"I Do Church On Mt. Tam"

With the recent rains, our beautiful Marin county is starting to turn green again. This brings to mind a common statement I hear from people in Marin. They say, “I do church on Mt. Tam.” Of course, there are many variations of this slogan. Others say, “My church is the beach.” Others might point to Muir Woods, or Yosemite, or somewhere else. On the other hand, some people are more direct and to the point. They might come out and clearly state that they don’t like organized religion, and so they don’t go to an actual church. They tend to describe themselves as spiritual more than religious, and they think that can be cultivated in various ways, especially through enjoying God’s creation. And yet, though I can appreciate their love for the outdoors, and indeed it is a beneficial way to learn something about God and his handiwork, it is not a replacement for church; at least not from the standpoint of what the Bible says about church.

Now I can understand why someone who is not a Christian might think that the outdoors is a wonderful venue for cultivating their spirituality. If someone is not a Christian, they will surely not value church in the way the Bible values church, until they are converted and submit to the Bible’s teachings on the matter. Of course, as a pastor, I hope and pray that they will in the meantime come to church and hear about the Christian faith and that indeed they might be converted. But my point is that I’m not particularly surprised when a non-Christian has a low view of the church.

And yet, what particularly saddens me is when professing Christians express something similar. I occasionally speculate on the reasons, but the bottom line is that many Christians today have a very low view of the visible church. In practice, they can sometimes speak or act in ways that are somewhat similar to such non-Christians who “do church” on Mt. Tam instead of going to an actual church. This can be expressed in different ways. Their church attendance might be very sporadic. They might have long stretches in their life where they continue to call themselves a Christian, but aren’t really a part of any local congregation. They might bounce around here and there from one congregation to the next, but not really an active part of any. They might set their family’s priority for church attendance very low, placing sports or other things regularly above it. When confronted about this by a pastor or another Christian, they tend to respond by saying things like, “Well, I don’t need to be at church for me to worship God.” Or, “God understands.” Or, “I have a personal relationship with Jesus, so church is helpful when I can make it, but even when I can’t I’m still growing on my own.” Yet, what often is actually being expressed is a low view of the church. Such statements by Christians often reveal that the person has an unbiblical view of the nature of the church.

The fact that individual Christians do have a personal relationship with God doesn’t do away with the biblical notion of the organized church. The fact that each Christian has this relationship with God is actually a primary reason why church is so meaningful, because we are spiritually united to God in Christ, and church is one way God commands us to express that. In other words, as Christians gather together at church to worship God, it’s that very unity that we express together in our worship.

Although many Christians today have too low of a view of the visible, organized, church, the Bible clearly does not. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, the concept of the visible church is prevalent. In other words, the Bible presents a very high view of the church, one that is formal, organized, and not optional. One way this high view of the church is seen in the Bible is with the word “church” itself. The word “church” in the New Testament Greek is ecclesia which means “assembly”. In other words, the word is used in the Bible to describe Christians who formally assemble or gather together. We see a similar word in the Old Testament Hebrew, often translated as either assembly or congregation, which is featured in a number of psalms, often in the context of corporate worship (e.g. Psalm 111:1). And so by its very definition, church is not about the worship of God by an individual on Mt. Tam on his own; it’s about Christians gathering together corporately to worship God.

Another way we see a high view of the church in the Bible is that it has recognized membership. In the Old Testament, this was clearly seen. People would be circumcised into the community of God’s people to join the assembly of the saints. And people could also be officially cut off from the community, and no longer be allowed to assemble with the saints. Likewise, in the New Testament, as seen at the start of the book of Acts, new converts were baptized into the church and added to their official number (Acts 2:41-47). And people could also be removed from the membership, akin to Old Testament practices, as seen in the church discipline issue described in 1 Corinthians 5.

Related to this is the concept of leadership among the church. In both Old and New Testaments, there existed formal leadership and authority over God’s people. Fundamentally, God was recognized as the ultimate ruler of his people, but he nonetheless raised up leaders such as Moses, Samuel, David, and others to provide human leadership for the people. Besides such occasional leaders, the people would also have local elders who had oversight of them. The use of elders for such church government was something that functioned in both testaments. Passages like Hebrews 13:7 and 1 Peter 5:5 command Christians to be in submission and obedience to the elders of the church. A person can’t follow that command to submit to the church leadership, if they are not a part of an organized church.

Thus, the notion of a visible church with formal assemblies and an organized government with members is a clear teaching of the Bible. Christians are never told that participation in the church is optional; Rather, the Bible teaches that the fact that they are spiritually a part of Christ’s church by virtue of their profession of faith obligates them all the more to not forsake assembling together with the saints in the visible church (i.e. Hebrews 10:25).

In conclusion, this brief article only begins to scratch the surface on demonstrating the Bible’s teaching on the church. Yet, it is my hope that if you have in the past tried to “do church on Mt. Tam”, or otherwise had a low view of an organized, visible, church, that you will be driven back to a biblical definition of “church.” In matters of religion and spirituality, we must seek for the church to be modeled according to the Bible’s definition and not invent church according to our own imagination and inventions.

About the author: Rev. Reid Hankins is the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA.