What makes a good church?

I have cracked that question in the last 48 hours … quality of church is directly related to the quality of curry, beer, theology and conversation.

This week I have been to the New East India in Gillingham twice … That’s got to be a guarantee for an excellent week!

On Tuesday night I went out with Jim and Darren for a curry and, apart from having a good time and eating well we did a lot of talking. Today, I had the pleasure of having a curry lunch with my good friend Terry. Again, along with the food and beer we chatted for ages about each other and God.

It strikes me that this is church, or if it isn’t, it certainly has a lot of elements of it, such as sharing of a meal (fellowship), discussing issues (learning and teaching), being amazed at what God has done for us (worship) and encouraging each other.

In these relaxed atmospheres men have been able to discuss openly, make suggestions, reflect, bounce ideas and go away with more ideas and thoughts.

Two themes came out of the meals which I think are quite pertinent. One was that as ‘church’ we are called to mirror the love of Christ and accept others. For some this seems to be a joke as I think we could all think of some Christians that are incredibly judgmental and unaccepting.

We thought about some of the more ‘difficult’ members of our congregation that we all have when working in deprived urban areas. Can we say we are accepting and loving by just saying ‘hello’ on a Sunday or do we need to do more. In effect, that is quite a silly question … innit!

Currently there is a guy in church that I find very difficult. His social skills are challenging and if you do talk to him then you simply can’t get away. For a while I avoided him because I found the times awkward and uncomfortable. That’s not nice or right, but it is the bare truth. I need to accept this person as I would anyone else as I don’t see Jesus saying we should just accept those we like.

The other ‘theme’ was more of a question; ‘are we going backwards?’

It is true that Christians in the western world are reading their Bibles less and less. It is also true that these same people are reading Christian books less and less. This leaves the question of where do they get their teaching, and how do they develop their own faith. We guessed that the answer is that it is developed by what they hear on a Sunday.

If this is true we are becoming a generation of Christians who, when asked ‘why do you believe that’ will only be able to answer in 2 ways … ‘the Bible says that’s how it is’ or ‘my pastor says That’s how it is’. Neither of those answers would cut it with people in the real world.

If this is true, the lack of reading and learning for self, then we could say that we are, indeed, going back to times before the reformation. Those times when only the priests had access to the word, unchallenged because no one else knew what the word said.

This worries me. It worries me because we will have nothing to pass on to our next generation. It worries me because it breeds a dependence on Sunday and the few ‘trained’ people. It worries me because it leaves people open to spiritual abuse. It worries me because …. it just should not be so!