Look for the Sign of the Suckling Pig
October 17th, 2007
A few years ago a certain famous radio talk show personality began referring to big government as a “suckling pig,” stating that for many people it is the be all and end all for all of life’s problems “from the cradle to the grave.” Recently I’ve begun thinking that this is exactly the same mentality that permeates our churches today, this consumer mentality that causes the church to become nothing more than a service to be provided. The church logo could easily become the suckling pig.
And let’s face it. Churches today haven’t done themselves any favors in the way they have promoted themselves. Most church advertising is geared toward publicizing this great program or that wonderful benefit or this hip and trendy service. It isn’t any wonder that so many people in America today view the church as a product to be consumed.
A recent study from LifeWay Research seems to bear this out. They discovered that at least two-thirds of young adults who attend church while in high school will drop out of church for at least a year before the age of 22. According to Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, many young people today are simply reflecting a “church culture” that says “if you don’t meet my needs here, I’ll go somewhere else.”
“I think we have a very casual approach to that covenant community called church,” he says. “Ephesians 3:10 reminds us that God has chosen the church to make known His manifold wisdom in the world — and I think we have to help people connect better to the church. I think we need to begin to see that this covenant community called church is not an option in the Christian life. But to be fair, that’s what we’ve made it in North America today — and perhaps these young adults are reflecting to some degree the church culture in which they were grown and discipled.”
Paul writes in Ephesians 4:16 that because of Christ “the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” The local church was never meant to be a product to be consumed or a service to be provided, but rather an interdependent community of Christ followers that meet regularly together to worship Him, to edify one another, and to be used of Him to impact their community. The church is not simply a place to be served, but rather a place to serve. May God help us to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ to that end.