My People – Christian Cliques and Segregation in Church – Picking our Brothers and Sisters in Christ

We can’t pick Christ’s church.

I’ve mentioned this story before, but for the purpose of this subject, I’ll repeat it.   As I sat listening to my sister in Christ, who was almost in tears, lament that she was asked to leave her church ‘small group’ and find one that fit her age, I honestly was at a loss for words but didn’t find it unbelievable. My mind became numb because I found it so shocking that a phenomenon that should die in elementary school with the ‘cool kids’ had survived and been used to exclude some members of Christ’s church for other because someone else though they didn’t fit.   My people.

James 2:1

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

We should be able to put a bow on this subject with scripture, but that would logically pre suppose that people in church follow, know or care what God’s Word says.  That’s a leap based on current research.
Christians discriminate?  And yet we do.  We find people who look like us, talk like us, and we hang out with those people.  After all, isn’t that Christian unity?  Is it?  If it excludes some less desirable Christian folk for the inclusion of others based on some arbitrary wish list to be a part of ‘my people,’ then no.  It’s favoritism.  It’s a clique.
We should be able to stop there, but we are a selfish people.  We like security, and yet cliques in Christ’s church do not offer it.  Instead, ‘cliques’ are an echo chamber, it’s a like minded, like talking, and like walking type of people who may exclude others because cliques are comfortable with spiritual apathy.   It’s like the group of ‘cool’ kids in the 3rd grade who exclude those that don’t fit, the weird kids.

God’s Judgment and the Law

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

So why do we group up in to cliques?  We are all sinners under the law and receive the same Grace from God?  We are equal.

Should we look to a pastor to address church cliques?  Yes and no.

Does that pastor practice cliques as a way of pastoring the local congregation?  What would that look like?  Does the pastor have a specific group with in the church that they spend the most time with to the detriment of the congregation as a whole?  If the church is so large that the pastor doesn’t even know the families that make up the whole, then that’s another issue all together.   Then the answer is ‘life groups’ formerly identifying as ‘small groups.’  Then that brings us back to my sister in Christ who was asked to leave a group for another one that would fit her better according to their arbitrary opinion.

“You don’t want dads going to a group discussion for moms do you!?  Do you!?”  That’s not arbitrary, that is a group that is tied to God’s creation.  So, no, I am not talking about that.   There is Biblical support for men teaching me, and women teaching women.

So, yes, if the pastor sees or practices clique behavior in the local congregation, that pastor should repent and walk in a way where he doesn’t show favoritism amongst the flock.

So, no, because cliques also live outside the weekly meeting.   Which unchecked, cliques can grow into discord and even church splits. It is up to each one of us to avoid the appearance of favoritism as we move throughout the body of Christ.   It is a counter ‘My People’ mindset, and behaving in a way that is more global, a Christ’s church mindset.

 

So how does this look in life?

Well we know what it looks like in the third grade.  It’s dodgeball day and the coach chooses two captains, and so it goes that each captain gets a turn to choose ‘their team.’  Their people.   Thus comes the judgement by the nine year old captains, the best first and then the least desirable.  And while it could be argued that this is just the way kids are, they see what they see without valuing each kid beyond what they can use them for, (winning).  What we can say is that type of thinking doesn’t belong in Christ’s church, especially with us who are adulting.  (20pts for using cool modern lingo)

We have to figure out who are truly “my people.”   In Matthew 12:48-50, Jesus is very clear that who ever does the will of his father are his brothers and sisters, his family.  His people if you will.    We to expand our biases past who we think are Christians. And without going through the historic church, even the past fifty years in America, the sin of preference or prejudice has crept into Christ’s church.  With the atrocities of racism to something much more innocent like picking ‘my people’ because of age, fluctuating cultural likeness, socio economic status and so on.  We still do it today.

 

So what is a good test?  Do we find ourselves unwilling to see other Christians as important as people we have identified as ‘my people?’

Group of people taking a selfie

1 Corinthians 12 gives us insight into unity within Christ’s church.

“… 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

And finally

 

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[a] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So then we see from scripture how we all are one in Christ and should have concern for each other, not just those we have chosen as ‘my people.’  All followers of Christ have become ‘my people.’  So let us consider how we invest in the lives of those in Christ’s church.  Our lives are to be spent here in service to our brothers and sisters in Christ’s church, all of the church.  We have a huge family in Christ, let’s open our arms for all the people of Christ, not just the ones we choose.

 

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Steven Davis is a toasted preacher’s kid, media producer, practicing apologist, and musician.

 

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