Communities of Grace, Part 3

Since they are so prevalent I thought it important to contemplate what it is that leads a church to become a community of ungrace. I can’t imagine any church starting out saying that they want to become legalistic, unloving, culturally threatening, and condemning. So how do gospel people get to that state? The obvious answer seems to be a disregard for Scripture, making the rules of men the rules of God. But I think beyond that there are some other noticeable trends. I have narrowed it to what I think are three common trends that lead to communities of ungrace.

(1) Absence of “Kingdom-Mindset” –> churches that become so narrowly focused on themselves, their ministry, their reputation, their programs can easily sink into a state of pride and self-absorption. These communities become all about themselves and lose sight of what God is doing around them and through other Christians and churches. They don’t partner with other churches unless it was their idea, and they become very consumed with who gets credit, who gets converts, who gets members, etc. Pride is a massive danger that can deaden a church’s witness, and mission. Proud churches, self-absorbed churches, tend to be more consumed with keeping people and ideas in their church and can become very bitter towards other congregations. This is among the first trends leading to the development of a community of ungrace.

(2) Focus On A Ministry –> churches that become absorbed with one particular ministry can tend to make a program or a strategy the end-all of their community. Not only will they think that they do it best (all others who do AWANA, or who do social outreach, are second place at best), but they will begin to look down on anyone who doesn’t do it like them. Their success, or supposed success, in one area will lead to neglect of other areas of the church, or, even worse, an assumption that this program is the church. This unhealthy obsession and arrogance over a program or a ministry will lead to ungracious community life.

(3) Sacrifice Community –> Finally, I think churches that become communities of ungrace see church as a once a week event. They misunderstand the organic nature of church as Scripture describes it. Instead they view the church as an event that takes place during a certain set time, in a certain building, with certain prescribed activities. Community, then, becomes sacrificed for the sake of the event. There is no involvement among members beyond the corporate worship service, or the Sunday school class. The sacrifice of community becomes evident when there are problems in the church. Members who have conflict with one another “resolve” it by leaving or by breeding contention among the congregation. When the leadership attempts to change a program or an activity members become extremely hostile because they see that activity or program as a necessity of the church. It has always been part of the event and therefore to change the make-up of the event is to change the nature of the church. Community is not included and therefore changes become major issues. The sacrifice of community leads to ungrace.