Restaurant Church?

 

You could say I am a loyal customer, having gone there three times a month or more for about six months. So yeah, I am loyal. I am also committed, in that I pay every time I go. Okay, Hernan pays half the time, but we pay every time. So I attend regularly, I pay my fair share. I am by most measures a faithful El Pollo Loco customer.

 

However, if things begin to change there, I am gone! If they start asking me to contribute more money, or they lessen their services, or the food isn’t quite to my taste, or even if I just get tired of going. Even worse, could you imagine what it would be like if they asked to me to help! If I came in one day and they said, “Hey Bill, we are a bit short handed in the kitchen, could you come back here and we’ll show you how to cook?” I would respond with a very thoughtful, “You are out of your mind. I came here because I don’t want to give anymore than the price of my meal. If you can’t meet my needs, or even my desires I can go to a million other restaurants."

 

Contrast that to my family. I love my wife and children dearly! Apart from my relationship with God, they are the best things in my life. But they are decidedly inconvenient. My wife expects much of me in terms my attitude and my involvement. My eight year-old wants me to take her to gymnastics and Tae Kwan Do (check out the free classes here), and has never offered to pay for the gas. My five year-old (as of today!) wants me to play games with him, but we never play the games I would choose. And my 1 year-old, well she has yet to pull her now considerable weight in the family. And that is when things are going well. If we have difficult times, sickness, financial problems, health concerns, or even just bad attitudes it requires even more of me. You would rightfully tell me I was out of mind if I told you I was going to find a different family because “Lisa no longer meets my needs.” Or if I say, “My toddler is way too much work, I want a different one.”

 

So obviously how I treat my favorite restaurant, and how I treat my favorite family are very different. My question is, “Is the church more like a family or more like a restaurant? If we measure by people’s behavior, the answer can be very different. 

Some church hop and church shop as long as they feel “comfortable” then all is well, and if not… on to the next one; where as others stay connected and committed even when it is tough.

Some contribute as little as possible and resent any feelings of guilt that they should do more; where as others simply say, “I want to serve where I can.”

Some join together when they aren’t too busy; where as others prioritize getting together.

 

I am not suggesting that Church and family are closely linked. God already suggested that in the Bible when the church is called by familial names like “brothers” (see for example 1 Corinthians 1:10 “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…”). Even how we deal with each other is supposed to be in a familial kind of way: “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” (1Timothy 5:1-2)

 

I simply ask you: do you treat your church more as a family or more as a restaurant?