My church used to be a cow barn. Yup, you heard that right – a cow barn. The builders, who happened to be childhood friends of mine, purchased the parcel of land from a local farmer who had used it for sheltering animals. They modified the barn by raising it off its foundation by about eight to ten feet (I’m visualizing the framed collage of construction pictures on the wall in the back of the church). The building still resembles a cow barn, only taller, with vinyl siding, fancy doors/windows, and a parking lot. So, suffice to say that it doesn’t look like a typical Massachusetts church.

On the inside, it has rows of tables and chairs where congregants and guests may sit comfortably with their Bibles open. We also have a couple of couches in the back to fellowship on before and after services. There’s a fully functional kitchen, a prep school, three bathrooms, and my office, which was added after the barn had been lifted. I’d say all together, it looks more like an office building than a typical Massachusetts chapel. Around these parts, the most popular churches have tall steeples, bench-type pews, stained-glass windows, and smell a little bit like mothballs. They present themselves as “holy”, so most people behave reverently while in one of them. I sometimes must attend a service at one of these churches and while I’m there, I watch peoples’ behavior. Families stand up straight in their best clothes with their kids, who they keep a tight rein on. There’s a general sense of propriety and respect for the service, the building, the liturgy, and especially the church leaders. It’s perverse in the most primitive way because it reveals a greater sense of reverence for the opinions of others than it does for God.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
- James 2:1-9

Now, many of these so-called “holy” churches teach a false gospel, which, technically speaking, precludes them from ever being truly holy in God’s eyes. And yet, here’s the rub…in my experience people often exhibit more propriety in those churches than they do in mine. Go figure, right? I’ve had people do things in my church that they’d never dream of doing in another church, say things to me personally in the presence of others that they’d never say to a church leader elsewhere, allow their children to do things in the church that they’d never allow in another, and so on. Again, this all happens under a roof that teaches the Word of God faithfully, looks like an old, converted cow barn, smells more like a home than a typical church, and has no one wearing tall hats and pretending to be holy.

In general, people are more concerned with their own appearance and conformity to social norms than they are with respecting God, His anointed church leaders, and propriety in His true Church. Maybe that means, in my church, I need to enforce more propriety than just expect it (I need to think about this).

But all things should be done decently and in order.
- 1 Corinthians 14:40

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
- 1 Timothy 3:14-15

Let all things be done for building up.
- 1 Corinthians 14:26b

A godly local assembly is a place of holiness. It ought to be treated as such, without exception. The leadership, starting with the pastor and the deacons, ought to be treated with respect and dignity. The church building ought to be treated respectfully, as well, even more so than a person’s own home. We ought to do these things as a show of respect for the Lord.

Men ought to lead their families appropriately by example. Women ought to be dignified, supportive, and in control of their children. In a church like mine, we’re in a place ordained by God for worship. What’s the signal you’re sending when you lack propriety in the church? What are you revealing about your own heart if you behave more respectfully in an ungodly church to impress others than you do in a godly one designed to worship the holy, sovereign God of the Universe?

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
- 1 Timothy 2:8-12

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13a

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
- 1 Timothy 5:17

Am I chastising my own church a bit here? I guess I am. I love them enough to be honest with them. Does it upset me when I go to another church, on rare occasions with some of these same people and I see them acting with more reverence? Of course. It’s gross, but to be honest, we are all weak in one way or another. Church propriety is just one way in which we’ve all failed at in our lives (no excuses). For the record, I look in the mirror before I look to anyone else in cases like this. I’m hardly perfect, and as the top authority in the local assembly, I have a greater responsibility than anyone else. This I know. If something’s awry, I need to address it, starting with the man looking back at me. That’s how it works with God.

But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
- Luke 12:48

Love in Christ,

Ed collins