I ran across the following under the title "An Old Question" By Juliana Lewis

Question: "Can I be a Christian without going to church?" Answer: Yes, it is possible. It is something like being: a seaman on a ship without a crew; a soldier who doesn't join the army; a tuba player without an orchestra; a baseball player without a team; an explorer with no base camp; a bee without a hive.

C. S. Lewis wrote "When I first became a Christian, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn't go to the churches and Gospel halls. But as I went on, I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion; some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted in the Epistles. So we must be regular practicing members of the church. Some people (like me) find it more natural to approach God in solitude, but we must go to the church as well. For the Church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities; but the Body of Christ, in which all members, however different, must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences."

I was immediately struck by the question, what do these people, one quite famous, the other unknown to me, mean when they say "church?" Any minister worth his salt will tell you that the Church, with a capital C, is the people, not a place or a building.

C. S. Lewis alludes to that in his statement. Yet, I cannot help but suspect that each of them has in mind a certain place, most likely with a building. And, quite likely some kind of worship format which has come to us through our European descendants. But is that exclusively what church is?

It seems to be the natural human condition to perceive whatever way we do something as individuals, or as a group, as the right way. Usually we hold, at the very least, a hidden desire to have others see and do things as we do. Sometimes such attitudes are blatantly displayed and pushed. Nowhere is such behavior, and thought process, more prevalent and predominant than in religions. With perhaps the Christian community at the top of the list. The most critical judgement of the things I do or say usually comes from fellow Christians. Few denominations see other denominations as equally "correct" in the way they worship and do things. Heaven forbid that someone step even further outside the norm that most of them fall within. But, does a God who created incredible diversity wherever you look, truly expect, or even desire, a sameness in worship. Is that what church is all about? Or, are we confusing uniformity and unity when we talk about the "body of Christ" as a single unified entity? Uniformity and unity are very different concepts, but often mistaken for one another. Especially by those who wish to use Scripture to convince others their way of doing things is an absolute.

Am I suggesting there is anything wrong with attending church according to the imported European way that things have developed? Not at all. I attend such a church and am quite comfortable coming together with others in that circumstance. I am, however, suggesting that we not box God in by our own narrow minded thinking. God was around a long time before there were Jewish synagogues, European cathedrals, or American country churches. Indeed, I recall no mention of a church building, or specifically structured worship service in the Garden of Eden. God simply came and walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. In my own experience, when I want to feel really close to God, I do not seek out a church building. I head for the woods. Usually seeking a trail which will lead along a creek, or river. This, of course, does not fall into the category of "some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction," since I am normally doing this alone.

But what if I weren't. What if I were a member of a group of Christian environmentalists, who met each week somewhere in the mountains, perhaps even a different spot each time, to marvel at the awesome creation our God has made, and give thanks for it. Taking time to study both Scripture, and something of this natural world around us. Would that be church?

Or, what if I were a part of a group of Cherokee Christians who met in an open air ceremonial grounds, to give thanks to the Creator for his Word, and the traditions He has allowed to pass down through my people granting us heritage, and a sense of connectedness in the circle of life. Would that be church? What if I'm dancing to traditional drums -- church?

The Head of the Church we call Christian was hardest on those who drew lines which excluded others because of their differences. Intolerance, and the arrogance of thinking our way is the only way, is not a new concept. It need not even be done with malice. Sometimes it is simply ignorance which has grown into arrogance. I am reminded of the quote I once heard about misguided rescuing: "let me help you from the water so you do not drown said the monkey to the fish as he put him in the tree." Yes, I do believe it is important to lead or encourage others into a relationship with Christ, as long as somewhere along the line we do not cross over, and start playing God. Where, exactly, is that line again?

Not much really needs to be said here. Anybody who's ever attended or belonged to a church can fill volumes on the problem of "looking at the speck in your brother's eye and paying no attention to the log" in our own eye (Matthew 7:3-5 and Luke 6:41-42). But, I had set aside several things in my "newsletter" file which caught my attention.

One is from the book Life Strategies by Phillip C. McGraw, PhD who wrote, "In every church I have ever attended, the people with real problems hid them rather than seeking support, and those who didn't hide them wished that they had, after the doses of guilt, judgement, or alienation they received."

Another was from a Focus on the Family newsletter by James C. Dobson, PhD. He was quoting Dr. Blackaby, who wrote the book, and training materials, Experiencing God. (I believe these are put out by the Baptist Convention. They are very good, and widely used. I read the book a few years ago.) Anyway, Dr. Blackaby was apparently speaking at The Cove (the Billy Graham Training Center in Asheville, North Carolina) when someone asked him, "What do you see as the future for the United States?" The following is but a portion of what Dr. Dobson refers to as his "striking" reply.

"If you put the U.S. up against the Scriptures, we're in trouble. I think we're very close to the judgment of God. The problem of America is not the unbelieving world. The problem of America is the people of God. You see, right now there are just as many divorces in the churches as outside the churches. There are just as many abortions inside the churches as outside the churches. There's only a one percent difference in gambling inside the churches as outside the churches. George Barna did a survey of 152 separate items comparing the lost world and the churches, and he said there is virtually no difference between the two. So we have brokenness in the churches [and] no reconciliation.

How then should we live? This is a long answer to a short question, but it depends on the people of God. I hope if you didn't hear anything else that comes from this conference, that you will understand that it's God's people who hold the destiny of America. Don't fuss at the world. It's acting just like its nature. We've got to be salt and light again. We've got to have an observable difference.

So God's attention right now is on His own people, and if I gave one statement, it would be, 'The future of America rests in our hands.' "

My son was telling me about those who try to "convince" him about the "truth" of Christianity by beating him into submission with their arguments. He suggested that if they think their beliefs are a better way, then they should live them out in their own lives. When, or if, he sees how much more joy and fulfillment they have in their lives than he, then he would be begging to know what to do to have it too. I told him I couldn't agree more.

It is all very easy to give advice on how someone else should run their life, and what they should believe. It is quite another matter to have our own lives match up with what we say we believe. Unfortunately, too many Christians think that when Jesus said to spread the "good news" it gave them free license into other people's business, leaving them precious little time for getting their own house in order. All the church attendance in the world won't change a bad example set outside, and sometimes inside, those walls a professed Christian might be trying to encourage others to enter.

In his book Reaching Out, in the chapter From Hostility to Hospitality, Henri Nouwen puts a related perspective this way, "The fact that so many students do not care for religious instruction is related to the fact that their own life experience is hardly touched. There are just as many ways to be a Christian as there are Christians, and it seems that more important than the imposition of any doctrine or precoded idea is to offer the students the place where they can reveal their great human potentials to love, to give, and to create, and where they can find the affirmation that gives them the courage to continue their search without fear ... ... The Church is not an institution forcing us to follow its rules. It is a community of people inviting us to still our hunger and thirst at its tables ... ... when we are willing to detach ourselves from making our own limited experience the criterion for our approach to others, we may be able to see that life is greater than our life, history is greater than our history, experience greater than our experience and God greater than our God."