A Church on every corner

It takes five minutes to drive from our house to church. Three minutes when we get both green lights. In those five minutes we drive past five churches, of which ours is the sixth. Five churches in five minutes...it's like a Bible belt joke, but it's true.

You'd think that in such a churchified city, something would be different. I guess i don't know what but perhaps you wouldn't expect the first segment of the local news to be a round up of young men who have killed or been killed in the last twenty four hours. But it's true.

A church on every corner should point to the great spiritual strength of a city, but increasingly, i think it does just the opposite. You knock on someone's door, and it's 'no thanks, i go to that church...over there.' It makes us complacent, it makes us insular because if we disagree with someone, there's always another church to try. I think it actually hinders a mission to reach a city.

But i think, perhaps paradoxically, it also makes finding a good church harder. I've never lived anywhere that has churches advertising on TV, but on some local stations in Greenville, they do. What do they advertise? Their faithful repetitiveness of the Gospel? Their solid Bible study classes or commitment to the great commission? Well maybe i've missed that advert, but the ones i've seen is all about the music and the lights. The youth. The venue.

It makes choosing a church hard because having a church on every corner obscures the major issue.

How do i find a church? Do i go where my friends go? Where i can see my front door from the church? Where the music is to my taste? Somewhere the kids enjoy? Or where the Gospel is preached? It obscures that issue because it makes it harder to settle. It's the tyrany of choice. If you didn't like the music, or the way people where dressed in one church, well you can try another one...and then another one...and then another one.

This sort of culture encourages us to be church shoppers. It encourages us to focus on secondary issues rather than on the Gospel, We should be able to say 'if the Gospel is being preached, i can put my preferences to one side.' I can wear a tie or not, i can take the Lord's Supper slightly more, or slightly less frequently than i'd prefer, i can deal with the youth pastor's funny accent. But what chance has that sort of thought got when there's a church on every corner? It caters to the very worst of our attitudes to church.

So how should we find a church when there's a church on every corner? It's simple. Go where the Gospel is preached. Don't go where your favourite phrases are repeated, go where the Gospel is preached. Don't go where people look like you, go where the Gospel is preached. Don't go where your friends are, go where the Gospel is preached.

A church on every corner should be a good thing. But don't let the hundreds of secondary issues settle where you go to church. Go where the Gospel is preached. And go often.