Editor, The Sun

(October 1997 – In response to a forum about why more in the Northwest don’t “attend church”.)

Church is not something you “attend”. Church is something you are. Church is people. Biblically, the Church is all individuals who have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and who are called to be in relationship with each other.

I have no desire to criticize mainline Protestantism or Roman Catholicism in this context. My concern is with my own subculture, Evangelicalism, which has obscured the Gospel with partisan politics and mass media false-gospel-of-the-family events in the nation’s capital.

Evangelicals have set themselves up for these dissipations by pursuing institutional “churchianity” driven by a professional clergy system. It is no wonder that “church” is irrelevant to most people on the west coast or anywhere else. The ones who should be ambassadors for Christ are pushing institutionalism instead of relationships.

What is the Church?

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