I just read a Tweet by shameless Christian Nationalist, Dale Partridge. Here is what is said:
As a Christian, your life goal should be to Christianize your city, your county, your state, and so forth. Evangelization = Christianization
According to Pastor Dale, the goal of Christianity is to evangelize and, therefore “Christianize” the entire world.
This idea triggered something in me. If that is really the point of Christianity, then it requires the church have access to certain assets in order to ensure that it survives.
It needs enemies.
It needs outsiders.
It needs someone to fight against.
It needs people to “save.”
Let me explain:
Christianizing the world
Growing up in the church, I was taught from a very young age that people outside the church were “lost” and that it was our job to tell them about it so that they might become “saved.”
Being “saved” meant you started coming to church, acknowledged your own wickedness, told Jesus you were sorry, asked him into your heart, stopped sinning so much, and then started telling other people how they should become “saved” so that they too, can enjoy the benefits of striving not to sin so much and join in telling others how they should become saved.
Oh… and of course, doing all this meant you received a “get-out-of-hell-free” card that you could play when confronted with your own depravity at the moment of your death when God looks down on you and says, “Well… what have you got to say for yourself?”
As a teenager in youth group, we were burdened with the responsibility of saving our friends’ souls from the eternal fires of hell. If they never heard the “good news,” then it was on us. We were told harrowing stories of post-death encounters with our lost friends as they cried out to us from the pit of hell, “Why didn’t you tell me about Jesus?” while we watched on helplessly and guiltily from the comforts of our heavenly home. You could imagine Jesus coming alongside, placing his hand on your shoulder, shaking his head, and saying, “Well, son… if only you’d told them about me.”
I suppose at some point, we would move on from this guilt-induced regret, forget about our burning friends, and get on with living in eternal bliss with Jesus.
This whole system was self-supporting and self-perpetuating. As long as there were people out there who needed to be “saved,” then there was work to be done — a focus for our efforts, a battle to be fought and won. Much of the church’s human and material resources were poured into the task of getting people “saved.”
Even those things that the church did that weren’t explicit in their evangelistic intent were done to pave the way for an opportunity down the track to tell people the “good news.” For example, we would feed the hungry… so that we could tell them about Jesus. We would show kindness to strangers… so that we could tell them about Jesus. Our good deeds masked our true agenda — which was not only to be kind but to get people “saved.” I’ll let you decide if kindness with a hidden agenda is truly kind or if it is actually a form of manipulation.
Either way, if the goal of Christianity is to evangelize — which is to get people “saved” — then it must always have access to people to save, or else it loses its reason for existing.
Unless, the church exists for other reasons that Pastor Dale can’t see?
Think about it. If there were no people who needed to be saved, what the heck would the church do? If the whole world were “Christianized” do you suppose that we would have arrived at some kind of utopia? Or would we all look around at each other and say, “What now?”
What if everyone in the whole world said yes to Jesus in the way that evangelical Christians believe is required for salvation. Of course, this will never happen, but let’s pretend for a moment. What would the church do if somehow it ever managed to achieve its goal of saving everyone and Christianizing the world like Dale Partridge hopes? Maybe it would look like something like this:
The day the last person was saved
Imagine yourself sitting in church one day when your pastor gets up behind the pulpit and positively beaming declares that the last human being on the face of the earth who was yet to be saved has finally crossed over from “death to life.”
“In fact, they are here with us today!” announces the pastor and then invites them to stand up, as pastors often do, so the congregation can publicly acknowledge the life-changing decision of the final wicked sinner. The congregation erupts in rapturous applause, a few people shout, “Hallelujah!” and the worship band strikes up a chorus of praise. There is a joyous celebration complete with hand-raising, timbrel playing, and even clapping on two and four.
When it all dies down, and people take their seats basking in self-satisfaction, the pastor gets up and says, “Well… I guess we’re done here! We achieved God’s mission. There’s not really much more to say. You can all go home.”
And so the people do, expecting as they go, that the second coming of Jesus is now imminent, given that his mission to get everyone “saved” is now complete. “See you in Heaven” is a common and casual salutation as the people part ways in full expectation of the glorious end of human history. They believe they will likely meet again tomorrow, perhaps, only this time, in the courts of their heavenly home.
Now, what…?
Monday rolls into Tuesday and then Wednesday, and by Thursday night, the elders of the church have called a crisis meeting. With no sign of Jesus, everyone is wondering what on earth they are supposed to do this Sunday morning in church — if the world is still chugging along by then — given that there is no longer a need to equip the saints to go out and convince people to become Christians.
The apologetics classes are canceled. The missions department is disbanded. The prayer team is rebranded to “The Praise Team,” as vigorous intercession gives way to thanksgiving. And the street evangelism team goes into recess.
Someone suggests that the people could have a break from Sunday Church services this Sunday as well, but this idea is soon shut down as the consensus is that this might encourage people to fall into the habit of skipping church.
