Why do people join Christian Communities?

Everyone on the planet is a part of a community – or a group of people – even if it’s involuntary as in being a member of a family. But, beyond family, most people will join one or more groups. Why do people join groups? Why do people join Christian Communities - churches, small groups, Sunday School classes?

First, a bit of social psychology
In 2008, Michael Hogg, Zachary Hohman and Jason Rivera published a social-psychological report about this very topic. Why do people join groups? Here are three reasons they discovered:

1. The Sociometer Model. This model argues that people have a need to belong, and that self-esteem is a meter of successful group belonging. Have you ever seen those resumes or introductions that list a person’s group involvement going back to college or high school? Greater inclusion in groups equates to higher self-esteem.
2. The Terror Management Theory. This theory asserts that people join groups to reduce their fears of death and that groups provide “safety in numbers” and “shared beliefs.” It’s comforting to be with others who share the same world view and to hear similar views that provide a sense of meaningful existence. 
3. The Uncertainty-Identity Theory. This theory argues that people have a need to reduce uncertainty about themselves and their place in the world, and that group identification reduces that security. Who am I and Do I Matter? 

Hogg, Hohman and Rivera argue that each of these - in part - can be involved in a person’s decision to join a group, but that most people who join groups fall into the Uncertainty-Identity Theory category while searching for the meaning of life: I want to matter to someone; I want my life to count for something.

I believe we have people who join Christian Communities for each of the above reasons.

• Sociometer: "My neighbors get up and go to church therefore I need to go to church. If I don't go to church, and my neighbors do, I am 'falling behind' my neighbors."
• Terror Management: "The world is big and I am small, and there is safety in numbers. I will join a church so that if bad things happen to me I will be surrounded by people who can help me." Or, "If I don't connect to a church, bad things will happen to me. God is there; the bogey-man is out here. I don't want the bogey-man to get me."
• Uncertainty-Identity: "I need to be a part of something larger than myself so I will identify with a group. Churches are full of good people, I am a good person - I can find my place in the world at church."

There's another reason that I run into periodically. I call it The Business Networking Model: "I am in sales and service, and there are a lot of potential customers gathered at the church under one roof. This will be like shooting fish in a barrel." (Don't laugh, I have seen this ilk come and go, come and go, come and go throughout my life.)

But, NONE of the above is why followers of Jesus come to a church.

The reason that 70-80 percent of North American churches, including most steeple churches, are in decline is because we have approached church believing people join it like Hogg, Hohman and Rivera talk about groups. 

We have said things like, “Come and belong here” or “Find sanctuary here” or “Find your place in the world here” and while we all agree that, yes, those are relevant messages – they are only relevant messages after someone has repented of sin and confessed Jesus as Savior.

Consider this:

• People are made in the image of a Sovereign, Powerful, Almighty, Omniscient, Omnipotent God, who knows all, sees all, hears all at the same time for everyone and sorts it out. When I consider the mind-warping magnitude of God, I think of the Book of Isaiah, which the prophet fills with descriptions of God. Read Isaiah 66:1: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool . . . My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the Lord have spoken." EVERYTHING is God's - you and me, and everything we claim to own.  Does that sound like anything of this Earth? What about Isaiah 40:18-26, where God hangs the stars and calls them each by name, forgetting not a single one? Supernatural. Wind-warping. 
• Return with me to Acts 2, Peter says in v. 17 . . . In the last days, God said, “I will pour out my spirit upon all people." This sovereign God pours out His spirit (The Holy Spirit) upon all people, inviting people to (v. 21) call on the name of Jesus. "And, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." God, through the Spirit, calls each man, woman, boy and girl to be saved through the sacrifice of His son. Again, Supernatural.
• Now, got to Acts 2:43-47, Luke writes: "Believers were added, by God, to the church."

The church - including church groups like our class - are Supernatural entities formed by a Supernatural God, who is Sovereign over all the Earth and to whom every man, woman, boy and girl will one day be accountable. And, as people come to know Jesus as Savior, God adds "the believers" to the church. And, Acts 2:44 says these believers "shared life together." They sacrificed and poured into one another. No where - not one place in Scripture - is the life of a believer defined by sitting and watching others do the work of the church.

People may join booster clubs, hunting clubs, book clubs, garden clubs, charities, card-playing clubs, neighborhood associations, and professional organizations. But, people do not join churches. God adds believers to churches. That's why you will always hear me say to people, "Be where God sends you; be and do what God calls you to do."

Today's problem

Today, friends, we have people who have penetrated the North American church as they do all kinds of other Earthly organizations, and they have warped the frame of the church. We now have consumer churches, where people come for their own benefit, to sit and listen and consume information. For these consumers, all you hear them talk about is how church has "made my life better" or "I am fed at that church." That consumerism attitude - "it's for me and about me" is the ultimate sin, turning the Supernatural work of a Holy God into something sinfully self-serving.

The church is a Supernatural group that trumps every group in your life. Attendance and membership is not something to be taken lightly, and I argue won’t be taken lightly by those who know and follow Jesus, are sent by the Holy Spirit  to join the church and who are tangibly working to share life with one another.

Where are you? Regardless of your spouse, or your friends, where are you?

Do you know Jesus as your Savior? Can you point to a mile marker on your life and say, “Here, right here, is where I surrendered my life to the risen Savior.” And, then can you point to a second mile marker and say, “Right here is where I joined with xyz church because it’s where I knew to my core that God was sending me.” And, can you say, clearly, right here, this “is where I saw the church differently – not for what I got from it, but what I gave to it. And, I am now giving to it."

Last . . .
Do you know why, in church, 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work?

In the booster club, we call it laziness or just being sorry when 80 percent of the people watch 20 percent do all the work, but in the church we call it what it is . . . lostness or living without a Savior. Lost people latch onto a church as a social organization content in watching others do all the work . . . for them. I believe it is impossible to know Jesus without connecting to a church, and without being involved in that church. Because, what God sends you to do (the church), The Spirit will cause you to be restless until you are doing it. You cannot sit idle in a church and be filled with the Spirit that comes from salvation. That kind of restlessness would be unbearable.

As St. Augustine said, "You awaken us to delight in your praise; for you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” The measure of your restlessness for the things of God may be a sign of your fellowship – or lack thereof – with God.