Katy's Essay

My friend Katy allowed me to repost this. It's an essay she has written for one of her bible school classes. It can most definitely relate...

"Hindrance of the gospel in the Slavic Church"

"What is the purpose and mission of the church on earth? Is it not to be Jesus’ hands and feet? In His everlasting mercy, God brought many Slavic immigrants to the United States for a better chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The question now is: What is the purpose and mission of the Slavic Church in the land of the free? It should still be the same. However, through my experience of growing up in such a church, I have realized that it has lost focus of this mission. It has forgotten the Spirit and character of Jesus’ teachings. He preached salvation through grace, not works, and that one cannot achieve a state of being “good” because everyone is in dire need of repentance. Jesus entrusted us with the Great Commission, teaching that the church must be missional. It must go out and tell people about Him in the community, city, and the world (NIV Acts 1:8).

Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (NIV Matthew 28:19). When people from the former USSR immigrated to the United States, they started Russian-speaking churches because it was the easiest thing to do. This in itself is not a bad thing. I understand that people who move to another country often have difficulty fitting in. It makes complete sense to gather together with a community that is comfortable: from the same country, culture, and language. However, it becomes a major problem when a church like this stops being missional. I have seen this happen far too many times. A group of Slavic believers gather as a church, and get so caught up in themselves and their traditions that they forget the community that God has placed them in. They become a stagnant church, a church that only serves itself. Because of its traditionalism, which easily develops into a religion of its own, the Slavic Church, perhaps unwillingly, becomes very segregated against people who are not like it. Growing up in a church like this, I looked down on American Christians because I was led to believe that the majority of American churches were not true Christians based on the fact that they did not honor God like we did by their outward appearance. This separation from those who are not like it, resulted in the church not being mission-oriented in its community. The Slavic Church must concentrate on being missional in the community where God placed it and accept everyone like Jesus did through grace. The church must become a church that Christ wanted it to be – His hands and feet.

Jesus’ vision for His church can be summed up in the word, “grace.” Grace teaches that God loves us in spite of what we do, not because of it. He demonstrated His love by dying for us while we were yet sinners (NIV Romans 5:8). Therefore, we are at this time the recipients of His love unconditionally, even though we are sinners. It is in no way about what we can do to earn God’s love. A mentality that I have seen in the Slavic Church strongly believes in salvation through obedience to the law and tradition. In essence, the belief states, “If one follows the rules that we have established, God will love them. However, if one does not follow these rules, God will not love them.” This contradicts and belittles God’s grace. Not only is it not true, but it is deceiving, misleading and a hindrance for the gospel. One elderly lady, a member of a Slavic Church in the area, told me once, “You will not get into heaven because your ears are pierced and your makeup is excessive.” However, in Galatians 2:6, I read: “God does not judge by external appearance.” In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were obsessed with following the law to the dot. If they were doing the right thing, why was Jesus so upset with them? Why did Jesus justify his disciples for “breaking the tradition of the elders” and eating with unwashed hands (NIV Matthew 15:2)? He said that it is not what goes in the mouth that makes one unclean, “but the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean’” (15:17). He was infuriated with the Pharisees for focusing so much of their attention on the outward, which ultimately did not matter, and completely overlooking the inward, which was utterly important. All of these rules and traditions put forth by Slavic churches are precisely what hinder the gospel. How is one supposed to come to Christ if they are told about a God who loves them conditionally, depending on how good they are? This mentality is what the Slavic Church constantly battles with. I am not calling the church to completely stop doing works because “faith without deeds is dead” (NIV James 2:26). However, it is grace that should be the motivation to works, not faith alone. What compels us to respond with action, is realizing that we, who are undeserving, are loved by a magnificent God.

Everyone is a sinner. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NIV Romans 3:23). No one measures up to God’s standards of holiness and purity, except through Jesus Christ alone. This is precisely why grace is so important. The gospel teaches that there are bad people who choose to repent and bad people who choose to stay unrepentant (Mark Driscoll). Legalists believe themselves to be righteous and justified by their actions. Jesus disagrees. He calls them “hypocrites” and “white washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (NIV Matthew 23:27). This self-righteous mentality makes them painfully exclusive, which is the very opposite of Jesus’ gospel. It results in them pushing people further away from the gospel instead of opening their arms to offer acceptance like Jesus did. They do open their arms to people. But those people must look a certain way as well as agree to adhere to certain rules and traditions in order to be accepted. Their acceptance of people is very conditional and not in the least all-loving. Jesus is inviting everyone to be a part of the church. Who are we to think we have authority to decide if some people are better suited to be the church than others, solely based on whether or not they fit the parameters we set up for them; parameters that we somehow come up with and then add to the Bible? It is like the words of the song that say, “Jesus paid much too high a price for us to pick and choose who should come” (Casting Crowns “If We Are the Body”).

The Slavic Church in the United States has gotten carried away in religion and has forgotten its first love for Jesus. The church has ceased to be missional and continues to unwittingly turn people away from the gospel because of its standards of “holiness.” The legalists who fill the church ignore and belittle grace by trying to attain God’s favor by works. They arrogantly view themselves as “good” people because they follow the law. This is a very dangerous position to be in. This attitude is the reason why people have stopped coming to Christ through the Slavic Church. It is the biggest hindrance to the gospel and it must be stopped. There is nothing more disgusting than a church that does not live out what it preaches. A church like this brings condemnation upon itself. It is time to let go of the traditions and legalism. They are not working. It is not worth it to be holding on to a culture while turning people away from Christ. It is all about Jesus. It is not about religion, but about relationship. Instead of doing everything to hinder the gospel, let us do everything to open the way for Jesus to be glorified! Nothing else matters."