The Church as Counterculture

Roll another blunt Jesus (kidding).

Since the beginning, Christianity has had a pastor/congregation, shepherd/flock structure to it. In a very heavily missionary church, this makes a certain amount of sense. If you are the first Christian among people who have never heard of Christ, you want to make sure the message does not get contaminated. So you appoint leaders, and they appoint leaders, and so on to make sure there is always an "answer man" for the missionized former heathens to go to.

In America however, this structure has led to a Church with arteriosclerosis. Its own structure is killing it. The time has come to re-evaluate a structure that too easily gives people leave to stay out of community with other people. It is time to criticize a structure that too easily lends itself to people being Christian on Sunday and heathens on Monday.

Look at the church phenomenon of our times - the Megachurch. A church where everyone fills a stadium-like chamber, sings a bit, listens to one or a few guys on a stage far away, and everyone files out again. It isn't even possible to know your church members face to face. This is a structure that serves the interest of men, not God. They want to get their dose of Jesus and get out again so they can screw over some more people on Monday. So they can get down as expeditiously as possible to the business of doing what they want, satisfying their own desires. So many pastors that find their way into the newspaper from such megachurches do this as well, talk about Jesus on Sunday and ply male prostitutes with crystal meth on Monday. No wonder so many people look down on Christianity. To the extent that they are looking down on that sort of Christianity, they are right to do so.

What is a church? A real church? It is not a building with stained glass with a man in a funny suit standing at a podium. A real church is a community. What kind of a community? The kind where you talk about the weather or the stock market on the way out the door to your car? No. The kind of community where you have face time with other people in that community every day. The kind where you can talk about your dreams, your fears, your deepest problems, as well as the faith that you hold in Jesus Christ. A community of love.

What was Jesus' commandment at the end of the last supper in John?

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
-John 13:34-35

This, far more than the supposed institution of Peter as leader, is the founding event of the Church. And love does not mean saying "hi" in Church on the way to the parking lot. It means being in each others lives, telling each other our heart, being there for one another.

It is also clear that almost everything in our present society sets itself in opposition to such a community. Employers encourage or compel workers to work overtime and often in such dehumanizing and unnatural contexts that the person has no energy for anything but staring at the idiot box afterwards. For those who have an ounce of energy still left, there are a plethora of empty entertainments available - organized sports, dangerous drugs, bars, cheap sex - to divert people from the emptiness of their existence and to keep them from coming to God.

In fact - dare I say it? The present state of society in America if not the world is a system, designed to crush any opportunity for people to come together in true brotherhood. A system designed to crush your soul. The devil must be very pleased with the extent to which his system works.

What is the next step for true Christians, to reclaim the Church as it should be? I wish I knew for certain. Paradoxically, even though online relationship networks can be the ultimate in pseudo-community, it can also serve as a gateway towards living as the true Church. Frankly, in any one neighborhood, the number of people who are really radically committed to Christ may be very small. Online communication can help find like-minded people and break the ice.

This is not the ideal. This is a first step. Find people who are willing to step out of the church-box and into radical community in Christ.

Secondly, we need to embrace church as counterculture. As not a part of the materialist culture around us. The church that is integrated into the me-first culture is not only not helping but positively harmful. The culture is anti-Christian. Time to throw the money-changers out of the temple. We also have to accept that we may well be derided, spit on and otherwise treated unfairly if we do that. And other Christians will likely be at the head of that line to do the spitting, because we will be challenging them most of all.

That is a sign of the true Church: if people don't hate you for following Christ, you're doing something wrong.