Ownership Attitude

It's Monday morning and you need to get to work. Here are your options: 1) bum a ride, 2) borrow a car, 3) rent a car, 3) lease a car, or 4) buy a car. With each of those options, you will have varying degrees of care and concern about the car.

If you're bumming a ride, you don't care much about the car. You just hope it gets you to your job safely and on time. If you're borrowing, you care a little more about the car but only because you don't want to have to pay for any damages caused while you're using it. In that case, your concern is not about the car but yourself. If you rent a car, you care very little about the car because the rental insurance will cover damages. There's a little bit of personal skin in the game because you're paying for the rental and insurance but you don't personally care about the car itself. You know that your relationship with that car is going to be very short in duration. If you lease, you care about the car a little more. That is due to the fact that your financial responsibility is greater and that you know you're time with the car will be longer. BUT you know that it's not really your car. It's just a glorified, long-term rental. You know you'll be trading it in soon enough.

However, things are very different if you own the car. You're all in, and as a result you really care about every aspect of the car. If I'm bumming a ride and one of the doors falls off, I don't really care. I may hate for the owner but it doesn't cause me any stress. But if I own a car, I don't want it to get even the slightest of scratches. If I'm renting, I'm not checking the oil. However, if I own, I'm always checking the oil. The point is that when we own we have a personal concern for the car and personally look toward its care. When we bum, borrow, rent, or lease, we're really only using the car. When we buy, we care for it.

Here's the question: When it comes to "church" are you bumming rides, borrowing, renting, leasing or have you bought in? 

People often err in one of two ways when it comes to their understanding about church. The first mistake some make is taking a dismissive attitude toward the church. They fail to recognize how vital belonging to a local church is to living the Christian life. It's not possible to have a healthy, growing, thriving faith in Christ apart from being part of the people of Christ. Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross not only to pay for our sin but to pay for our sin that we may become a new PEOPLE. We are not the persons of God but the people of God. When we place our faith in Jesus not only do we enter into a relationship with God but also with those who have also placed their faith in Jesus. It's a combo deal. The gospel calls us to Jesus AND to His family. 

The second mistake some make is taking a consumeristic attitude toward church. These people basically use the church in the same way a person uses a car when they are just bumming rides, borrowing, renting, or leasing. In those cases, the car is a tool...a means to an end. It's useful only so far as it provides a service. Some people approach church the same way. They only care about the church in so much as it does what they want, how they want, and when they want. To take this attitude toward the church is to belittle what the church is and what the church is for.

The right attitude is to buy in. Church is not something we attend. It is a community that we belong to. Church is about being part of a family. It's not about using the church but about letting God use us in the life of the church and letting God use the church in our life. The church is one of God's supernatural gifts to us. He gives us to the church and gives the church to us for His glory, for our good, and for the sake of advancing the gospel. Given what the church is and what the church is for, we should not take a dismissive or consumeristic attitude toward it. Instead, we should foster an ownership attitude. By that I don't mean that we actually own the church (it belongs to Jesus) or that we actually buy a stake (the church is not for sale and our membership in it is by God's grace). The point I'm trying to make is that we should possess an attitude of personal concern and care for the church that results from buying into what the church is and what it is for. 

Church is not a building and it's not a worship service. Church is God's people. Those who have a dismissive or consumeristic attitude don't care if the doors are falling off of the lives of other Christians. Alternatively, those who have an "ownership" attitude grieve when their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ get even the slightest of scratches. An ownership attitude means caring for God's people. It means exercising personal concern for fellow believers. And this requires involvement and investment. It requires taking the time to know each other that we may better love each other, help one another, and build each other up. The right attitude is to be committed to a local church for the long-haul.

What is your attitude toward church? Are you bumming rides, borrowing, renting, leasing or have you bought in?

In awe of Jesus,

Pastor Rick Gutierrez
anthem-church.org