Articles
Losing Sight of the Purpose
Our regional free paper, the Bull Run Observer, published the following news stories in the 10/13/17 issue:
Item: The BBQ Pulled Pork & Pulled Chicken dinner to raise funds for the Nokesville Christmas Parade will be held at the Nokesville Church of the Brethren. The meal fee is $12 for adults and $5 for children ages 6-12.
Item: Boy Scout Troop 581 will hold its “Disaster Day X: Bloody Red Dawn” at the Gainesville United Methodist Church. “It will feature demos by local fire and police, a search and rescue helicopter landing at the church and tons of scouts with fake blood injuries …”.
Item: Gainesville United Methodist Church is holding its Fourth Annual Wheels for Meals event to benefit the Haymarket Regional Food Pantry. “To attract more than car enthusiasts, the church is including a chili cook-off for the first time. Associate Pastor Sean Gundry said this is a good time of year to hold this event because it’s a slow season in the car show world.” Lest cars and chili don’t interest you, there will also be hot dogs and drinks, a bounce house, face painting and other activities. “Said Gundry, ‘We want this to be a great family event to benefit the Haymarket Regional Food Pantry. They really need a great deal of community support. If you like cars or food, come and join us.’”
Christmas parades, disaster preparedness and feeding needy people are all fine and dandy, but what do they have to do with the work of the church? Answer: Nothing. “Social gospel” advocates have so conflated humanitarianism with the church’s mission that true spiritual objectives have been eclipsed. And if challenged on their social agenda, they would certainly defend their activities as Biblical. Similarly, the first century Jewish priests were offended when Jesus scattered their wares and accused them of turning the temple precinct into “a house of merchandise” (Jn 2:16, 18).
The purpose of local churches, as outlined in the new testament, is predominantly spiritual. That is, congregations worshiped together by singing to each other (Eph 5:19), praying (Ac 2:42), observing the Lord’s supper (Ac 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor 11:17-34), and teaching the word of God (Ac 2:42; 13:1; 1 Cor 14:1-5, 12, 26). There are NO instructions or descriptions of churches as part of their collective work engaging in blood drives, soup kitchens, financial counseling, political activism, etc.
The only way to incorporate such activities into the work of the church is to cite passages such as Acts 4:32ff; 6:1ff; 9:36ff; 11:27ff and such like – where Christians were providing for the needs of fellow believers – and twist them into proof-texts for social gospel activities.
A common human weakness is to lose sight of original purpose. We see it happening in the NFL when millionaire players forget they are paid to play a sport for the amusement of spectators. And we see it in churches that have strayed from the main mission of glorifying the Lord in favor of man’s earthly welfare, or worse, pure carnal entertainment.
Christ’s death enables a spiritual reconciliation with God, and the church is the unique product of that fellowship. The Red Cross, Boy Scouts, Elks and other humanitarian agencies can feed, medicate, house and counsel without any spiritual component whatsoever, but the Lord’s church is the only collective body capable of proclaiming and demonstrating a restored relationship with God.
If the Bull Run Observer ever ran an article on the Centreville church, it would be an utter failure if the lead story was hot dogs and hot rods instead of redemption.
