"Searching For the Perfect Church" (January 2004)
In
October my wife and I went church searching.
We got an early start and
headed out with great expectations. Mile after mile quickly slipped by, but we
just knew we would find the perfect church.
In Georgia we saw lots of nice
church buildings. Some were large, others were quite small. They came in
various shapes and sizes. A few looked brand new, and many were showing signs
of wear. Yet we did not see exactly what we were seeking.
On into North Carolina we
drove.
Again we passed many nice
church buildings: large, small, old, new, square, rectangular, towering, and
discreet. The main highways featured the occasional mega-church, and many
middle-sized facilities. The lesser-traveled back roads led us to older
buildings which probably looked much as they did fifty or a hundred years ago.
Yet none of these churches met our criteria.
Surely our fortunes would turn
for the better in Tennessee. But once again we were disappointed as we passed
by many nice church buildings of various sizes and shapes, but none of which was
just right.
We returned home after three
days and a thousand-plus miles, never having found the perfect church.
You see, we had been looking
for an old, white church building with a tall steeple encircled in beautiful
fall foliage which would offer a nice photo opportunity. We did find a few
church buildings which met these initial criteria, but in each case an
unexpected factor negated any chance for a good photograph: telephone and power
lines. Through the lenses of the camera, these ubiquitous lines forbade the
perfect photograph.
The irony was evident. Armed
with a nice, new digital camera, any chance of getting a great shot of an old
church building surrounded by fall colors was ultimately thwarted by …
technology.
Old and new, large and small,
square and rectangular … every church we saw was connected to the outside world
by wires encased in black, insulated rubber and strung to a power pole. Even
the smallest of community churches was no longer isolated.
The reality is that the Church
has always been about the business of communicating the Gospel to the larger
world in an effort to transform lives individually and corporately. And yet
here in the 21st century, the world is reaching into the Church with
unprecedented ease, irrespective of denominational, theological, ideological,
cultural, and geographical lines.
For Baptists in America, our
internal struggles will ultimately be overshadowed by this outside intrusion.
Conservatives, moderates, fundamentalists, and liberals, we are all being shaped
and molded by our interaction with this world via modern technology. Since New
Testament days, Christians, in reacting to an ungodly world, have struggled with
the tendency to quietly slip into the false gospel of legalism. As modern
Baptists, however, we don’t have the luxury of hiding our sins under a bushel,
for our words and deeds are all too visible to the world.
We’re not perfect, and we
won’t be perfect. Will we as 21st century Baptists be known for
offering the world the same Grace and Forgiveness of which we have partaken, or
will be known as a haughty people blinded by the ancient mirage of religious
perfection, oblivious to the fact that the eyes of the world are peering beyond
the superficial layers of pretty church buildings, nice landscaping, and
self-righteousness? Time is now telling.