Back-row Christianity Won’t Build Your Faith

After my third child was born, I listened to seminary courses while I nursed him. I also had curated a lovely worship playlist, a list of favorite podcasts, and a shelf full of books of Christian books. Consuming that content in the comfort of my home was much easier than waking up early, wrangling three tiny boys into Sunday clothes and out the door. I was tempted to unplug from the local church. Thankfully, I realized that God’s purpose for the church is much greater than simply delivering quality spiritual content.

In Beyond the Back Row: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Local Church for Your Family, Katie Polski, a writer and Bible teacher, calls for readers to “reconsider the importance of the local church in their own lives so that we might have a deep and abiding faith in Jesus” (4). In an age where church attendance is becoming less common, Polski’s book reminds readers, especially new believers or those disillusioned with the church, that the local church is God’s primary means to form healthy Christians.

In many churches, the back row is where visitors tend to sit so they can slip in and out unnoticed. If the service gets too strange, the back row offers an easy escape. But it’s also a popular place for longtime Christians “without a proper understanding of the beauty, necessity, and purpose of the church” (3).

Getting beyond the back row of church is a metaphor for getting involved in the local congregation as a way to love and serve Jesus. As Polski shows, the purpose of the church isn’t to meet our desires; it’s about discipleship for believers, service to others, and learning humility.

Discipleship

Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus left the disciples with a final directive: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). It’s not enough to merely lead people to Christ. We need to teach new believers the faith and to demonstrate what a well-lived Christian life looks like.

Discipleship in the church may occur formally in the classroom, but it also occurs informally around lunch tables, in discussions over pew backs, and while serving together in the nursery. Young people gain the steady wisdom of their elders through intergenerational friendship. Older Christians get jostled out of their habits and settled expectations. The result is a community that grows together and supports each other through tragedies and trials.

We need to teach new believers the faith and to demonstrate what a well-lived Christian life looks like.

One of the beauties of the local church, Polski argues, is “experiencing God’s love through brothers and sisters.” That’s “one of the most profound blessings of being a part of a small group of people who know you, and who understand and empathize with your needs” (74–75).

Those sorts of deep relationships take time—often years—to develop. But that time and effort is well invested, because the church has the potential to be a more permanent community. Unlike friends from our kids’ school, transient neighbors, or a seasonal book club, the church lasts through many life stages. In our age-segregated world, it’s also one of the best places to expose ourselves to people at every stage of life as we serve together.

Service

Our service to each other is central to the church’s purpose. We’re all given gifts to serve. Yet we often don’t know what our talents are without working in a wide variety of roles in the church. Whatever surface reasons we might have for serving—a rewarding feeling, to appease guilt induced by an appeal for volunteers, or desire to do a good deed—the “primary reason that we give our talents, our time, and our energy is because of Jesus” (138). Our service should be an imitation of his life and out of obedience to his commands.

Polski encourages believers to try new forms of service that seem hard. “It’s so easy to limit our service to what is ‘easy,’” she writes, “but we’re not stretching our faith enough to see God work when we lean back and do something that requires little of us” (144). When we try and fail, the experience reminds us that things won’t always be broken as they are today. Sometimes, serving in new ways may reveal a gift we didn’t know we had.

Additionally, service is a form of discipleship for those serving. For kids, it may be an opportunity to discover ways of serving that their family has never considered. For teens, serving alongside other believers outside their family may affirm their independent faith and the unique gifts God gave them.

Humility

Getting engaged with the local church expands the joy we have in Christ if we’re willing to remove ourselves from the center of the experience. “It’s very easy to slip into making worship about us,” Polski writes, “but when worship is about coming together to praise our Savior, then smiles from across the sanctuary while singing become sweet reminders of the bond we have forever though Jesus” (40).

One of the hardest parts of getting involved in the church is learning humility. Spiritual formation comes from being pushed outside our comfort zone. When we’re in a large gathering, we have to set aside our desires for the sake of others’ needs.

Spiritual formation comes from being pushed outside our comfort zone.

Sometimes humility means sitting under a pastor we think could do better. Often humility requires learning songs we wouldn’t have picked. These sacrifices matter less when we understand that “the local church is not just about the people in it. . . . The church is about Jesus” (10).

Polski’s book is a practical guide to finding and participating in a local church. It’s also a reminder that the church is God’s gift to believers—but a gift that can’t be held at arm’s length. Receiving the gift of the local church requires moving beyond the back row and rolling up our sleeves. Beyond the Back Row is an invitation for every Christian to get more deeply involved in the local church.