Church vs. Gym - Is the neighborhood gym replacing the church?

 

Matthew 7:1 – Judge not, that ye be not judged.

It’s 11:00 Sunday morning and if you’re like the typical American you’re just as likely to be at the gym as you are to be at church. In the USA, 22% attend church at least once/week while 39% belong to a gym. And as church membership continues to wane, gym membership grows. During the past 10 years church membership has decreased by 21% while gym membership has grown by 37%.

The decrease in the popularity of church and the increase in the popularity of the gym are related. Both church and gym provide a place for community, ritual, goal setting, health (spirit and body being closely connected), and personal fulfillment.

I’m not the first person to observe the correlation between church and gym or to note that lower attendance at one correlates with higher attendance at the other. I recently heard a Christian teacher say that “the neighborhood gym has replaced the church in today’s society.”

I see a couple of interesting negative similarities between church and gym.

1.       Too busy and too lazy. Market research shows that one of the main reasons for skipping church is the same as for skipping gym: “not enough time.” People are too busy to go to church and too busy to exercise. And people are too lazy to get out of bed for church on Sunday and too lazy to get off the sofa to exercise.

2.       Lack of confidence. Research shows that this is also a big reason for skipping gym – I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of all those young, muscle-bound studs. And this is the same reason that people skip church – I’m not confident enough in my spirituality to show my face at a church full of perfect people and perfect families. I’m not confident enough in my knowledge to go to a Bible class that’s dominated by those who (think that they) know it all. I’m not confident enough to go to church because someone might ask me to pray, and I don’t really know how to pray, especially not out loud.

But there are also some notable differences between church and gym.

1.       Too crowded? One of the big reasons for skipping gym is that “it’s too crowded.” This is probably not the case for most churches.

2.       Too expensive? This is not a great reason for skipping gym – in fact, you can get a gym membership for as little as $10 per month. But the preacher at church tells me that I need to donate 10% of my income to charity – maybe even more if I’m living under the New Covenant! You don’t have to be a math major to figure out which is the better deal.

3.       Multi-tasking? I can worship at the gym – I’ve had fellowship with other gym-goers, witnessed, and even prayed at the gym. “Lord, give me strength … Lord, help me not to have a heart attack …” But it’s hard to exercise at church. The last time I tried to get in my aerobic exercise during praise and worship, I was gently but firmly escorted out by the ushers :)

But the biggest advantage that gyms have over churches is their resonance with modern-day culture. The gym I joined has several core values, four of which are physical health, diversity, planet health, and no judging. This is clearly driven by political correctness, but it almost sounds like an intentional reaction against the church. Is the gym trying to compensate for the shortcomings of the church?

1.       Physical health. The church’s position on physical health has been neutral at best and antagonistic at worst. This is most clearly seen at the traditional church potluck with its preservative-laden and chemical-infused dishes, and the artificially flavored and artificially colored high-fructose-corn-syrup that’s served as the beverage. If the church really believed that the human body was the temple of the Holy Spirit, it would encourage physical health. The Bible says that exercise is valuable (1 Timothy 4:8). The Bible also says that we should consecrate our bodies to God (Romans 12:1), which implies that we should take care of them. Of course, anything can be carried to an extreme, but that’s not an excuse to completely neglect it. I find it odd that Christians spend so much time praying for health and so little time working to be healthy. I’m not saying that every Christian needs to run marathons and be a world-class athlete, but we should remember that our bodies are not evil, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are created in God’s image, and our bodies should be treated as such.

2.       Diversity. The gym’s second core value also sounds like a reaction against the church. Evangelicals have resisted the liberal commitment to diversity because of its phobias about gender and sexuality. For instance, many in the church are biased against females because of Biblical traditions, and evangelicals are almost always opposed to transgenderism and homosexuality. But the fact is that diversity is a distinctly Christian value. It has its roots in the Old Testament in verses like Isaiah 60:3 – All nations will come to your light – and it finds its fulfillment in the New Testament in verses like Galatians 3:28 – There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Paradoxically, liberals have seized upon diversity as one of its hallmarks while the church has departed from its historical and Biblical roots in its rejection of diversity. Instead of continuing to spew bile against sexual diversity and black rights movements, the church should admit that it has sinfully departed from the Bible’s mandate for diversity, has discriminated against blacks and females, and has treated alternative sexuality as more evil than sins like pride, selfishness, and consumerism.

3.       Planet health is another reaction of the gym against the church. The church’s typical stance is “screw the environment” – after all, “those environmentalist wackos are just a bunch of communistic nature-worshiping pagans.” Jesus is coming back to destroy the world any day now, so why should I worry about a few thousand tons of chemicals being dumped in the ocean every now and then? But environmentalism saturates the pages of Scripture from the first book of the Bible in Genesis 1:28 – God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and govern it – to the last book of the Bible in Revelation 11:18 – The time has come … for destroying those who destroy the earth. Paradoxically, liberals cling to environmentalism as one of their core values while the church disregards the health of our planet, mocks scientific proclamations about global warming, and resists governmental regulations on business. But God entrusted us as His representatives – His “image” – to take care of the earth; not to dominate it but to nurture it. If the church recognized its scriptural mandate as God’s representatives to protect and care for the earth, it would be leading the way in environmentalism, not holding it back.

4.       No judgement. This is the foundation of the gym’s value system, which is emblazoned in huge letters across the front of the building and on every wall inside. Gym-goers are bombarded with slogans like “come as you are” … “judgment-free zone” … “be free” … “no critics.” Christians, on the other hand, have a well-deserved reputation for being judgmental. A recent Barna poll found that almost 90% of Americans characterize Christians as judgmental. I feel judged when I go to church, and I’m already a Christian! I rarely escape church without being told that I’m wrong about something. Of course, I am wrong about a lot of things, but that’s beside the point! In any case, every sermon and Bible study seems to point a finger in my face and tell me how I fail to measure up. I don’t evangelize enough … I complain too much … I don’t read the Bible enough … I don’t pray enough … I don’t give enough … everything I do and say is either too much of the wrong thing or too little of the right thing.

I know that there are more important things than my gym’s values – things like forgiveness, salvation, love, grace … these issues are a little bit important too. But the church has failed in the areas of physical health, diversity, planet health, and freedom from judgement, and the world has stepped in to fill the gap. This raises an uncomfortable question: Is the gym more Christian than the church? In some ways, it is. I wish that my church were as committed to these priorities as my gym. Is it any wonder that the gym is replacing the church in the 21st century?