For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.
2 Timothy 4:3
New media has made it easier and easier for Christians to find and listen to several different speakers. Many churches even broadcast their services so that it’s not even necessary to actually attend. The results of this seems to be twofold; it makes spreading the Good News fairly easy, but it also allows for Christians to become uninvolved.
The Church certainly needs to be considered outside the bounds of a building. The Church is global, made up of every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 5:9). The Church needs to think outside itself along with each of its own individual members.
As we look through Paul’s letters, though, we need to remember how many of the letters we addressed. If they were not addressed to specific churches (Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse), they were addressed to specific people (Timothy, Titus, Philemon) with specific instructions on how to serve their Church family.
Current media has made it possible for the Christian culture to be a transient one. We are able to move from speaker to speaker, from song to song, from church to church, without there being any apparent consequences. When something about a specific church displeases us or if the upcoming message series is simply not our favorite topic, we are able to find someplace else to go.
The trend of larger and larger churches has made it easier to slip in and out unnoticed, but such an attitude cuts off an extremely important part of a Christian walk with God – to love and serve something that Christ so dearly loves and gave His life for (Ephesians 5:25-27). Rather than leaving us when there were things that God didn’t like about us, He took the step of sending His Son to cleanse us and make us holy. We are supposed to mirror that with a church home of our own.
Of course, it’s not entirely practical to say that a person should never leave or switch churches, but a church is supposed to be a place where you are to be a spigot not a sponge. Should you be filled up? Sure. Should you be fed? Invariably. There comes a point, though, when each of us has to get out of the baby chair where we expect to be spoon fed and start learning how to prepare a meal on our own – a meal that can readily be served to others as well.
Cross Section 