Loner Christians

     One of my favorite Halloween costumes was to dress up as the Lone Ranger.  Popular on television in the 1950s, the Lone Ranger was a fictitious Texas Ranger.  The lone survivor of an outlaw ambush, he was nursed back to health by Tonto, an orphaned Indian he once rescued. 

     The Lone Ranger made a career of righting wrongs and capturing outlaws.   But the Lone Ranger worked alone--without the aid of organized law enforcement.  So his name made sense.

     One man can make a difference, but he can’t live a fully productive life by himself. The truth is, we all need other people.  “No man is an island,” said the English poet John Donne.

     The Lone Ranger’s adventures made good TV but he’s a poor example for Christ’s followers.

     “Now hold it just a minute,” you may say.  “What’s wrong with being a loner?”

     Loner Christians don’t think they need the church or anyone else.  They believe they can get along just fine by themselves.  One once told me, “I can worship God on the tree stump in my back yard just as well as on a church pew.”

     Often they became loners because, like the Lone Ranger, they were “ambushed” –usually by well-meaning church folks.  With their feelings hurt, they retreat to a hermit-like faith.

     “Why should I go to church?” they ask.  “Everyone there is a hypocrite!”

     Let’s be honest.  Church folk sometimes say and do hurtful things.  Unfortunately every Christian is not a perfect example of their faith.  But that’s no reason to give up on the church.

     Jesus took the religious leaders of his day to task for their poor application of Scripture and failure to obey God.  But he still attended worship regularly.  With the hypocrites. 

     New Testament churches were full of problems.  There were church bosses, false doctrine and people living in sin.  But did the apostles give up on the church?  No–they worked hard to help it become all God intended it to be.  When the church is working right it’s the hope of the world.

     Most of the New Testament is written proof that the Apostles of Jesus Christ were not willing to write off the church.  Time and again they wrote to correct problems in the churches and to encourage Christians to live out their faith. 

     The church is not a museum for perfect Christians.  It’s a repair station to fix problems.

     Sylvester Stallone, who played Rocky and Rambo in the movies, once told a group of pastors, “Living without the church is like working out without a trainer. You need to have the expertise and guidance of someone else. You can’t train yourself. I feel the same way about Christianity.”

     “The church is the gym of the soul,” Stallone continued. “Pastors are like trainers that guide you through difficult times and take you to places you don’t believe you can go. A lot of people say, ‘I can do it on my own, I have a one-on-one relationship with God.’ Well, it’s not quite the same…The more I turn myself over to the process of believing in Jesus, listening to His Word and having Him guide my hand, the more I feel as though the pressure is off me now.”

     The Lone Ranger was the classic Western at its best.  But it was just fiction. 

     The reality of Christianity is not about loner Christians.  We were made for community.  So the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  Community is necessary for the church to be the church!

     God’s advice through the Apostles was pointed and direct: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day [of Christ’s return] approaching.”

     Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!