In Defense of Real Church

 

The most significant attack on the Church currently is sexual relativism. This infection has been invading for decades and the host has shown little defense. But perversion is not the only attack, just the most significant one currently. There are other lines of attack, and one we must prepare for is the attack on real, local churches.

I don’t necessarily believe churches will be physically attacked. Right now that would draw too much attention and support for them. Our enemy – the one not of flesh and blood – is too smart for that. He prepared the groundwork for this attack through confusing reality and mediated reality over the last sixty years. “Reality” as I refer to it here is that which exists and is true, regardless of our human perception or understanding. Mediated reality, in contrast is what we perceive to be real as mediated by other sources, particularly technological sources.[1]

When radio and television were popular, listeners and viewers understood that the events and people portrayed in the shows were fictitious. Viewers usually maintained proper separation between the real world and the world mediated via radio or television. They enjoyed the shows yet understood the portrayals were not “real” in the sense defined above. Yet as technology progressed, the lines have begun to blur. The rise of “reality TV” shows like Survivor and Big Brothers ushered in a new genre of television. The shows were advertised as real games with drama and comedy that was supposedly natural, but that has since been proven false. “Reality television” was no more real than shows from the 1950’s and 60’s.

In the 1950’s, another term entered technological discourse that we see everywhere today. “Virtual reality” describes a setting or atmosphere, usually in a game, where the surroundings are simulated to mimic a real, albeit different setting than the person is actually in. This is because one can’t put the person in the actual setting, e.g. a battleground, flying a plane, etc. From the beginning people enjoyed the encompassing nature of virtual reality. This is evident in the rise of more and more intense electronic game systems. Virtual reality headsets, now prominent among many in the gaming crowd, combine the childlike joy of old viewfinders (younger generations may have to look those up) with the intensity of computer games. Think of it like the movie Jumanji, except you are now one of the characters in the movie. This sounds innocent enough, but it is not neutral.

God gave men various desires: sexual desires, the desire to pursue worthy goals (strength, wisdom, victory), and the desire for companionship/comradery. He gave us proper channels for those desires, and those channels are designed to coalesce; accomplishing one often leads to accomplishing others. He created a man to channel his sexual desire towards a wife. Before he can marry he must be able to provide for a wife. The necessity of providing for a family channels his energy towards pursuing a job, apprenticeship, or business. This gives him worthy goals to pursue. He competes with other men in at work, at the gym, in sports, verbally, etc. This competition builds comradery. Each of these pursuits are with actual people, people he sees, talks to, and competes with on a daily or weekly basis. This is how God created men (Proverbs 27:17). Without that real interaction and sharpening, men become soft and weak.

Mediated reality is like heroin to men. It gives the rush without the sacrifice. It isolates them and contributes to their weakness. A man can get a degree of sexual satisfaction through the mediated reality of pornography, available on every smartphone in existence. This cuts off the need for the sacrifice of marriage. When once young men had to physically prove who was the strongest or at least the toughest through physical and intellectual competition, now you can get the cheap dopamine rush of winning through virtual games and never encounter actual person.

What does this all have to do with the church? Corporate worship has always been an in-person – a.k.a. real – action. The earliest saints gathered together for worship in homes, and later in buildings set aside for worship. If you were sick or homebound, you remained at home and the pastor would come to you. Nevertheless, the physical act of worship (gathering with other people, kneeling, standing, singing, praying, hearing Scripture, baptism, the proclamation of the word, and partaking of the communion meal) formed a particular people who also shared common geography.

Jesus’ promise that where two or three are gathered in Christ’s name He will be in their midst requires that they be physically together. I understand that complications have arisen from governments who restrict corporate worship due to Covid. Yet the current crisis furthered something that was already in the works through mega-churches: virtual church. I have friends who easily gave up physical attendance in worship during Covid because they had already made the adjustment years prior. When they were tired, stressed, or had other obligations, they would “watch church” from home or on their phones. It provides everything they had before in person: singing with a band, announcements, and preaching. To them it was setting aside the physical inconvenience of travel and dealing with crowds.

But now it’s not just mega-churches who have joined in with virtual church. Small churches, older churches, and everyone in-between has online services. I understand Covid is still a concern, but it won’t always be. Yet even after it’s past, people will not return to church as usual. The masses are accustomed to virtual church and don’t really want to go back.

This would have been unacceptable to previous generations. For orthodox Christians to not gather with other saints to worship was incomprehensible. They knew that worship is the gathering of actual people together in an actual place. To refuse this reality for mediated or virtual reality is no worship at all, for the saints are not gathered in common; it’s all mediated through airwaves.

“But wait,” you say. “Older generations didn’t have Zoom and Google Hangouts like we do.” Let’s conduct a thought experiment. Say your grandparent’s local church was broadcasting the Sunday worship service on the radio. Would they think that listening to worship was true worship? “Perhaps not,” you say, “since they could only hear it.” What about if they can see it and hear it on television? Would they say watching their church’s worship on television constitute real worship? What if it’s the previous week’s broadcast? Are you still worshipping with the saints? Then we must ask, what’s the difference between Zoom worship and television worship as long as it’s your church’s worship? Whether it’s radio, television, or online, there is no difference other than the degree of technological mediation (sound or sight + sound).  

I’m not saying you can’t be blessed by radio broadcasts, podcasts, Zoom sermons, etc. But those things are not worship. Worship happens when saints gather together to praise, sing, give thanks, pray, hear Scripture, receive the word preached, receive communion, and enjoy fellowship. When we give up the public gathering of the saints for our version of mediated worship, we are in danger of changing I Timothy 2:5 to read, “There is one mediator between God and man, the prophet Google.” Do you really trust the prophet Google?

This leads to a further complication of geography. Our market preference has taught us that when we don’t like a product, look for another that suits you better. Yet church is confined geographically. You can only drive so far. But now with mediated reality/mediated church, you can choose what congregation you want to worship with, no matter where it is. “This won’t happen,” you say. “People will always be loyal to their local church.”

Think about this: the rising generation has been catechized in the school of mediated reality. Education, banking, meetings, and now church is just as good via Google or Zoom as in person, with less risks. They don’t know/feel the difference between in person gathering and mediated gathering. The loss of communion with others, a loss many of us feel intrinsically right now, is something many will not even miss. What’s to stop Christians from finding a church they like a continent away and claiming it as their church? After all, why not virtually “attend” a church that has more professional music, a better preacher, or a worship style more suitable to yours? If there’s no difference between reality and mediated reality, that’s exactly what the rising generation will do.

This is nothing less than a satanic attack on local churches. Small congregations, like businesses, are wilting under the strangulation of Covid restrictions. Large, “professional” churches, like the largest businesses, are doing just fine. This spiritual attack must be met with prayer and unswerving loyalty to the local church. We must recover an understanding and love of reality over and against mediated reality. This requires that we break away from technology at times and break into nature, i.e. hike without your phone. Shop at real, small stores, i.e. not just Walmart. But most of all, as much as is possible, go to church in person with your family. Embrace the physicality of worship and delight in the tangible gifts of God to His people.

The lines over which churches traditionally divide, while not insignificant, are not as important today as they once were. Whereas churches once divided over the timing of baptism and the type of church government, the time is coming when those differences will fade in significance in the face of questions like, “Is there such a thing as men and women?” or “Does it matter that I attend a physical church?” The time will come when those who believe in God’s created order and the physical reality inherent within it will worship with other saints who may disagree on church government but agree that they should physically worship God together.  

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[1] Much of my thought for this essay stems from the work of Neil Postman, Marshall McLuhan, Friedrich Juenger, and Michael Sacasas.