Yearning for the Churchless City

Hartford Institute estimates there are roughly 335,000 religious congregations in the United States. Of those, about 300,000 are Protestant and other Christian churches, and 22,000 are Catholic and Orthodox churches. Non-Christian religious congregations are estimated at about 12,000. Thousands of new churches open each year, while thousands of others close. At latest count, there were 1,210 Protestant churches in the United States with a weekly attendance of 2,000 people or more. The average mega-church has a Sunday attendance of 3,585. Yet, the worship hour in all the churches in America remains the most segregated.

Even the casual observer will notice that on almost every corner of our city streets here in America, are situated some type of church. There range from gigantic breathtaking cathedrals to store fronts or house churches. Sometimes, the sensitive, conscientious person may wonder how our world could have digressed to its present day condition with so many churches supposedly proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. In fact, a dear colleague, Felecia Dawson addresses that very issue in her book; There Is A Church On Every Corner, So Why Isn't Everyone Saved?

Marvin A. McMickle, Senior Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio writes: “there are more than 800 churches in the city of Cleveland, and if you were to consider the whole of Cuyahoga County that number increases to more than 1,200. Last week while driving along Kinsman Ave. from 55th St. to 154th St. I counted 45 churches along that one avenue. Not only is there a church on almost every corner, but also on some blocks there are four churches sitting right next door to one another or facing one another across the street.”

We have a plethora of churches and yet, our world continues to deteriorate morally, ethically and spiritually.

But the question that comes to my mind is would anyone desire residing in cities without at least one church? Despite the fact that our world seem to be moving toward a valueless society, I shudder to think of what the moral climate of a churchless community would be. Where would the Word of hope emanate? Who would remind those of us living in the midst of this insane world of the love and faithfulness of God? What would happen to the poor in spirit, the dying, the sick, the indigent, the outcast, and the despondent? Where would those who wanted God to bless their marriage or those who wanted to commune with Him and other saints at the Last Supper go? Something tells me that life would be even more tragic and devastating if there were no churches.

The pastor, as the senior Church leader and God’s representative, is blessed with a unique opportunity to serve humanity in a way that is not afforded other professions. For the pastoral office carries with it the extraordinary privilege of calling upon congregants at almost any time. To no other profession are such doors open. Regardless of how ill the patient, the physician usually waits for the patient to come to him or her. No matter how urgently a client needs legal assistance, the attorney waits in his or her office until the client arrives. It would be poor professional ethics for the dentist to knock on your door and ask if some one had a toothache. The psychiatrist, psychotherapist or psychological counselor will schedule an appointment for you to visit their office. But for the minister the doors of members and parishioners are always open. No special invitation is required. Most are pleased and grateful when the pastor visits and some feel neglected if pastoral care is delayed or forgotten. Besides the family, what persons or professionals are welcome into the intimate circle of significant sacred occasions, sacraments and rites of passage? - Only the clergy. Something tells me that humanity would suffer even deeper heartache and despair if we had to live in cities with no churches.

And yet, John tells us about such a city; a city without a church.

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Revelation 21:10, 22-27.

In the final chapter of Revelation, the Revelator describes how things will be at the end of history. The book of Revelation is an apocalypse (literature which deals with end times). All apocalyptic literature has the same plot. It is simply this: An evil force controls the earth. The faithful are in trouble. God goes to war against the evil force. Everything is up for grabs. In one gigantic battle between the forces of good and evil, good prevails. God’s rule is complete. The earth is transformed into paradise. And now God creates a new heaven and a new earth and the new city is called New Jerusalem.

When evil has done its worst, when the best described in Revelation 13 has brought destruction over the earth as we now know it, when the righteous have all been wiped out, when God has engaged Satan in the final war and emerged victorious, from the clouds comes New Jerusalem. It is a city of uncompromised splendor. In addition to its physical beauty, of more importance there are no tears to shed in New Jerusalem, no mourning, no pain, no sickness, no death. All things have been made new.

So John is carried to a mountain; the city is spread before him. He describes its beauty. But then he reports; I did not see a temple in the city. How strange, a city without churches. And yet, not so strange when we remember that our John was describing the final scene in the drama. What is revealed to us is how life is going to be when God has finally prevailed over the forces of evil. And so, there is no need for a temple. Temples are for sacrifice, and the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world, is the One perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world. That sacrifice was completed at Calvary.

