You don’t the term “Church Social” much anymore. It is a term of our past. Now we have fellowship times or, in the case of Bean’s Corner, Koinonia which is just another word for fellowship. No matter what form getting together takes or what name we give it, coming together as a group is a social activity and like any gathering of people, there can be pressure to conform.
Social pressure to conform has perhaps gotten slightly magnified in our current culture. As our political climate has become more divided and heated, we expect people to align within our group. We tend to want to hang out with our “own kind” more and we seek out people with whom we feel most comfortable. This is human nature, but there is a dark side to it. We tend to call it peer pressure, and it can affect any group, from kids through all adult stages of life.
The most dangerous part of this kind of socialization is when it takes the place of the transformation that is supposed to characterize a person who has put their faith in Jesus. Too often our churches have actually created and wielded socialization as a tool to affect change in people’s lives. It starts with the youth group as we have rules of speech, dress, and conduct that must be observed in order to be considered a “good” kid and a member of good standing in the youth program. If you don’t conform, you will be excluded from your social group.
Too often churches have done the same with the adults. You are expected to look a certain way, sound a certain way, act a certain way, or you will not “fit in” and will be under pressure to conform. This can seem like a good and appropriate thing to keep people in line if it didn’t fly in the face of what the Bible says about the change that should take place. We are not to conform (an act of our own volition) to this world, but instead, be transformed (an act by an outside force) by the renewing of our minds. In other words, we are to be changed by what we learn, not change ourselves based on social pressure. This is a crucial difference. Jesus didn’t come to change our behavior, He came to change our hearts through His work, and a changed heart will result in changed behavior.
The goal is the heart, with the behavior being a result, not the primary goal. This is why the Bible refers to our outward behavior sometimes as fruit. Remembering that the behavior is a result of a heart issue, we should focus less on trying to change people’s behavior or enforcing behavioral conformity, but instead use the behavior as a window into the heart and focus on bringing hearts to Jesus. If we focus first and foremost on getting outward conformity, we will often end up creating people with a form of godliness but no power, and Pharisees that follow the rules well but are dead inside. We will also create a culture of concealment rather than a culture of confession.
Let us, especially if we are leaders in our churches, move away from trying to enforce outward conformity, but instead encourage people to meet, accept, and submit to Christ who will transform us.
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
(Philippians 3:20-21)
