Do we really need more church?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."  Galations 5:22-23

I was neither eavesdropping on the conversation or trying to avoid hearing what she was saying.  For that matter, as soon as I heard these few words I will quote, I got up and walked away.  I really wasn't interested in being a party to the discussion. What she said to him before I walked off was "We need more church and we need more prayer."

First of all, she didn't say "We need more churches", she said, "We need more church." Obviously I have no idea what she was talking about or why she even said that. But I'm going to take a shot in the dark.  I think she meant "People need to spend more time in church."

Going to church can be a really wonderful thing.  Usually a church offers a Bible study time and then a meeting they call a "worship service." That service usually includes some combination of group singing, or at least group listening, and preaching by the pastor or someone else. Some churches include readings and recitations in the order of worship.  For many it's the "fellowship" aspect that keeps the parishioners coming back.  To spend time with friends in "small group" and "worship" can be a deeply meaningful weekly experience.

But is it more church that we need?  Around here there are two things of which we have hundreds. We have churches and we have title loan companies.  I assume you're familiar with the former.  But in case you're not familiar with the latter, it's a lending institution where you trade equity in your car for cash. They hold your car title as collateral for the loan. The loan is generally for 90 days. Most loans are small amounts of $300 to $500, but some can be for as much  as $10,000. With interest and fees the APR is in the neighborhood of 300%.  If you can't pay it back, they will usually let you roll what you owe into a new loan with new interest and fees. Now you stay perpetually in debt for an amount you can never repay. Eventually they repossess your car. Now you have no money and no car.

My experience with over sixty years of "church" is a mixed bag.   Church people can exhibit all the fruit that St. Paul writes about.  They can indeed be good, loving and kind.  But church people can also be narrow, bigoted, hateful and mean.  So did church cause any of these people to be one or the other, or were they like that before they went to church? And did the crucible of church magnify either personality type? In the summer of 1977, I was on the staff of a small  church for less than two months. When we left that church  to continue my music education, the deacons took up a love offering and gave us $700. In 1977 $700 was a lot of money.  It increased our net worth times three.  We've never forgotten their kindness and generosity. After serving four years the first time on their staff, another  church had invited me back twice  over a period of twenty years. There was  small group of people who were not happy to see me come back that third time.  After nearly eight years, things came to a head over a song that one person wanted sung on Palm Sunday. It was more complicated than this, but we didn't sing the song and the leadership asked me to leave. So I left,

For better or for worse, I don't think we need more church.  Around here, at least, we have plenty of church. And we definitely have plenty of  title pawns. I think we need more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. And even if you go to church every Sunday, if these personal attributes are not the things you exude on a daily basis, what good is all that church doing you or anybody else? Can't you be those things without all that church?

During the two years I was at the seminary, we lived frugally, to say the least. And even if we had known, I doubt there was enough equity in our Mustang or Capri to qualify for a title loan. I'm glad we never knew. Besides an occasional movie or trip to  Wendy's, our primary entertainment had been to pitch pennies at the laundromat every Saturday afternoon. And of course we were careful to keep up with all those pennies.  But when I graduated in the spring of 1979, before we started our ministry in Georgia, we still had about $200 of the $700 that small church had given us. We used it to fly to Florida for a few days. What a delicious indulgence for a couple who had nothing in the way of worldly possessions.  When those deacons took up that money and gave it to us, I'm not sure a vacation in Florida is what they had in mind. But I think they would have said, "Please accept this gift of love and kindness to use any way you want. And regarding your trip to Florida,  against such things there is no law."

Do we need another hour of church or just a cup of kindness?   Let's check the Bible. "And be ye kind one to another." Ephesians 4:32 KJV. Was this writer talking about more church or more kindness?  I'll let you decide.