So popular postmodern Christian author, Donald Miller, stirred up controversy recently by declaring that he has reached the point where he no longer needs Christ's Church (my paraphrase).
You can see his comments here: http://storylineblog.com/2014/02/03/i-dont-worship-god-by-singing-i-connect-with-him-elsewhere/.
His comments need not be taken seriously for their substance, but for the statistics behind them. By that, I mean that though his comments can be readily refuted and corrected by God's Word, that does not change the fact that there are literally millions of other Christians who have reached the same conclusion as Miller.
I have read a gentle and charitable response to Miller from Geoff Surratt here: http://geoffsurratt.com/unlike-donald-miller-will-never-leave-church/. This response is effective because it speaks in the same postmodern language as Miller, emphasizing personal experience, practicalities, and relationships. I find myself moved by this response, because I am reminded that Christ's Church is indeed a family. Broken people from very different walks of life gather together under the banner of God's grace in Christ Jesus for sinners (1 Tim. 1:15-16).
But while Surratt's response is both moving and helpful, it misses the larger problem with Miller's sentiment: the Church is Christ's appointed means to bring the Gospel to the nations and drive it deeper into the hearts of His people.
Miller notes that he has "studied psychology and education reform long enough to know a traditional lecture isn’t for everybody."
Later, "I learn by doing the very thing I don’t learn by hearing!"
I agree...to a point. There are different learning styles. Some learn best through hearing, others through seeing, some through writing, speaking, or doing. I can sympathize with Miller on this point. I do not learn best through hearing. I often repeat peoples' words back to them. Some may think that I am mocking them; others, that I am trying to control the conversation. The reality is that I learn best by speaking, so I listen and learn in conversations when I put what you say to me in my own words.
But discussing modes of learning again misses the point. The problem with me is not that I do not learn best through hearing--it's that I am very bad at hearing God speak to me. It's not a learning problem. It's a sin problem.
We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). And we can't do ourselves into believing anything. How then can man possibly walk by faith in this broken world with his own broken heart? Our only hope for salvation and growth in grace in this world comes in God addressing us in His Word and in our hearing His Word with hearts made fertile by His Spirit.
Paul tells us in Romans 10 that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How do we call on the name of the Lord? He explains:
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Faith comes through hearing! We are so blind and deaf and dumb that we need God to both address us and open up our hearts to His address. When Miller calls a sermon a "traditional lecture," he is showing a grave misunderstanding of what is occurring in the worship service. God has gathered His people around His throne, and through His appointed ambassador is both addressing them and opening their hearts to His address.
That is the primary reason why we gather with God's people on the Lord's Day (aside from His command to do exactly that)--not to gather with our dysfunctional family (though that is our glorious privilege), but together, to hear from God. And when we attend worship services with this purpose in mind, it belies a deeper theological clarity about who we are (sinners in need of God's divine address), who God is (holy and powerful, yet working through ordinary means in His grace), and all about the Savior who is at the heart of Scripture and should increasingly enthroned in our hearts as well.
That is what is so grievous about Miller's sentiment (and that of millions of Christians across the country). If you don't feel like you need to go to Church, then you lack the conviction that you are the worst of sinners and are unwilling to receive the comfort that Christ Jesus came into the world for exactly that reason (1 Tim. 1:15-16).
Praise God that He speaks to us, even when we don't want to hear Him.
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