Do not Forsake the Assembly of Believers

 What does it mean to Forsake? What defines an Assembly? Who are Believers? At what point is a person in violation of this passage?

Hebrews 10:23-25

23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let 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 approaching.

This passage is most commonly used for the purpose of judging people who don't go to church. I admit, at times I've wanted to use it to tell people that they have to go to church otherwise they're going against the bible. I don't because first of all that would be hypocritical, but most importantly because it would be abusing the passage for my own purposes. I've grown up at Wintonbury for all of my eighteen years and so many of my close friends go there. Partly because of my being home schooled, and partly because of the awesome people there, any opportunity there was for me to go to church was a joy. In my childhood naivety, this joy that I felt in going to church, made it difficult for me to understand the numerous situations that can cause people to not attend church. Sadly, I must admit there have been occasions where I too have used this passage to judge people  for skipping out on church for a week, month or longer. I won’t go into the context and the full meaning behind this passage, but I will make a claim that it was not written for the purpose of condemning people who didn’t attend church. Although we are certainly called to be in community and fellowship with each other, it doesn't declare a quantity amount of time which determines when somebody is "forsaking the assembly". Apparently it can't be just one Sunday, because for example, Jesus fasted in the desert for forty days. He was away from other Christians for quite a few Sundays. In addition, there have been countless monks and missionaries who lived in solitude or just great distances away from other Christians. What is the purpose of the church then, if Christians can survive for long periods of time without it? Clearly it's not to be the only means from which we can experience intimacy with God because we can survive and I would even say prosper for long periods of time without being intimately connected to a church. Paul describes a purpose of the church in 1st Timothy where it says:

...I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:14b-15)

Although the church serves many purposes, I think a significant one is mentioned in this passage, the church is a pillar of the truth. The church is a place that keeps men grounded in their faith. Being alone is dangerous, because there's nobody to sharpen you. A simple principle of Sociology is that humans were meant to live in community, this is true among Christians as well. We need brothers and sisters in Christ to walk through life with. When nobody is building us up when we need support, or pulling us down when we try to leap, the result in either case will be that we fall. I was pondering this principle yesterday when I was studying the 23rd Psalm. Suddenly, as I read it, the words seemed to take a totally different meaning in my mind. I read it again and realized that the passage could be interpreted in a way that was not only different, but completely opposite of the way it is traditionally understood. I sat back after this discovery totally in awe. I had read the passage innumerable times, and it was one of the first passages that I had ever memorized. I read it a couple more times, and then decided to put it away and think about it more later. Later that night I decided that the way I was interpreting the passage was incorrect. However, if hypothetically I had kept this interpretation, unless I was connected with a christian body to talk about the passage with, it could have become a fact in my mind. This is how heresies are generally born. Church is extremely important to prevent misinterpretations, so as a pillar for the truth, what happens when one is without it?

Until I decided to come to Greece, I wouldn't have believed you if you told me that one day I would be analyzing my decisions to see if they were in accordance with that passage from Hebrews. I have come to an incredibly humbling realization, I am a non-church going Christian. I didn't quite realize how much this admission would affect me. I've felt great shame at times; I didn't realize how much of my identity I had in my church attendance. Every week when Sunday comes, I have to stop and think, “what day it is?” Because I'm not waking up at seven or eight AM to go to church, the day just feels out of place, every... single... week... like a day that is exists somewhere outside of the seven day week that I'm used to. A magical eight day has appeared, and now has become my Sunday. One Sunday, a friend of mine asked me if I would go to church with him. This person wasn't a Christian, they just felt like going to the local Greek Orthodox church would be a good idea, and they observed that I hadn't gone to church and so as they pitied me (the perceived athiest) and thought I might benefit from some exposure to Christianity. The irony was extremely bitter. My first thought was that I should explain to them that I was the Christian and that I should be inviting them to church but that there wasn't one to go to so I couldn't, but they had no idea who they were talking to, clearly, they wouldn't have understood.

The religious scene in Thessaloniki presents some very contrasting opportunities for spiritual gathering. The primary religion is obviously Greek Orthodox. I still don't know exactly what this means, but from my experience so far, it sounds similar to Mormonism. This is not because the religions are similar theologically, but merely because they have many concepts that are similar to ones I accept, and yet in-whole are totally different from the Christianity I understand. Greek Orthodox is not just "deeply" rooted but it is utterly submerged in tradition. It is similar to traditional strict Catholicism in this way. My experience isn’t with priests or any religious leaders, I haven't talked to any of them. My understanding is based on my interaction with Greek Orthodox students, because many of the students here are Greek Orthodox. However, what I gathered from talking to them, is that beyond belief in some God out there, the existence of a Trinity connected in some form, and An Orthodox Prayerbook which they use like the Bible, there is little in-common with the religions they described. It is ironic because the church services are overpoweringly traditional and ritualized, and yet their individual religious lives are completely subjective-determined by opinion and personal morals. Many don't read or even own a Bible, and they have extremely contradicting theological beliefs. However, this fact doesn't bother them at all because the living out of Christianity is a personal decision, only the church services are traditional. There are Greek Orthodox Churches all throughout the city, but because of the reasons stated above in addition to the fact that all the services are in Greek, beyond the occasional curiosity visit, I will not be attending a Greek Orthodox church long term.

