The Exclusive Church

There is so much talk these days about inclusiveness that it crossed my mind that it's about time we saved ourselves a lot of hassle and admitted that churches are exclusive institutions. They meet for a purpose - it may be expressed as 'to worship God' or it may be as simple as 'to get to know one another', but there's always a purpose behind a meeting. Anyone whose behaviour thwarts that purpose will be excluded. Try standing up and asking questions in the middle of a sermon in your average evangelical church! Try preaching at a social gathering (no, actually, I've seen it happen, so that one doesn't count....), but you get my drift - it's all about expected modes of behaviour. Conform and you'll be accepted, don't and you won't. In fact this applies to most gatherings, not just churches, but I just wonder if a lot of heartache, discussion, time and effort would be saved if churches were to accept that they are by definition exclusive institutions. I don't think it matters if you're post-modern, emergent or whatever, the disallowed behaviour is just different (the person who insists on answering all the questions for example).