Soul Searching: We Are the Church, but Not a Mob

Part 4 in a series of reflections on the Capitol insurrection and Christians’ participation

Christians congregate in worshiping communities called churches. Some churches are small (in fact, most are) and some are large. Their purpose is to practice the sort of fellowship in which people worship God, learn the content of their faith, grow in love for one another, and pool their resources for ministry in the “mission field” around them. The Church (capital C) is the collective fellowship of all such groups and denominations of believers around the world and over time.

The Church exists to embody Jesus to the world and is known as the Body of Christ. This Body is One (that is, unified by the Holy Spirit) composed of many parts (diverse and unique individual members, with gifts and callings). This diversity reflects the great cloud of witnesses and believers of many “tribes and nations,” and our vision of its potential comes from the Book of Revelation (see, for instance, Revelation 7:9).

The Church thrives and struggles in countries all over the world, and its members represent every culture, language (well, almost—Wycliffe Bible Translators is still working on it), socio-economic level, race, political party, and musical style. Christians, of all people, should feel very comfortable communing with anyone who professes Jesus Christ as Lord, seeing as we are all going to occupy heaven together.

Alas, despite the vision depicted in the Scriptures, Christians remain segregated by race, divided by worship wars, shunned by political opposites, and otherwise dull to the Holy Spirit who is gathering people around the Lord Jesus Christ. At the local level, church members find themselves on the outs with others over many issues. Being a Body, living and working together to fulfill the charge Jesus Christ gave us, can be painful if we can’t agree on who we are, whose we are, and what we are to be doing.

So imagine the barriers to unity erected by Jesus-flag-bearers who join a a mob and storm the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. [Not all the people in that violent mob were Christians, but some in those marbled halls were.] This forceful entry is opposite of how the Church is supposed to do its mission, and lawless thugs betray the witness of the Church if they take the name of the Lord as cover for what they are doing.

The Capitol insurrection was no divine mission. Jesus did not lead people to disorderly conduct, coarse language, and defiance of government authority. No, human beings took matters into their own hands, destroyed property, beat police officers, killed one, injured others, and arrogantly took position within chambers to assert unlawful power. No “evangelical” can rightfully claim that the take-over was a victory for religious freedom or a divine policy agenda. Quite the opposite. What we saw was evil.

In contrast, when the Church wants to get something done, something big and transformative, the Church prays for divine direction (that is, calls upon God to show them what must be done and where to start), not validation or guidance for a human plan already in place. The Church is not about starting a movement by force or revolution, exploiting weakness here or creating anarchy there. No, the Church follows Jesus Christ in the way of gutsy servanthood, generous selflessness, and humble attention to the least and the lost among us. History shows that this counterintuitive method for transforming societies relies on quiet, personal sacrifice, not mob action.

So let the soul-searching begin. Would you rather be a member of a mob, or of the Church? Would you rather sow dissent and disarray, or plant seeds of peace and cooperation? This is a reckoning moment for Christians, in which we must “renounce secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2).