Are You Dating the Church?

Joshua Harris is a wonderful author who has several provocative books, including I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy Meets Girl. He also penned a book entitled Stop Dating the Church. In this book, he argues that it is time for Christians to join and be fully committed to a strong local church.

Do you know any church-daters? Perhaps you need to know the symptoms before you make a diagnosis. According to Harris, church-daters are me-centered. In other words, they choose churches which cater to their particular wants. Also, those who date the church tend to be independent. They really don't want to be heavily involved with the activities and ministries of the local assembly. Finally, people who date the church are highly critical about everything, easily finding fault with the leadership of the church.

So, I ask again: Do you know any church-daters? Better yet, are you guilty of dating the church? Do you hop from church to church? Are you fully engaged in a local assembly? If you are like the majority of "Christians" in America, you identify as a believer in the Bible but don't want to belong to a specific church.

This is not the plan that God presents in his Word. He wants all believers to be actively and totally busy working for him in a local assembly. Harris writes, "A wholehearted relationship with a local church is God's loving plan for me and for every other follower of Christ." Chuck Colson concurs, "Failure to cleave to a particular church is a failure to obey Christ."

What will it be? My recommendation is that you stop flirting with the local church. Choose to marry it. Obviously, no church will be free from flaws, because the church itself is composed of flawed people. Realize that the church doesn't need you nearly as much as you need the church. You are only inflicting damage to your eternal soul by not finding, joining, and passionately participating in your local church. In your endeavors to change the course of human events, overlooking the simple necessity of the local church could wreak irreparable damage to your life.