The scene, however, is a vision of someday, not an image of now. And the book of Revelation speaks to those caught in the now. Its message is to hold-on, hang-in, stay faithful because in God’s own time there will be a new heaven and a new earth, a New Jerusalem. When that day comes, there will be no need for a temple. God’s presence will be a living temple. God’s glory will be the eternal flame, and “by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.”

I thank God for His Word that gives enormous hope to all of us whose lives are in the grasp of powers and principalities which seem to rule the present age. The churches to whom Revelation was originally addressed had felt the searing winds of persecution sweep over them. Times were hard and getting harder. Rome had decreed that everyone must worship the Emperors, both living and dead or pay the death penalty. How hard it must have been for Christians knowing that lifting up the name of Jesus would mean certain death or painful punishment.

John wrote to them to remind them that it was not a time to give up and give in. No, it was a time for faithfulness, persistence and courage. And those who endure to the end would be saved.

John was no stranger to tribulation. When he wrote Revelation he was an old man living in isolation of exile on the desolate Island of Patmos as punishment for preaching the Gospel. There, we are told, he worked as a chained slave in the marble mines. No wonder when he thought of other saints enduring cruel persecution, he could write to them as “your brother and companion in tribulation.” It is sad that such an old man who needed tender loving care had no human to watch over him at Patmos. Yet, in the maturity of his faith, he writes “hang-on, hang-on, things will get worse, much worse, but be faithful, and fear not.” Because when the evil one has spewed out all his poison; God will act, and New Jerusalem will come; a city without churches because God’s presence will fill the Holy City.

Well, who among us has not fought hard battles against the powers and principalities? Who among us has not faced times when giving up did not seem like a bad idea?

A man watches his world fall to pieces before his eye. His child dies a violent death. His marriage dissolves and his other relationships cracks. His business fails, his father dies, his house is burglarized and he cries out to God, “What do you want from me?”

A woman loses her children in a terrible custody fight. Soon thereafter, she loses her job, then her courage. She does not know how she can face tomorrow, when she discovers she has a cancer which may or may not respond to treatment.

A man serves a company for twenty-five years. His job has been his security. He gave it the best that he had to give; an honest days work for an honest day’s pay. New management takes over. He is out, no explanation.

A family loses a farm that has been in the family for five generations. They are now adrift. What can they do?

Perhaps, some of you readers know what it is like to be caught in a firestorm of human tragedy. What has been your hope? What kept you going through those stormy days and windy nights? Something kept you going because you are still here.

Well, I cannot speak for you, but I have been kept by the power of God. Regardless of how bad life has beat up on me sometimes, I know in whom I believe and I know in whose hands the ultimate victory lay.

The time is coming when the wicked shall cease from troubling and all weary soldiers in the army of Christ Jesus will lay down their weapons to study war no more. When that day arrives we will not need the Church. But until then, we thank God for the “House of Prayer” because it is God’s spiritual hospital for sin sick souls. It is God’s voice speaking peace to the turbulent waters of our lives. It is God’s people, God’s worship, and God’s service which sustains us with its hymns, psalms, prayers, sermons, litanies, fellowship, witness and mission.

The most pitiful persons I know are those who have no hope for tomorrow and no spiritual support for today. But for the faithful; when the storms hit our lives, we are kept standing by the power and renewal we get when we gather to do what we do Sunday (or Saturday) after Sunday as we patiently wait for the ushering in of the great city without a temple, the day when the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of God.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Someday, there will be
No evil to contend.
We will live in blessed unity,
No causes to defend.

Someday, there will be no tears
To flow from our sad eyes.
No deep soul wrenching grief;
When man no longer dies.

Someday, all of this world's wrongs
Will be transformed into the right.
There will be no nations in battle,
No wars that we must fight.

Someday, nothing will separate
Humans from one another.
For in the city of Infinite Love,
All will be our sister or brother.

Someday, we will alas be home,
Our estate pure blessedness.
O wonders New Jerusalem,
Worshiping His Holiness.

Someday, the lion and the lamb
Together will harmoniously play.
Our Lord will descend in splendid glory
And earth will be cleansed...someday.

©Saundra L. Washington, poem from Room Beneath the Snow
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