as a way of government? Christianity itself began around 26 AD following the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ! And yet I believe that it is still as relevant today as it was in ancient Rome!

There is little disagreement over when Christianity began. And yet a sound argument can be made that the story of Holy Cross Lutheran Church (and most other modern American congregations) also had a beginning during the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine (circa 313 AD). Christianity became the “official” religion of the western world when Constantine was converted to the faith. Prior to this moment being a disciple (follower) of Christ was generally illegal and often involved persecution. But during the following centuries a new reality developed. Being a “Christian” became required by law throughout the Empire. Millions joined the flock. And with this change the model for the Christian church quickly changed to one of “membership” rather than “discipleship.” In Europe almost everyone was baptized into the faith of his or her prince. America was founded upon the principle of religious freedom… but even here it was generally a matter of what denomination you would choose. Almost everyone was “assumed” Christian. Our perceived evangelism task from the Middle Ages through the 1980’s was raising money to send missionaries to convert “primitive” pagans in foreign lands.

This membership church model certainly had its privileges. All the “respectable” folks belonged (or at least we convinced ourselves they did). People learned about God through lifelong exposure to Christian education and worship. Many were nurtured into sincere faith in Jesus. The church was an important place for family gatherings, business, political and social connections. However because everyone in the neighborhood was “assumed” Christian the focus largely turned inward… on the privileges, needs, wants and rights of the members. And though these privileges exacted an enormous cost… it was not levied upon the membership. Jesus paid the price for every single human on the cross at Golgotha… but those “disreputable” folks who didn’t meet the expected standards imposed both implicitly and sometimes explicitly by our membership model were far too often left suffering and lost… on the outside looking in.

In the 1960-70’s, changes in the world that had started decades earlier began to be felt by the church. Our old stand-by “membership” model slowly but surely began to collapse. Every major Christian denomination started losing significant numbers of members. For lots of reasons many “respectable” folks decided that the church wasn’t for them . Of course we in the church didn’t really notice until the late 80’s when funding of operations became a problem, and only began to be seriously concerned in the late-90’s when all the evangelism programs we launched to “fix” our problem failed! Based on active congregational membership, the US entered the 21^st century as the third largest mission field in the world! Now other countries are sending Christian missionaries here to us! We obviously have a serious problem! The Christian Church in America is in deep trouble!

In all honesty, the problems we now face should have become obvious long before they did! While the membership model served many faithful Christian congregations for a long time (we honestly didn’t know any better at the time)… it is hard to find a biblical basis for it! Our Lord Jesus never mentioned membership! The only real privilege membership in most congregations gets you is the right to vote on church business! It costs members virtually nothing and is worth about the same!

The real privileges of Christianity come through a vibrant, faith relationship with Jesus as a practicing member of the group He calls disciples - those who through the power of the Holy Spirit make trying to follow Jesus in both word and deed their top priority! Even at its pinnacle of effectiveness the membership model failed to take into account the huge number of “nominal members” who had no living relationship with Jesus.

If you got an American Express card back in the 1980’s when that slogan “Membership hath its privileges” was popular… you soon learned the lesson we followers of Jesus need to re-learn today… privilege has a cost! Membership in Christ’s body of disciples definitely brings incredible and wonderful privileges… but there is a high cost! There is no part-time discipleship! Our will, our money, our hearts, our time, our jobs, our children, our whole lives belong to Jesus! We are literally called to pick up our cross and follow Him. But the rewards are much greater than any potential cost: peace, joy and loving community in this life… and eternity with God in the next!