Waiting to Be Good Enough to Join the Church

Among the mistaken ideas in the community as to the significance of the act of connecting one’s self with a Christian church, is the thought that it indicates that one has made progress in character and well doing, and desires to testify to that fact before his fellows. Underneath this error there is, of course, a mistaken view of the nature and object of the church itself, but how to correct this mistaken view must be decided differently in different cases.

When I had for some time been absent from my old home, I found, on returning to it, that a near neighbor of mine had just connected himself with the church. Glad to learn this fact, I went to that neighbor, and said to him heartily:

“I’m very glad to know that you have

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taken the step of connecting yourself with the church, and I want to congratulate you on it.”

To my surprise the new communicant said, with a show of modesty, and yet with a somewhat confident air:

“Well, I thought the matter over for some time before taking that step. I know I’m not so good as I might be, but I’m better than the average, so I decided to join the church.”

At this I thought it not best to say anything more in the line of congratulation. Nor did I think that the church was to be particularly congratulated on its new member. Later on I found that other men than that neighbor had that standard of fitness for church-membership. Some are modest in their doubting, honestly thinking themselves unworthy to be counted with the Christian host. Others desire to live as well as they can outside of the church fold without being judged by church standards of conduct. Yet others again, like the per- ‘QClaitin to be (3ooD Bnoub

son instanced, have only a doubt as to their relative goodness, and settle it by themselves in a self-confident mood.

A church-goer, who desired to be right and to do right, when urged to connect himself with the church, expressed the fear that he was not good enough. This seemingly was his sincere feeling. For years he waited outside in the hope that he would grow better. Appeals from his friends for another course were of no avail. Then he was taken seriously ill, and he was brought to face death. As he prayed for recovery, and as he was prayed for, he seemed to have a different view of Christ; and when he was restored to health, he was glad to think of his Saviour as one to whom he ought to show gratitude. When his pastor urged him to come into the church, as one who desired to evidence his thankfulness and trust, he came forward as a loving, trusting follower of Christ. It were better to come just as he was, he thought, than to wait outside indefinitely to grow better.

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A man of upright walk in life persistently refrained from connecting himself with the church, claiming that he loved and trusted Christ as his Saviour, and that he would how to the world that he was doing this without being a member of any church. At this I said to him:

“Do you expect Christ to save you?”

“Assuredly I do.”

“Yet you persist in refusing to confess Christ before men, as he has particularly enjoined it upon you to do. Is that fair? Jesus says, * Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven.’ Yet you say that you are not willing to be with those who confess Christ before men.”

“Oh! I am ready to be known as a lover of Christ, but I don’t want to be in the church where men claim to be better than other men. I will try to be as good as they are without saying so.”

“You apparently mistake the idea of Christ’s church, to begin with,” I said.

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“The church is not an exhibition hall, where good men and women show themselves. The church is a hospital where are those who need and want to be saved by Christ. Yet, as I understand you, you are unwilling to be counted as one who needs the hospital or the Great Physician, but you want to stand off outside and prove that you can cure yourself. Is that making an honest show?”

“I don’t want to have it look that way.” “I shouldn’t think you would.” So another man concluded to join the church, not because he thought he was as good as the average, but because he felt he needed hospital treatment as much as the average church-member.

It is important for every person who is in the church to bear in mind this truth as to the nature and mission of the church. It is not as an exhibition hall, but as a hospital, that it calls for members and that members continue in it. No man has made such progress in the Christian life

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that he no longer needs the helps that the church supplies to him. The more progress one makes the more he desires progress. If he feels that he is good enough to be a church-member, he gives evidence that he has no right view of the church of Christ, or of right life in Christ.