"Do not forsake the Assembly of Believers", is that what I'm doing? As I already said, "forsake" is a completely undefined term, in my situation, should this be considered forsaking? How do you define believers? Do these churches even apply as “believers”, if one considers their theological beliefs?

There is one other church that I've found so far, which makes this situation even more fascinating. The church is a gathering of about 50-60 people who meet twice a week, and they are polar opposites of the Greek Orthodox church. Tradition is not really a concept at this church. Besides the fact that services are on Saturday and Sunday nights each week, and that they are at the same location, the services are run with complete flexibility, even the start time fluctuated if people wanted to start late. Visiting the church was very refreshing. The people were incredibly welcoming-they had a man translate for me, and our theologies were the same on all of the main points. I had told myself before coming to expect to never attend a church long term until I came back to America, so this opportunity to go to church, to hear Blessed be your Name in Greek, to hear a message in English was such a blessing. However, week two at this church was a little bit different. Partly because I had been so desperate for Christian contact, and partly because of the different format of the service, some things became apparent that I hadn’t noticed the first week. After the preacher had spoken for about 30 minutes, he asked people if they wanted to share anything from the week. For me this was all through translator, and one by one people started to come up and share visions from the week. One saw God on his Throne, another saw God come and eat with them and another saw God in their room while they faced a difficult circumstance. Maybe it’s just the inner cynic in me, but I felt my skepticism begin to grow as one by one men and women shared how they had seen God that week in visions, and what he looked like. This is some of what I wrote in my journal explaining my torn emotions:

“Why is it hard for me to accept these prophecies and visions? Is it from weak faith? Or is there something wrong with my understanding of Christianity? What would Jesus do?”

What Would Jesus Do? It’s been overused I know, it’s a Christian Icon of the 90’s, but since we’re called to live like Christ, I was seriously pondering what he would do/what I should be thinking in that setting. The night continued with more of the message, and then there was prayer time. Their definition of prayer time was an experience very new to me. I have never heard such a loud prayer time in my life. My translator left for this so that he could pray, and so I started to pray but became quickly distracted because I realized that I was the only one who believed that prayer time was more considerate when done in one’s head. Everybody else immediately began to speak in tongues (what that even means exactly I don’t really know), but this was accompanied with people swaying or walk around. Some muttered things quietly while others screamed it out loud. This is hard to explain exactly, but it was extremely unnerving. I hate using this description because I am completely ignorant of what this really means, but it felt demonic. Something was just wrong. The people swaying, muttering, whispering, weeping, wailing... I didn’t then, and still don’t really know what to make of it. The Bible talks about things like this, speaking in tongues and prophecies. It mentions people who get filled with the Holy Spirit and just become controlled by it. Maybe it’s just because it’s new to me, but should it be new to me? Was nobody ever filled with the Holy Spirit at Wintonbury? I don’t believe that, yet this church looked totally different. Is Wintonbury always right? Certainly not, but this place felt wrong at times. 90% of the church felt fine to me, but 10% made me uncomfortable. Aren’t stretching experiences good? Isn’t Christianity portrayed in many different ways and styles? This is essentially just a passionate Pentecostal church, am I just lacking in faith, and that is the reason for my discomfort? What difference does it make that it didn’t “feel” right? How much should I value the opinion of my feelings which are utterly naive, totally subjective, completely biased, and ultimately modernized, westernized, and essentially wintonburyized?

I have three options: a tradition rich church that gives little support for daily life, a structure lacking church that is full of passion and heart, or I can stay at home and pray, read, and study the bible in the ways that I have always done.

“How seriously should we take the passage, ‘Do not forsake the assembly of believer’. If it’s in another language, different traditions, and in many ways appears to be a different religion. Is it wrong to forsake it?”

I have been pondering these questions over the last few weeks. I don’t know what God wants me to do yet, but I am comfortable that in his timing, he will reveal his will. I have God, and he’s blessed me with choices and so I will praise God for that and let him open the doors.