A while back I was given a book written by George
Barna entitled Revolution. For those of you not familiar with Barna, he is a
Christian stats guy and he and his group has reported a lot of helpful
statistics about the state of things within the church and with nonbelievers in
the world.
In this book, what Barna does is he reports on a
group of believers that they have studied that he calls “revolutionaries.” He
explains that their main focus is on their relationship with God and that they
really don’t see the church as necessary.
Now like I said, the stats that Barna reports about
the rise in this group of people and their mentality is very helpful to pastors
and church leaders. The problem with this book is that the prescription Barna
gives is not. In fact, I would say that Barna’s prescription is worse than his
diagnosis. What Barna basically says in this book is, “No big deal." He
even makes a push for Christians to accept the fact that people are seeking to
follow God outside the church walls.
There is a major issue I have with this
prescription; it’s not biblical. What we discover as we read God’s Word is
that one of the key ways for us to grow in Christ—one of the key ways to mature
in our faith is through valuing relationships and connecting with God’s people
in His church.
The phrase “one another” is used over a hundred
times in almost every book in the New Testament. How can we be obedient to God
by "loving one another, submitting to one another, encouraging one
another, building one another up, exhorting one another, showing hospitality to
one another, praying for one another, not speaking evil against one
another" if we do not associate with one another? Truth is we can’t. Living in community with God’s
people is not optional, it's essential if we want to be like Christ.
