Church Membership: Considerations for Abstention

There are, I would say, historical, practical, technological and theological reasons that believers choose to isolate themselves. Some are more valid than others, but each should be considered in the light of circumstances (historical/practical), effects of culture and human depravity (technological) and context (theological). I’ll address an example of each, in that order.

The Desert Church Fathers are historical examples of believers who isolated themselves intentionally and grew closer to God. Some significant names include Chrysostom, Augustine, Athanasius, and Anthony the Great. These men demonstrated that an isolation can be very edifying, indeed, and can help us divorce ourselves from our parochial attachment to the cultural dressings of our faith.

Yet, what these men did is not what those of today who abstain from the assembly do. First, these men of God did not have multiple media blaring at them with the worldview of secularism, did not go to a workplace every day full of ungodly people and events, and furthermore, subjected themselves to forms of purgation and single-minded devotion to God. Second, many of them were driven to the desert by persecution, not their distaste for other believers. Third, the vast majority returned to either a monastic community or to the church in the culture and made a huge impact upon the local and international church. These three differences make the desert fathers a rather unlikely example for ‘abstainers’ to claim as models for their lives.

An advantage that ‘abstainers’ have over the early fathers is technology and the availability of spiritually helpful resources even while absent. The printing press, the radio, the DVD, and the internet provide a massive volume of theological information that is beneficial to the believer. We can listen to sermon series’ while driving, read the works of the early fathers with a mouse click, and read any of a seemingly limitless breadth of written works, with new ones of value being turned out monthly or more.

Yet, the advantages proffered by technology have cultural baggage. The same media that provide edification can provide ungodliness. The printing press prints heresies, the radio spews unrestrained sexuality, the DVD can be a vehicle for Passion Conferences or for gangster movies (my vice), and the internet is rife with pornography, even when it isn’t being sought. Furthermore, it is far, far easier to blow off many of these helps because it is just as easy to ignore it, turn it off, or put it down as it is to engage it. Truly, because we humans trend to laziness and selfishness, these helps are more likely to be dismissed immediately if they challenge our beliefs, and are more likely to be ignored than benefited from. On the contrary, a group of believers with the best interests of the kingdom and their brethren in mind will not allow us to merely ignore the truths of Scripture, and a preacher or Bible Study leader is far less likely to be walked out on than an internet site we disagree with is to be ignored. Technological advances do not replace the edification of fellowship and teaching of live brothers and sisters in our presence.

We must also consider the theological emphases upon individual. Salvation is an individual event, with individual people who were foreordained before time brought to Christ in individual quickenings. In Acts 8 we read of the Ethiopian eunuch who was left with himself, the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit as he headed home, where there likely were no other believers. In 1st John 2, we read that we do not need a man to teach us what is true and what is not, because the Spirit of Truth lies within us and will discern it for us. 1^st Peter 2 discusses the priesthood of the individual believer, who as a priest is individually responsible for his own conduct, confession and worship.

These theological truths do not interfere with the descriptions of and prescriptions for the regular assembly of believers for kingdom purposes. A person is saved as an individual, but he then is part of the body of believers, as described in 1^st Corinthians 12, and a body is deprived of a part and of its gifts when a member abstains. We do not need a man to teach us what is true, but the discernment of the Holy Spirit is not a license to avoid the prescriptions given to the church, which are numerous! They include communal constancy in prayer (Colossians 2), breaking of bread (1 Corinthians 11), giving of thanks (Ephesians 5), watching over one another (Hebrews 12), caring for one another (1 Corinthians 12, Matthew 25), Exhorting one another (Hebrews 3), bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6), loving one another (Hebrews 13), reproving one another (Matthew 18), submitting to one another in the Lord -which is pretty difficult by yourself (1^st Peter 5), ministering in gifts (1 Peter 4), that offenders seek reconciliation (Matthew 5), private admonition and public rebuke if necessary (Matthew 18, 1 Timothy 5), to conduct the assembly in good order (1 Corinthians 14). All of these flow through the assembly prescribed to gather together (Hebrews 10).

Yet, as some have already pointed out, it’s awfully hard to find a church that does all of these things. It may even be that there are large geographical areas without such a church. Again, we can’t answer for the church unless we are the bishop/pastor/elder, but we must answer for our own obedience. The first thing that must happen for a church to move toward where it should be is for one person to do it.

What I present is that few of us realize what are some of the very important behaviors we should exhibit in our hearts and lives in the community of believers, and thus we neither demonstrate these behaviors nor understand the importance of a community that looks like something more than a tribe, social club, support group or fans of a sports team (thank, David!). The next few posts will outline what these critical behaviors are. I pray you will be as convicted about them as I have been.