When the World Laughs

Our Christianity has the appearance of being an adjunct or an appendix to the rest of our lives, rather than the main theme and driving force of our existence. We seem to have a real horror of being different. Hence all our attempts and endevours to popularise the church and make it appeal to people. we seem to be trying to tell people that joining a church will not make them so very different after all.

The world expects Christians to be different and looks to him for something different, and therein shows an insight into his life that regular church-goers often miss. The churches organize whist-drives, bazaars, dramas, fetes and that sort of thing so as to attract people. We are becoming about as wily as the devil himself, but we really very bad at it; all our attempts are hopeless failures and the world laughs at us. Now, when the world persecutes the church, she is performing her real mission, but when the world laughs at her, she has lost her soul. And the world today is laughing at the church, laughing at her and her attempts to be nice and to make people feel at home. My friends, if you feel at home in any church without believing in Jesus as your personal saviour then that church is no church at all, but a place of entertainment or a social club. For the truth of Christianity and the preaching of the Gospel should make the church intolerable and uncomfortable to all except those who believe, and even they should go away feeling chastened and humbled.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, March 20th 1927. From a sermon on Hebrews 13:14

As we prepare for Sunday, are we putting more effort into making the truth known in our towns and cities, or into making sure we get a good crowd of people who feel like we are respectable members of their society? The above quote is not to say that guests are unwelcome at church, (obviously!) but that they shouldn't be comfortable, it shouldn't be like going to a coffee shop with their friends. Something of the almighty and eternal must be bought to be bare on their consciences, something of the unique hope in Christ, or we have failed. If communion, or baptism, or church membership or anything that marks a line between church and world teaches us anything, it is that, in the best way possible, there is no real belonging to a church, until you believe, and when you believe, everything changes.