Thoughts about Church

So, I think I shall take a break from my typical blogs that simply relate what’s going on here and write one about something I’ve been thinking about a lot here: the church. Some of you might know that last summer, during my time working with Mission Indy, I started to wonder what the church should look like and if the typical American church was even close to where it should be. Well, a lot of these questions have resurfaced in my time here as I’ve noted the differences between the church here and the ones I’ve seen back home.


My questions started when I realized I hadn’t seen obvious evidence of community outreach or service in one of my churches here. I still want to ask them what they do with subjects like poverty, homelessness, social justice, etc. And, since I started wondering these things, they have had an evangelistic musical for the community and I did find out that they have a type of food pantry. But more than that, I realized that there is a big difference in the way they do things here and the way we (generally) do things in the States.

In many American churches, if we wanted to do something about the needs of a person or group of people, we would set up an event to help them or maybe create a program/ministry to meet their need. But here, it’s much less about an event or a program; it’s about the relationships between the church members. I’ve heard several stories about when people in the church had big monetary or physical needs, and the members of their small groups or other church friends chipped in whatever they could until the need was met. That’s how it seems to work here: they take care of each other. The reason they can do that is because they have a relationship and from that relationship they find out about the needs of their friends and, in love, they meet the need.

Maybe they don’t have as many programs or events, but they do have a body of believers that (in many instances) provides for the needs within that body. The motive for someone to join their church wouldn’t necessarily be an event, a flyer, or a special program offered; it would be the love that an outsider would witness when seeing the believers interact. Besides, what good is an event or a flyer if behind that is simply a bunch of individuals that don’t necessarily have a deeper relationship than just going to church on Sundays?

Before I continue, I do want to give two disclaimers. I know a ton of awesome believers in the U.S. that show this kind of love and care, and I have many great relationships with people from my church that have been amazing blessings to me. And, on the other hand, the church here definitely isn’t perfect. In a small, relational church like the one I go to here, there is a fair share of church drama and gossip that comes with everybody knowing everybody else’s business.

Still, I think that we Christians in the U.S. have a thing or two we could learn from the church in this culture. I think we would do well to invest deeply in the relationships we have with our fellow believers, taking to heart God’s commands in Scripture to love one another, serve one another, meet one another’s needs, care each others’ burdens. I think we would do well to focus more on that than on events or ministries (but don’t get me wrong, those can be awesome tools for the Kingdom, too). But how amazing would it be if people came to our churches and were drawn to our God because they, too, wanted to be part of our community where they saw people who truly loved each other, who enjoyed spending time together, who selflessly took care of each other, and who simply shared life together? Like I said before, the church certainly isn’t perfect here, but I see more evidence of that community aspect here than I’ve seen in most American churches.

So I started thinking about how these concepts I’ve learned and witnessed here could be applied in my church back home, and U.S. churches in general. As I was thinking, I ran into two main obstacles: the cultural differences and the prominence of big churches in the U.S.

First, the cultural differences between Argentina and the U.S. are fairly obvious. A first small thing is that it’s culturally expected to greet almost everyone or everyone in the room with a kiss on the cheek when you enter. That automatically forces some kind of interaction and physical proximity of the people at church that often blooms into conversations that are elementary in forming relationships. But more generally, this is simply a more relational culture. In many instances, I’ve noted that time, schedules, and tasks to be done take a quick backseat when two people strike up a conversation. It’s simply a fact that a relationship carries more weight than a to-do-list. On the contrary, the life I myself have lived and experienced in the U.S. is much more task and schedule driven. To change a planned schedule, to start an event late, or to leave a task unfinished for the sake of having a conversation or building a relationship just doesn’t happen, or at least not NEARLY as much as it does here.

Again, such a relational culture can have its downsides (like my Argentine professor who literally told our class she was going to fail two students because they did something disrespectful and made her mad). But still, I think a lot of Americans, including the majority of American Christians, miss out on the richness of relationship and life lived together for the sake of following their master schedule or their to-do-list. I know I have. And, as I said before, those very relationships are the basis of our being able to care for each other and show the love of Christ to one another in real and meaningful ways.

The second obstacle comes with the big churches that seem to be fairly prominent in the U.S. Until I left for college, I attended the same church faithfully for 18 years straight. But because it is a bigger church, I know there are other people who had also gone to that same church all those years and I had never met them. What’s the problem with this? It’s way too easy for people to be able to slip into church, shake a couple hands, sing the songs, and listen to the message, then slip back out without every sharing even a minute of conversation with another believer. How can relationships be formed in this setting when members of the same congregation don’t even recognize each other? How can we know who is hurting and needs us, how can we serve and love one another, how can we “rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn” if we go to a church so big we’ve never even met? The answer that my home church has given is small groups, or “Life Groups”, and I have seen some awesome things happen in those groups. I’ve seen groups that have become like families, that share life, that look out for each others’ needs and even call each other out when they are living in sin. But what about the other 50% (my estimate) of the congregation that doesn’t belong to a small group? Where do they fit in?

I don’t know. The truth is, I don’t know how to take what I’ve learned in Argentina from the relational culture and relationship-based church and put it into practice when I get back home. I don’t know how the obstacles of a time and task driven culture and the big churches can be overcome. I don’t even know exactly what it would look like for us to be the church God wants us to be. But what I do know is that I don’t want to stop asking these questions, I don’t want to stop looking for answers, and I don’t want to forget what I’ve learned in my time here.

So, feel free to chime in to the conversation or correct me or throw tomatoes at me or ask your own questions. I’d be happy to hear it all.