Every now and then the accumulation of experience needs to be vented. This is my June eruption - over-the-top, blunt, possibly exaggerated, but you'll get my drift. I left church today deeply disillusioned, something is wrong with this conventional idea of a church service, and either I'm headed down a path of deception, or I'm butting my head against a barrier of inertia. Here's some of the backstory. We did a survey of the people coming to our services - we did it over four weeks to catch the irregulars (the majority?). In the results some respondents asked for a bit of everything – robes and organ and hymns and liturgy along with contemporary music and bands and informality; really, some did ask for it all. That says to me that they are trying to tick the boxes of religious duty and get a bit of culture comfort at the same time. Some respondents said they want communion every week, but that they only attend once a month! Basically saying that they are consumers who come infrequently but want communion to happen every week so they don’t miss it when they do attend – they're ticking a box. And then a number noted that they come every week, yet they only filled in the survey on week four despite being asked to every week, suggesting they are self deluded at best, lying at worst. Independently of the survey, there also have been complaints about the length of worship (typically 20 minutes!). I know there will always be complainers, but this is coming with explanations such as that it's hard to stand for so long. That makes me want to shout “Get your head and heart and spirit in the right place – have you ever heard of the phrase 'a sacrifice of praise' - we do this because God is worthy, around his throne is never ending praise and worship! If your feet are sore, why don't you dance? You're absolutely welcome to and will be in good company with David.” No wonder I'm meeting more and more people who are very occasional church attendees while professing to be Christians. Yet as Garrison Keeler, Woody Allen, and Billy Sunday are all claimed to have said "Going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car." Could these irregulars be right? Could it be that going to church is unimportant, and that church must be more accommodating of meeting peoples expectations? I think not, instead I think the problem is that the church has simply got it backwards; we're mostly continuing with the way things have always been because "that's the way it's always been". Well, actually it hasn't been always, and that's a poor reason anyway! So, recognizing that you're always going to offend someone, lets just decide who's going to end up offended when we do the right thing, and get on with offending them. Even in the talk this morning it was noted that the early church did not have buildings for the first few hundred years, and instead met in homes. Think for a moment, when you go to someone's home, how can you do that without building a conversational relationship. You might do things in the home in a regular manner (eat the main course before desert, desert before drinks, please use a knife an fork, and put the toilet seat down when you're finished), but these actions are not the objective of being there - the actions are merely a consequence of serving the bigger purpose - relationship. That's not to say a church building is wrong, but it says something about how we see the purpose of the building. Sadly most “conventional” Christians “go to Church”, they don't “go to gather”. No wonder so many of our attendees want their liturgy, robes, and hymns – that’s what they're "going to church" for, it ticks the boxes of their check list about being a Christian, and if they can't tick the box they feel cheated, and like all good consumers do, they go and shop elsewhere. They're not going to really meet God (unless its the comforting feeling of “I met God because I did my duty and went to church”), and they're not going for the relationships; its really a case of “in and out, been there, done that, now for the real part of the day.” Of course there are exceptions. Of course there are individuals who don't approach it like that. But they are not the majority! Yesterday I had breakfast with two good friends; they and I have our respective trials in life, they more so than I at present. We talked a God-infused talk, but not a religious talk. The conversation was caring and tremendously helpful even though there was nothing about our situation that changed by the time we parted. We met for expression, not for breakfast; breakfast was simply the vehicle, conversation and relationship was the intent. So why has this been inverted in our institutional church; the services seem to be there for hosting a priority of sermons, songs, bible readings, and giving people their dose of pew-sitting piety – but not for conversation. In this day and age, like the first few centuries after Jesus, we are desperately in need of relational conversation to explore, discuss, understand, empathise, listen, teach and care. Conventional church services do next to nothing to achieve that. Something is wrong. Instead of using services to relate, we use services to do ritual. Then we expect people to "improve themselves" by reading a Christian book, watching a Christian video, or (my personal pet peeve) sign up yet for another Christian course. Dare I say “heaven forbid that you do another Christian course at the expense of Christian community”? God says love one another, not love the conventions. He says love one another like you love yourself. And what do each of us yearn for? To be heard, listened to, and to have conversation. For we are made relational creatures. And God says love me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We say “Ah, sorry Lord, I'm getting bored after song number 3. And that sermon, well it started well enough I guess, but I can't really remember it now.” You know what I remember from this morning's service? The conversation I had with three individuals before we started, and the conversation with another two afterwards! And those 5 people were very atypical of the ones in our church. A few weeks ago I went and got the census data for our city, for our church's neighbourhood. The data gives us a picture of the type of people around us; and it has only a weak correlation with who we find in our services. I want to meet the people outside. We're doing something wrong. So what do we do if we're to do something right. Well, I don't really know, other than that it of course needs to be Spirit led. But surely we first need to rethink how we understand and embrace the purpose of the service. For some that's a total mind shift, uncomfortable, scary. We might fail (so what?). However, I do think that whatever “something right” is, it means using the church as a resource to do what needs to be done, not measuring the "success" by how many people we get to participate in going through the motions. In our church what could this mean? I see two paths. On one path we continue trying to adapt what we have while keeping all the traditional check boxes that the existing members seem to prioritize. Yet, for as long as we do that we will likely remain irrelevant to the bulk of the community that surrounds us, atrophying into extinction. Or we don't do that. What if we threw out what pleased the itinerant congregants, and instead did what engaged the people in the street. Interestingly, while we atrophy in the services, we're growing in our mid-week event that engages with contentious issues. Surely there's a message in that? Ok, rant over.
2 Comments
Jane
9/6/2015 09:11:58 am
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Here. Here! I hear stuff like this all the time. "I don't like church because it doesn't do anything for me." or I don't like _____ or ___ blank about my church." Well, since when did church become a place that's primarily for our entertainment or comfort? The church as defined by the NT is the body of Christ, not a gathering. The first believers met together for the purpose of being taught the truth, so that by it they/we will be changed and then challenged, and equipped to take the message of hope to the world. With that in mind, who cares what color the walls are or how long the song sets go? we need a fresh understanding of what God intended for the church to BE! thanks for vent!
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