“Do not forsake meeting together as some are in the habit of doing,” says one elder, quoting from Hebrews 10:25. The other men nod their agreement, and all and sundry completely miss the redundancy of this verse, given that no one is actually in the habit of not meeting since they’ve all joined the church already. Canceling church services is out of the question. Besides, the electricity bill is due soon, and the pastors have to be paid, so the church needs the tithes and offerings.
In the absence of some other kind of reason, it is agreed that the church should keep meeting simply to praise Jesus and thank him that the whole world’s salvation is now complete. A worship team is assembled to lead the congregation in singing. And once again, the faithful gather to celebrate.
Another week rolls by, and the same conversation ensues.
“What will we do this Sunday?”
And, sure enough, the same thing happens. The church gathers. They sing songs. They celebrate. They take up an offering and go home to wait for Christ. The next week, the same thing happens, although with slightly less vigour. Eventually, this pattern becomes the norm.
The party is over
As the weeks roll into months, a strange phenomenon begins to unfold. One Sunday, a few normally faithful members fail to show up. The next week a few more. And the week after, even more. Their absence is inconspicuous at first, but as the empty spaces in the pews began to expand, the pastor becomes alarmed.
With righteous indignation, he telephones one couple who had descended into sporadic attendance and demands to know what the problem is. “These are supposed to be glory years!” the pastor complains, “But you’ve not been there to celebrate!”
The man on the other end of the line, with great patience and a touch more wisdom than the pastor, replied, “Does the team that wins the Super Bowl continue to celebrate indefinitely, or do they prepare for the next season? We seem to celebrate the victory every week, but there’s nothing left to win. Why train? Why try? Why even turn up? The party is over!”
Despite the pastor’s pleading, the couple decides that if the substance of church consists of winning and losing, he should count them out. Several other former members follow suit.
Losing is winning
Far from being discouraged at this turn of events, the pastor is secretly delighted. He gathered the elders for yet another crisis meeting and exhorts them all: “The Lord has put us here for such a time as this!”
“There are people who used to be among us, brothers, who have since given up on their faith! Let us throw ourselves back into the task of saving the lost.”
The elders cannot hide their excitement.
The apologetics classes are rescheduled. The missions department is hastily reassembled. The “The Praise Team” is rebranded back to “The prayer team” as vigorous thanksgiving gives way to intercession. And the street evangelism team regroups and hits the mall.
Suddenly there is stuff to do.
The pastor prepares his new sermon series entitled “Winning Back the Prodigals,” where he hopes to train his flock on how to convince the lost to re-join the fold. On Sunday morning, he is back to his pulpit-thumping, fist-pumping best as he paces back and forth across the stage with renewed vision and purpose.
The people all breathe a sigh of relief. There’s a point to church again!
Praise God!
The parable explained
This post ended up being rather more like a parable than I expected when I first set about writing it, but I went with it! As with all parables, people will find their own meaning within its lines which is their prerogative.
You might conclude that I am saying that the goal of Christianity is not to win converts but rather, to make disciples. These two things are distinct from each other. You can certainly make a convert out of someone without them ever becoming a disciple. I can point a gun at someone and get them to convert, but that won’t change their heart. I define a disciple as someone whose conversion to Christianity has led them — and continues to lead them — to become more like Christ in nature over time. I know some “Christians” who are more horrible than the day that they converted to Christianity, so how do we explain that? It is my own experience that churches invest much more energy into trying to “save” people than they do in the process of transformation.
You might also notice that in my parable, the people are almost oblivious to the suffering and pain of people in the world around them. There is no talk of addressing or opposing systems of oppression or injustice. There is no discussion about being a voice to the voiceless or the hands and feet of Jesus to the poor and needy. They believe that once everyone is “saved,” the work is done. The prevailing view in my fictional church is that people just need “my version of Jesus,” and then they will be fine. However, perhaps the church is called to do more than convince people to accept Jesus and go to church.
You could also take my parable to mean that in a church system where people need to be “saved,” the work of that church will always be driven by an “us vs. them” mentality. Some people are “in.” Some people are “out.” There are winners and losers. Some people are the possessors and guardians of the truth, and others need what they possess and guard. This system excludes some and welcomes others based on certain boundary markers that often include intellectual assent to some Bible facts and the appearance of living a reasonably moral life.
The last word
So what does Christianity need to survive?
It needs outsiders.
It needs enemies.
It needs “unsaved” people.
It needs souls to harvest.
I mean, what would the church focus on if it no longer believed that it has a political agenda to make the world as “Christian” as possible. What if it no longer needed to save people? What if it believed that it just needed to love people instead? No… I don’t mean love people so they can be saved. I mean, just love people and leave it at that.
I don’t know the answer, but I’d sure be keen to find out.
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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