The Envious Church

The ugly truth about local churches is that they envy each other. It is a fact that is so taboo that it is not discussed frequently and often denied, because they subtly compete for attendees, which directly affects their bottom line. What ends up happening is that some churches try to be and do the same thing as the “other church” down the street, while also creating a culture that resents the people who choose to attend that other church.

Every church has something they do very well, or at least better than others, but in a local area you often have numerous different churches, doing the same things at varying degrees of success and the reality is that the one that does something the best will get the most attendees. Churches will see that and wonder, “Why don’t we have what they have?” They try with great effort and attempt to duplicate that church, forgetting that the “other church” put in years of hard work, re-evaluation, and dedication to get to where they are, and the ultimate result is often a facade resembling the original but one that is greatly less effective.

 What is normally in play is the fact most American Christians view church more as a social club and not the centers of ministry and worship they are meant to be. They focus their programs to just impact the people that currently attend and do not actively reach out to the community and those that are seeking answers in a world that seems more confused than ever. The answers to those question are answered through Christ and when the church actively and effectively engages the community, people are redeemed, lives are changed, and those people go on to engage others. Unfortunately, in many churches, people don’t engage people outside of their church, they turtle themselves, and eventually become echo chambers of themselves. They envy other churches and end up treating everyone who chose any church that is not their own as if they committed an offense with very much a “Us versus Them” manner.

The reality is that if you are a professing follower of Christ you are part of the Church, the one and only Church, and are all on the same team. In the church there should be a “them” or “those”, there should only be a “we” and “us.” In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul reminds us that we are all part of one body and God has an intended purpose for each of us. There are no greater or lesser church, only the Church, which is collectively tasked of being God’s representatives to a fallen world. If we are all representatives of the same God, another church’s accomplishments are in absentia our accomplishments. That fact should make us stop resenting other churches’ successes and instead start rejoicing that the lost are being reached.