One of the issues that can hinder a church from growing is “legalism”. Now, before your thought process goes too far by associating a specific university or some non-denominational group of churches with the word, please let me explain. In the context of church growth, legalism is defined this way: “We do church the right way and if you don’t do church the way we do then you do church the wrong way”.
Though someone might not agree with what I am about to say, I must say it: There is no one way to do church! May I repeat myself?
THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO DO CHURCH!
As we research and study the New Testament, it is very obvious that there is no descriptive nor prescriptive formula on how a church should fulfill its “marching orders” in the kingdom of God.
From the very beginning of what we call the “early church” in the book of Acts to our present day culture of kingdom work, “doing church” has never been static (that is, it has never come to a point of rest or standstill). Just as society and culture are in constant states of change, so is the church. That is why we must constantly adapt the way we do church in order to reach out to people who live in a constantly changing culture and world.
Legalism, in its purest form regarding church growth, is a strict adherence to a specific way of doing church and being critical of churches that don’t adhere to that same form of structure. Now, before you start thinking that you and your church are not like that please be very careful. It doesn’t matter how you do church. Any church can be guilty of legalism.
Your church might be the most extreme, radical, contemporary, “in your face” church on planet earth. You don’t belong to any denomination. You don’t subscribe to any form of church government. You don’t even do church the same way week by week. Your claim to fame is: “We wrote the book on non-traditional church."
Yet, even if this describes your church, if you and your church have the attitude that you do church the right way and everyone else does it the wrong way because they don’t do it like you, then you are guilty of legalism. When a church has this approach to other churches, you will find that the church will begin to become a stagnant and closed society only for those who are like-minded. Or, your church might still use Bach and Beethoven, for example, but you can be guilty of legalism if you are critical of any other church that doesn’t do church the way you do church.
It doesn’t matter if your church uses bluegrass, rock and roll, acid rock, punk rock, rap, disco, high-church, low-church, mid-church, country & western, do-wop, be-bop, hip-hop, contemporary, blended, reggae, traditional, gospel, classical, head-banger metal, jazz, or polka music (let's see: did cover I it all?) Any church can have the attitude that it does church the right way and any other church that doesn’t do church that way is doing it wrong.
What should be our approach to other churches that don’t do church the way we think they ought to? Let me say this very succinctly:
ALL OF US SHOULD STAY OUT OF EVERY OTHER CHURCH’S BUSINESS!
We must come to an understanding that, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can, and must, accept one another for who we are: Christ followers, who do church in myriad numbers of different ways but are on the same team with the same captain and His name is JESUS!
Acceptance of one another is biblical but our acceptance of each other doesn’t mean that we have to approve of each other’s way of doing church. We can accept another group of Christians, who make up a body of local believers in a local church, because we belong to Christ but that doesn’t mean that we have to approve of the way they do church. We just need to keep our opinions to ourselves. It is wrong for us to criticize and judge other believers for how they conduct themselves as a church in the kingdom of God.
In recent years, one of the most highly criticized churches in the USA has been Willow Creek Community Church. There have been countless numbers of pastors, church leaders, and web sites displaying their legalistic attitudes, by not only criticizing Willow Creek but engaging in an all-out attack on this church and its founding pastor, Bill Hybels.
Recently, the church conducted a three year self-study to examine how well it has fulfilled its purpose as a church. Results showed that Willow Creek had room for improvement and the results were published in a book titled “Reveal”.
Can you hear the silent laughter of legalism? I can. Those same pastors and church leaders who have attacked Willow Creek in the past are probably saying, “I told you so. I knew they were doing it all wrong!”
But, what a wonderful example of humility for Willow Creek to reveal to everyone in “Christian Nation” that it had fallen short of its goals and objectives and that the church and staff were determined to address the areas in which they saw the need for improvement. Willow Creek didn’t have to publish the results of their self-study. They could have kept the results to themselves. Yet, Hybels and Willow Creek humbly admitted to themselves, and to the rest of us, that they could do a better job at how they “do church”, thereby, opening themselves up to even greater attacks.
But, isn’t it interesting? From those same critics of Willow Creek I have yet to hear any pastor or any church admit their own shortcomings and failures and reveal to the rest of us that quite possibly they weren’t doing church as well as they thought they were.
Ah, legalism.
Hmmm….now, what was that we were saying about those churches that do things a little differently than we do?
