Why I believe in the Church 3/16/41
Scripture: Acts 14: 21-28.
It is my hope that we may all find, in this Lenten season, a deepened sense of what the Church means to us personally. Some of our friends may say of the head of the Church, “Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that he had a unique consciousness of God and that he is also our example, guide, teacher, savior; but I cannot see why it is necessary to join the Church.” There are some who tell us that they can live their lives on just as high a plane outside of church membership as if they were within its fellowship.
As part of a cynical, disillusioned spirit in the time in which we have been living, the Church has been under fire. Some have been given a good deal of publicity for their adverse criticisms of its people and its program. Partly because of this atmosphere, and also because I think it is a good policy to keep reminded about things that are vital, I believe in bearing testimony, repeatedly, to my belief in the Church.
Of course a cynic may feel that a minister does so because he has to in order to maintain an official position in the Church. “O well, that’s his job.” But I feel that those who know almost any minister well enough will credit him with the sincerity of saying what he really believes in the Christian pulpit. Of course it is my job to testify to my belief in the Church. I wouldn’t have accepted ordination to its ministry if I hadn’t believed in it. Even if I had not been led into the ministry, I should still believe in the Church of Jesus Christ. I should still attend its worship and take part in its work as an active layman.
Let me say again, as I have said before, that I do not consider the church a perfect institution. There are many pages in the history of the Church through the centuries that I would gladly tear out or have rewritten. I do not defend the church in any period when it has been guilty of persecution and tyranny, nor when it has nurtured superstition. There have been times when some churches have stood in the way of social justice and human progress. There have been, and still are, occasional hypocrites within its membership who do not live up to what they have professed. Though - believe me - the genuine hypocrites in the church are few! There are some men who live, outside the church, better lives than some men inside the church. (Though it is no cause for self-congratulation to compare one’s self with the least active or most hypocritical church members.)
I am aware that the church is not the only organization in the community that is helping men and women today. The great realms of public education, of well-ordered commerce and industry, of public-supported united welfare are undoubtedly making real strides in opening some kinds of happiness and well-being to the human race. I do not belittle the good that can be done by all sorts of educators in developing the powers of understanding, by legislators in setting up the laws by which we are to control our lives as citizens, by social workers of every sort serving by lifting people into hope and the will to live better. The Church has no monopoly on service to mankind nor even a monopoly on the divine blessing.
Furthermore, merely being on the church membership roll is not a final guarantee of happiness. Church membership is no bed of roses. Taken seriously, it means consecration, work, service (and lots of it) and sometimes even a cross.
There are certain things that the Church does mean and stand for and I turn now to consider them, for I believe that my membership in the Church of Christ, with the opportunities and responsibilities which it involves, is one of the most important relationships of my life, quite aside from my profession as a minister.
I. I like the people in the church. For every genuine hypocrite who may be in the membership of some church there are a host of others who are the kind of folks I want to know and work with. They are fine, genuine, wholesome, willing in service, hopeful in their faith in God and in humanity. They get that way, not because they have never done wrong, but because, recognizing their mistakes and sins in the light of holy ideals, they propose to do something positive about it. They do not propose to lead lives of permanent shortcoming. The racketeers, gangsters, kidnappers, the despoilers of human life and happiness, are usually found not in the church but outside of its membership. For me, I choose to mingle in the fellowship of those who are making a steady positive effort to improve themselves and each other in good living. [For good living is one of the things I mean when I think of a godly life.] In the church are those whose lives are constantly refined by their response to calls for personal sacrifice and service. The number is legion of those leaders in education, philanthropy, social service, government, well-ordered business - who have had their inspiration to the welfare of all, in their connection with the Church.
When you enter the membership of the church you enter the fellowship of a glorious company of people who worship and serve gladly from Point Barrow, Alaska, near the North Pole, to Antarctica where the Byrd Expedition near the South Pole had its services of worship as well as its work. That fellowship encircles the entire globe, and it is a great thing to be a part of it.
II. I am proud of the history of the church. With all of its faults (perhaps God has used its faults!) it has produced some mighty men. Not Napoleons or Hitlers or Caesars, but Luthers and Niemoellers and Pauls and Schweitzers and Wesleys have been the Church’s glory. And somehow, by God’s grace the church has even been able, through the long and patient pages of history, to purge itself of its follies and evils. Surely an institution which has such a glorious tradition must have a divine blessing and disciplining guidance.
III. I believe that the church is the body of Christ - his hands to reach out in mercy, his feet to carry the message, his mouth to interpret the good news, even his heart to carry compassion. Through Christ’s Church men and women find their way to salvation and to God.
As we go through this annual Lenten period, approaching the Easter season again, I want to extend an invitation. It is offered repeatedly so that you may think of it carefully and “keep it on your calendar” if you will. The invitation is to join, if you have not done so before, in the fellowship of this church.
This is not just a shallow desire to get a lot of you on the roll opposite a number in the clerk’s record. It is not just an appeal to chronic “joiners.” It is a sober invitation to you to reflect seriously and come to a decision of your own as to what you want to do about your church. There may be those in this congregation who have been baptized in childhood, who have grown in grace within this church, who will want to express the maturing of their faith and fellowship by taking this step. Will you think of it and come and talk to me about it?
There are those who have attended for many months or years who have deferred joining until now. Will you seriously consider this invitation and prepare yourselves to enter into the Christian fellowship of Church Membership? Think it over and then come and talk to me.
There are those who have intended joining but have put it off longer than intended. Will you decide once and for all, this season? There are those whose membership belongs in a church in some other community, but who, living here now, ought to join the active membership of a church here. Will you consider this your invitation?
And there are many of us who, having joined the church long ago, will want to re-consecrate ourselves in this fellowship during this precious Lenten season of the passion and triumph of Our Lord. Shall we not make this year a silent but moving revival of the fire within our hearts?
On behalf of Jesus Christ, the head of the church in which I believe, I invite you all.
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Dates and places delivered:
Pilgrim church, Honolulu, February 26, 1939 AM
Wisconsin Rapids, March 16, 1941
Wisconsin Rapids, May 7, 1950