Spectators in the Sanctuary: The Death of Genuine Fellowship

It's unfortunate to see how many Christians, including many friends of mine, neglect fellowship with the church. And when I say fellowship with the church, I'm not only talking about going to a gathering every weekend.

In recent years, there has been much talk about how many churches foster a consumer mentality among their attendants. People give money to the church and use the church as a service provider. Most of the work of ministry (sic) is done by a very small percentage, who are usually paid to do so. The rest of the people might volunteer as it fits their schedule and is not too inconvenient.

Now, having made these people "church customers," churches need to work on member-retention strategies, which is becoming increasingly difficult. Data shows that you can be considered a regular attendee in North America if you come to church once or twice a month. The pandemic and the whole "online-church" thing have probably accelerated this process. And for this reason, many big churches are pivoting, trying to get these same people to be online customers of their services.

The reality today is that lots of Christians barely go to church gatherings. When they go, they go to watch a performance, and the level of knowledge retention - even if the message is good - is pretty low. And even though lots of Christians profess to "believe" in Christian morals, the immorality in the church has been growing rampantly and many times is very similar to what we find in the world.

Let me be clear, my concern is not with the size of churches. There are small churches that also grapple with this issue. The problem lies in the model - or the philosophy - of ministry. The early church we encounter in Acts 2 was a large community, yet their mindset and way of life were markedly different from what we observe in most churches today. This stark contrast should serve as a call to action for us.

Current church trends and ministry philosophies are killing genuine fellowship. I'm not advocating for a specific model, but for us to assess whether our models are causing true participation in the body of Christ to flourish or to wither. True Christian fellowship can only exist between disciples; spectators can show a certain level of synergy but not fellowship.

My friends, the situation is grave. I'm not critiquing the church from an outsider's perspective but as one who is deeply connected to the body of Christ and feels its pain. I acknowledge that I have also contributed to this problem at times, and I'm in a constant state of repentance. The hopeful news, I believe, is that the solution is within our reach and is not as complex as it may seem. We need to revisit the fundamentals. We need to rediscover what it truly means to be a church; we need to pray for hearts that yearn for His design for the church and hands that are eager to rebuild what has been lost.

We need to recapture from the pages of the Scriptures a vision for the church that is much more attractive than the many models we have around today. We need our minds to be renewed to not find beauty in wordly standards, and once again to be able to discern God's will and in awe stand before the possibility of being the church Jesus saved us to be, in a loving, deep and intimate spiritual fellowship.

Nino Marques