The Church Isn't A Gym
Misunderstood purpose
I’ve written for years on how Christianity has come to treat church like a business instead of a family, or a restaurant instead of a pot luck (as detailed in my book).
But recently, I’ve started to see another unfortunate parallel:
Modern Christianity treats the church like a gym
How so?
One thing in common
At the gym, I consistently see the same group of people. Some of them are there every time, and some of them show up sporadically. I know some of their names. Others I don’t really talk to.
I’m sure they all have jobs and families, a life outside the gym, but I don’t know. Our connection extends little beyond our shared gym attendance and interest in our health.
For many Christians, this is their experience in the church. Despite being given numerous one another commandments, and despite this being our eternal family, and despite Jesus commanding us to have a love for each other that transcends all other love (John 13:34-35), much Christian fellowship remains at arm's length.
Because Christianity is just one piece of our compartmentalized lives rather than the foundation upon which the rest of our lives are built, our connection can remain limited to our niche shared interest.
Encouragement… from a distance
I genuinely do hope the other people at the gym do well and hit whatever goals brought them to the gym. And, I assume they hope the same for me. Sometimes I even encourage them, and sometimes they encourage me.
Beyond that, we don’t have much involvement with each other and certainly don’t share any obligation to make sure each other are doing well. I don’t have to think about making them a better gym member the way I’m supposed to think about helping my fellow Christians grow. In fact, in the church it’s one of the reasons we come together (Hebrews 10:23-25).
In the church, we need each other (1 Corinthians 12). I can’t be as strong as I can be without other Christians, and they can’t be as strong as they can be without people like me. That’s a big reason we come together.
Self-driven accountability
Plenty of the gym’s regulars have fallen off over the years and nobody bats an eye. Maybe they’re coming in at a different time. Maybe they’re going to a different gym. Maybe they gave up the habit entirely. It’s not really my business or responsibility to know.
It’s not even the gym owner’s responsibility. He’s not going to call them and ask where they’ve been, or revoke their membership if they miss too many days.
In the church, many people think that their spiritual life is ultimately nobody else’s business. “That’s between me and God,” they’ll say.
The church is there to provide a way to fulfill the obligations necessary to go to heaven. They know they have to attend worship and take the Lord’s Supper, but even that is their own choice. They don’t have to attend on Wednesday night. They don’t have to consider their ways and make any changes. They don’t have to listen to wisdom on anything that isn’t explicitly commanded.
If anybody so much as suggests that it would be a good idea to consider any of those things, they’ll just go find another, less nosy gym. Er, church.
That’s not Biblical at all, though. We are accountable to those who rule over us (Hebrews 13:17). Our ministers are to reprove, rebuke, and exhort us when we need it (2 Timothy 4:2). The spiritual are to restore those who stumble, and we are to bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:1-2). We are to exhort each other day after day (Hebrews 3:13).
In most gyms, you are accountable to yourself. In the church, you are accountable to God, your leaders, and your brothers and sisters.
Which will it be?
Gyms are great, but the church isn’t meant to be one. The body we’re taking care of is not our own, but a much bigger one of which we are blessed to be a part (Romans 12:5).
How do you view the church? Is it a place where you go to work on your spiritual health, and maybe give a head nod to the people around you as they work on theirs?
Or is it the household of God, where you go to build up your family and join in a cause that is bigger than yourself and your own salvation?
Another nail on the head. This particular concern has weighed heavy on my mind lately I’ve been watching myself every Sunday walking into the building smiling, shaking hands, hugging, complimenting. How was your week? How are you doing? How’s the gout? How’s the mom? How’s the kids? I sit down and go through the motions then worship is over and we all stand and we all head toward the exit. There may be five friends around me that I speak to a little more afterwards, but by the time I get to the back of the building, cause I sit upfront, anyone who sat three rows behind me and beyond are gone, I don’t know who attends our church. I don’t know them. They don’t know me in fact, the most they know about me is my tendency to blurt things out in bible class in response to some comment the teacher made. Perhaps, since I have a tendency to just say things randomly, they know more about me than they’d like to, but I don’t know any of these people and I don’t see them at all after services and then Wednesday nights and Sunday nights, I’m only gonna see a third of the ones that showed up Sunday morning. Sure we have church gatherings sure we have special group meetings-women’s, men’s, but that doesn’t mean I know these people I know I care about them, but I also think I’m doing a lousy job of being their Christian sister. I don’t know what the answer is, but I know it has to start with me. I liked your analogy of the gym. It really struck a cord with me. Thanks for thinking through that one. I appreciate your message.
Wow, I think this is a really good analogy, you've really done a great job of describing what church assembly feels like!! 😆
I feel this too and I have been really thinking about the things said in 1st Corinthians 14: 12-37
"let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel...
Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification...
he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men...you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.
...the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord."
I feel like when we assemble together, only one person speaks, usually the preacher, and he has the job of encouragement and edification and everyone else just silently listens and no one talks to each other or feels the need to say anything encouraging to one another. I wish we did take turns and that we came together with a purpose of having something to say, perhaps from our week or something we learned and studying or just something helpful to our church family. But I think a lot of us grew up hearing that we go to church to worship God, which is not anywhere in the bible, I believe it's a teaching from Martin Luther that has been passed down since the Protestant Reformation.