When a sampling of these folks were asked why they don't attend church, they said: (1) hypocrisy in the church, (2) strict inflexible beliefs in the church, and (3) no particular reason.

We church-goers tend to get defensive about those answers. We see ourselves in a culture war - good against evil, Christians against pagans, us against them.

But instead of dismissing these millions as "the enemy," what if we seek to learn from them? What if we humble ourselves and acknowledge that there's something they can teach us - something, in fact, that we desperately need to know?

Outwardly, culture is expressed in patterns of behavior, such as how to speak, how to eat and how to interact socially. Culture is also expressed in a society's material objects, everything from houses to baskets to computers.

Inwardly (and here's the key!), people in a given culture share many of the same beliefs, feelings and values.

Churched people in the US share many beliefs, feelings and values that influence what we say, what we buy and how we interact. Every culture tends to believe that its patterns of operating are best. Since we're involved in church culture, we're especially apt to assume that all our beliefs and behaviors are the right ones that need to be adopted by everyone else.

So let's try an experiment. Let's see what we can learn about ourselves by looking at four groups of people in the gospels: Jesus, His disciples, the crowds and the religious leaders.

As we consider these groups, contemplate: Which of the four do you most closely identify with? Which do you think the US church most closely resembles? Which group of Jesus' day most closely reflects the unchurched in our nation today?

People had different views of Jesus, but they never found Him irrelevant or boring. What He said puzzled them and yet strangely stirred them. What He did utterly amazed them.

Yet during Jesus' earthly life, the disciples were notably undiscerning, unempowered and unaligned with His character. Oh, they had moments when they looked startlingly like Jesus. In those moments, they received revelation. They spoke truth. They worked miracles. But oh the inconsistency of their behavior, oh the littleness of their faith, oh the impotence of their attempts to usher in His kingdom. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given; and their flesh, though willing, was weak.

These folks who so yearned to know God were not drawn to the religious leaders. Further, as the disciples grew in godliness, they did not become like the religious leaders.

Still, the disciples didn't really see the crowds. Notice Matthew 9:36 (NASU): "Seeing the people, [Jesus] felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd." The Greek words translated "distressed" and "dispirited" are far stronger than English translations indicate. Looking at the crowds, Jesus saw people mangled and hurled to the ground, like untended sheep attacked by savage wolves. He felt deeply, deeply moved.

The disciples saw the crowds as a logistics problem. "How will we feed so many?" they asked. "Send the crowds away," they said.

Ironically, the crowds who so pestered Jesus did not necessarily believe in Him. Oh, some did. Some, by faith, joined the ranks of the disciples. But many who pursued Jesus never identified themselves with Him. Instead, they clung to the evil that was destroying them.

Now, these same crowds were not the least bit drawn to the religious leaders. They saw the religious as hypocrites with strict, inflexible beliefs.

Ah but the crowds were fickle. Along with the religious, they cried for Jesus' crucifixion.

These folk would have told you they were living by God's rules. According to Jesus, what they loved were their rules. Indeed, they loved their rules more than people. They loved their rules more than God. They particularly liked to use their rules to give themselves really high religious marks - and to give everyone else flunking grades.

Meanwhile, the religious didn't keep God's rules. They found truly ingenious ways to appear to keep His rules without actually doing so, ways so ingenious that even they themselves were fooled.

But God wasn't. Deeply moved - but not with compassion - Jesus called them, "Frauds!" "Snakes!" "Whitewashed tombs!" "Blind guides!"

Now, the religious fell into two camps: (1) those who took the written Word of God seriously, called Pharisees, and (2) those who took the written Word of God lightly, called Sadducees. The two groups believed they were very different. But actually they were very alike. Blinded by pride and power, both looked into the eyes of Truth - but never saw it.

Unlike the crowds, unlike the disciples, the religious were not drawn to Jesus. Nor were they neutral. From the moment He showed up, they opposed Him. At first, they belittled. Then, they plotted to discredit Him. When that failed, they resorted to lies, conspiracy and murder.

Basically, the unchurched have described the church as Pharisees and Sadducees.

We're indignant. "That's not an accurate picture of the church!" we cry.

And indeed, the true church - the fellowship of God's called-out ones - is not a group of hypocrites trying to make everyone observe a set of rigid, inflexible rules. Ah, but could it be that the unchurched are pretty accurately describing our church culture?

Millions are part of the church culture, but not the true church. That is, they have beliefs, feelings and values characteristic of the churched - but no relationship to Christ as Lord. At the same time, most of us who do know Christ have many beliefs (far more than we realize!) arising from our immersion in church culture, not from Christ Himself.

Our commitment to our rules, our concern for keeping up appearances, our looking down on others, our counting as enemies the ones Jesus sees as mauled and decimated, all reveal our loyalty, not to Christ, but to church culture. We have met the Pharisees, and they are us.

And remember the third reason the unchurched aren't churched? It's simply, "No particular reason." That is, these folks see nothing in the church that draws them. We may be well-intentioned. We may even be followers of Christ. But by and large we do not display the power, the character, the insight, the sacrificial love that would prompt people to check out what is going on. Alas, the pre-resurrection disciples are us, too.

As we see and repent of our religious mindsets, Jesus replaces them with His thoughts and ways. As we confront and renounce our spiritual impotence, Jesus entrusts us with His authority and power.

How will we know we're becoming like Him? For one thing, we'll fight His battles His ways. The crowds - amazed that we're fighting for them, not against them - will be drawn to us. What we say will puzzle them, yet strangely stir them. What we do will utterly amaze them.

Oh, they'll be fickle. They may love us one day and hate us the next, but they won't be indifferent.

The religious won't be indifferent either. In Matthew 23:34 (MSG), Jesus told them, "I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation - and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse."

Hmm. The culture wars that deliver people from evil are not fought between fickle crowds and impotent disciples. These wars arise as God in Christ invades humanity, challenging every culture - including church culture - and calling for people's total allegiance. Those least willing to surrender their other loyalties, and thus most viciously fighting against God, are often fooled by our real enemy into believing they're on God's side.

So, hey, as Romans 12:2 (MSG) says, "Don't become so well-adjusted to your [church] culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the [church] culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

"Well-formed maturity": That means we'll look startlingly like Christ. And Christ in us will fight His war in His ways.

. . . . . . .

Definition of culture from Paul Hiebert, "Cultural Differences and the Communication of the Gospel," Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, p. 375.

Scriptures quotes marked MSG are from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.