I came across this blog on C.S. Lewis. I don’t think I’ve ever actually posted on Lewis before. That is amazing since he most certainly is on of my favorite authors, and Anglicans to boot. In fact, long before I understood what Anglican was, I was reading Lewis. At the time I just didn’t get that being an “ordinary layman in the Church of England” meant “Anglican.” Anyway, on this blog is a recent post on about Lewis and his commitment to going to church. It’s titled “C.S. Lewis Sat Here.”

If you are unfamiliar with Lewis’ story, I’ll briefly sketch it out for you. Lewis was actually from Northern Ireland and was raised in the Anglican Church there. By the time he reached his teenage years, he had become an Atheist. This lasted until his mid-20′s when he began a move towards Theism and then eventually becoming a Christian in his early 30′s. His conversion story is greatly connected to the writings of influential authors and a group of fellow professors at Oxford University including J.R.R. Tolkien. You can read his own words about his journey in the book “Surprised by Joy.”

After he became a Christian, he returned to the Anglican Church (Church of England). He believe that he should attend his local parish church and worship there. This happened to be Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry. While he remained an active parishioner for the rest of his life, it was not without difficulty. He was once questioned about his church attendance.

When asked during a “One Man’s Brain Trust” in 1944, “Is attendance at a place of worship or membership with a Christian community necessary to a Christian way of life?” Lewis answered:

“My own experience is that when I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn’t go to the churches and Gospel Halls; and then later I found that it was the only way of flying your flag; and, of course, I found that this meant being a target. It is extraordinary how inconvenient to your family it becomes for you to get up early to go to Church. It doesn’t matter so much if you get up early for anything else, but if you get up early to go to Church it’s very selfish of you and you upset the house. If there is anything in the teaching of the New Testament which is in the nature of a command, it is that you are obliged to take the Sacrament, and you can’t do it without going to Church. I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit” (11).

What great words for all of us to consider. Once we realize that Christianity is not just “me and God.” But the only way for us to live as Christians is with others in community. That certainly brings us into close contact with people vastly different than us. But as Lewis said, we soon realize that we “aren’t fit to clean those boots” of those who we deem as different.

What is also interesting is how Lewis maintained his commitment to his local parish all of his life. This included a time period when the parish priest was not all to his liking.

In fact Jack referred to Ron Head as “a very trying curate” in a letter written to Mrs. Mary Van Deusen on April 22, 1954 (15). Head was curate at Holy Trinity from 1952 to 1956, prior to serving as vicar. On December 28, 1953, Lewis wrote to the same Mrs. Van Deusen and said:

“I think someone ought to write a book on ‘Christian life for Laymen under a bad Parish Preist’ for the problem is bound to occur in the best churches. The motto wd. be of course Herbert’s lines about the sermon ‘If all lack sense, God takes a text and preaches patience’” (16).

I encourage you to read the whole post if you get the chance. The author, Will Vaus,  finishes with some challenging thoughts for you and I to think about.

In our own age in which “church shopping” is so prevalent we have much to learn from the unwavering discipline of C. S. Lewis in regard to church attendance. Despite the fact that Lewis seldom “got anything out of” the sermons in his parish church, he never went looking for another congregation. He believed in attending services at the church closest to his home and that was that. Lewis was determined to go to church, not for what he could get out of it, but for what he could put in, namely—worship. Lewis understood well the temptation of searching for a church that would “suit” him; he once delineated this temptation in another letter from Screwtape to Wormwood:

“My dear Wormwood,
You mentioned casually in your last letter that the patient has continued to attend one church, and one only, since he was converted, and that he is not wholly pleased with it. May I ask what you are about? Why have I no report on the causes of his fidelity to the parish church? Do you realise that unless it is due to indifference it is a very bad thing? Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that “suits” him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches” (18).

We do live in the greatest consumer society in the history of mankind. Some of this is great as we all love choices. Some of it though makes it easy for us to live grossly, self-centered lives. When we start applying consumerism to our church attendance, it is a recipe for disaster, for both us and the churches in our society. All of this is not to say that it is never appropriate to leave a church. We just want to make sure it is for the right reasons and that God is truly leading us to do so.

Shane+