The church club

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

By JOHN HATCHER
Contributing Writer

The concept of “club” was deeply engrained upon our hearts as pre-teens. We all wanted to be part of a club, a set-side group of special ones, different from the rest, open to privileges others could not access.

Ever wondered why some smart dude called it “Sam’s Club” rather than Sam’s Store? Although 50 million people may be members of Sam’s Club, it still has that “we’re special and different and privileged” ring to it. Even if it is the cash register cha-ching.

I remember as a fifth grader I convinced my niece that she and I needed to form a Secret Club whose purpose was to tell secrets to one another. I had a hidden motive. I wanted to find out what my sister was getting me for Christmas — that giving day only weeks away.

Well, bless her heart, Susan, being a good club member, told me what my gift was to be. I still feel guilty about it to this day. My precious niece was killed in an automobile accident in the mid ‘70s. She was a dedicated mother and wife, one who overcame many odds to get where she was as the time of her untimely death.

I suppose one of the most unashamed clubs is the country club. Here rich folks pay big bucks to hob-nob with other rich folks. They also pay to be treated like they are somebody. They pay for the staff to greet them at the door, “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Somebody.” They pay for amenities, dining, and always to have a place to impress folks who can’t afford to be members of a country club. I have no real beef with country clubs. I have been invited on several occasions and have been impressed with all money can buy.

But my real problems with clubs center on the church. The church has its clubs. First of all, one denomination is getting clubbier and clubbier as it more and more refines what it is to be a member. Once, to be a Southern Baptist, you had to believe in the evangelical imperative, education of the believer, baptism by immersion, and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Now the club has expanded its rules for membership to include a particular view of the family as well as a definite prohibition against women in the pulpit. Clubs are like that.

Even in individual churches, you’ll find clubs. Just go to any church supper and you’ll see the clubs sitting together often oblivious to guests or new comers who desperately would like some one to come and take them by the hand and say, “Sit with me.” Not so, because you don’t want to break up your clubby chat.

It’s ironic that the leader of the church said, “Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and yet his church today says, “Come if your doctrine is like ours,” or “Come, if you have the correct social pedigree.”

If your church has clubs, why not become a committee of one to go about expanding the membership of the clubs. It’s a hurtful world out in the real world and when people come into the church, it’s painful to see restrictive clubs even there.

Remember the word, “All.”