Religion or relationship?

John Hatcher is pastor of Outreach International Center, 1091 South Jeff Davis Drive, Fayetteville, Georgia 30215. 770-719-0303

By JOHN HATCHER
Contributing Writer

“In the traditional church, Christianity is seen as a religion,” according to the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life. Although Warren is no professor of ecclesiology (study of church), he certainly understands masses of the unchurched population and had been highly successful at reaching tens of thousands of them in southern California. He started his church in 1981 and now it is the largest in America (depending on which figures you are reading).

Warren references Jesus who had his own distaste of the religious establishment in his day. Jesus took on religious leaders with greater sagacity than he used on any other group of people. Jesus almost threw up at the sights and sounds of the religious elite. Warren states that Jesus had nothing to do with religion except he was against it.

This kind of dissatisfaction with religion goes back to the notion that religion was man’s idea, not God’s. Religion became the traditional way of man trying to get to God through rituals, rules, regulations. Remember the story of the Tower of Babel: there the population tried to build a tower to heaven. When God saw their arrogant behavior, he came down and confused their language so they could not cooperate in such a building project.

The steeple is a traditional religious symbol. And here I go again. I view the steeple as somewhat like the Tower of Babel. The steeple points in the wrong direction for it to be a Christian symbol. The whole Christian thing is about God breaking through man’s traditional attempts to get to him and coming to us as a babe in a manger in Bethlehem. Christianity is about incarnation, not heavenly projection.

So, Warren and a host of us evangelicals contend that Christianity cannot be classified as a traditional religion, because it does not have the appendages of a religion: basically it does not come with a set of rules, regulations, or even a stated way to worship the Supreme Being. Christianity is about the incarnation of God in the God-man Jesus of Nazareth. To a Jesus worshiper, Christianity is about a relationship with God made personal and simple through a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

Religion for the most part is a rather formal thing. Christianity, however, is personal and focuses on a living a lifestyle similar to the one Jesus lived when he was on the planet.

In traditional churches, Warren adds, the church is seen as an institution. Pointing out that the word “institution” is not even in the Bible, he says the church is a family that is built on relationships. Now, that’s an awesome statement. The church is a family and therefore consists of a group of relationships.

Traditional churches, on the other hand, will promptly show you their constitution, their by-laws, their procedures for operation, etc. I saw a Web page recently and it actually had a page labeled “Constitution and By-laws.” To tell the truth, I don’t know that I want to go to a church where they are so proud of their rules that they platform them on their Web page. What would Jesus think?

I think if Jesus were a webmaster, he would include lots of photographs showing people praying for one another, encouraging one another, loving on one another, and a host of “one another” photo opportunities. But, the constitution?

Now, Warren admits that not everyone wants to be identified with a church where relationships and lifestyle are preeminent over rules, rituals, and worship patterns. He believes if people want that kind of church, there are a couple hundred thousand out there to try out. But, that does not mean he and his church have to go that route.

Maybe his thoughts should give us all pause and make us ask: what’s my church all about? A religion or a relationship? More personal, what’s my Christianity more about: a religion or a relationship?