The Identity Problem Facing The Church

Among the common struggles we go through in life, we all struggle from time to time with our identity. The struggle begins very early in life. When we’re young our identity is formed by our perception of our parents. We exaggerate the images of our parents to fill our own needs. Then we begin our journey through high school. We’re constantly trying to determine our identity. Do I have the right clothes or shoes? Do I have the right friends? Do I do the right activities? Who am I? In high school we a get a degree in peer pressure. In college we get a graduate a degree in peer pressure and sometimes if we’re not careful, peer pressure determines our jobs. It determines what we purchase, our priorities, and just about everything we do. It takes a wise person to determine between peer pressure and personal interests.  Not only do we struggle with a sense of identity as a person, but we struggle with a sense of identity in our institutions. That’s just one big reason, of many, we don’t like change. Being a part of an institution contributes to our identity and when change occurs it affects the institution. In turn, we feel threatened.

In places around the world today the church tends to be an institution. We speak of membership in the concept of being acknowledged as a member of a particular organization. The “membership” is determined by people who say a person is “in” or “out.” When that happens within the Church, it is in direct conflict with Acts 2:47. Within this passage we see it is the Lord who adds to the number of the church and not men.

Christians tend to get more upset by the way worship is done, in a traditional sense, than how people behave in their daily lives. We get bent out of shape at such notions as; when does the prayer come? Is there too much prayer or too little prayer? How many songs should we sing before the preacher speaks? Are the preacher’s sermons too long or too short? When should we have the Lord’s Supper? Should it be at the beginning, middle, last? So, we get comfortable. In that comfort zone we say, if the right things are done in the right way at the right time by the right people within the right time frame, it’s a good worship service. Therefore, it must be a good congregation, with good elders, and a good preacher. So, the institution is deemed good if it’s institutionally correct. Then we feel the church is sound.

We’ve done “church of Christ” things in “Church of Christ” ways, and we feel our identity is intact because we have declared “I AM CHURCH OF CHRIST”. If you and I regard the institution as sound, then we regard ourselves as sound in the church. How does that concept fit with the church at Sardis as it was dying? They desperately needed to repent, but they had some worthy people there who had not soiled their garments (Revelation 3:1-4). Worthy Christians in an unsound congregation? How can that be? That doesn’t fit with our idea of the church as an institution.

In Acts 2: 22-24, Peter spoke to a Jewish audience after Jesus died and was resurrected. In Acts 4: 8-12, when Peter & John had been arrested for their miracle of healing and for teaching about Jesus. When all the apostles were arrested by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, consider Gamaliel’s advice to the counsel and the apostle’s reaction in Acts 5:338-42. The same is true when the message was spoke to the Gentiles. Please read part of Peter’s message to Cornelius and those assembled with him in Acts 10: 34-43. Consider the fact that the church was a saved people. It experienced “great fear” (Acts 5:11). It was persecuted (Acts 8:1). It could experience havoc (Acts 8:3). It could experience rest (Acts 9:31). It had ears (Acts 11:32). It could be mistreated (Acts 12:1). It could pray fervently (Acts 12:5). It could be gathered (Acts 14:27). It could bring people on their way (Acts 15:3) and receive them (Acts 15:4). It could be confirmed (Acts 15:41). It could be fed (Acts 20:28). Paul writings confirmed that the church was people who entered Christ. Most of his letters were addressed to a specific place, even if it was as troubled as the church at Corinth. The church was not to be offended (I Corinthians 10:32). It was persecuted (Galatians 1:13). Ephesians 5:29 tells us it was nourished and cherished.

My point is not that Jesus and the Church should ever be separated. Christ is the head of the Church. My overall point is we should never reverse the roles and make the church something it was not in the New Testament. Jesus is the Savior. He and He alone can extend salvation as Peter explained in Acts 4:8-12. It is His blood that cleanses us of our sins. It is His resurrection that gives us the expectation of eternal life. The church is comprised of those who are saved by the Savior in the way the Father commanded in the scriptures. There is no other way except through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). We don’t hold the power of salvation, and we don’t take away sins. As the church, we are the saved who are excited, encouraged and uplifted about what we have received in Christ, we go about teaching others what His Word says. We go about fulfilling the commandments of the scriptures by teaching others about why Christ was sent by the Father. People are converted to Jesus and not to an institution. They are converted to the Savior to be part of the saved. They are not converted to be the Savior but to call people to the Savior. We allow Jesus to change our behavior so we can give glory to God. We live for Him so we can live lives in contrast to lives of godless sin in the world. What is the crisis? It is the crises when we preach and teach about the church as an institution instead of people. When we deliberately create the impression that the institution saves instead of Jesus and when we assume people know Jesus. The result of the crisis is that people feel “spiritually safe” if they’re a part of “the right” institution and the result is they exhibit very little faith in Jesus. They have little desire to change their behavior and they have little desire to involve their lives and their time in God. Jesus didn’t die for an institution—He died so PEOPLE COULD BE SAVED.