This is simply a reflection on the experience of visiting a new church
When you visit, whether a place, a person, or an organization, there are three things that inevitably happen:
My recent, and deeply sad retreat from 12 years of lay leadership in a church, and the subsequent full departure from that church (a process documented in numerous blog posts, e.g. voices of the dead), was completed with the end of 2016. I've now started visiting elsewhere to explore future avenues to Christian community (whatever that really means: the church is dead, long live the church). Sadly most (first) visits are dominated by (1) and (2), because one is hyper-conscious about one's comfort zone. Visiting a church is perhaps one of the more discomforting experiences, as the pressure to be visible among the "in-crowd" of regulars can be quite strong, and the organizational culture is still a bit of an unknown. "If you're a visitor here this morning, please raise your hand so we can give you a welcome packet (and make sure we identify you to nail you in conversation afterwards)". All well intentioned, I know, and having experienced it from both sides, it is critical to break the barriers of self-isolation if the visit is to be of much benefit. But it can be unnerving to some. So some quick comments on this morning's visit from the perspective of the three "visit-elements" given above, first about (1) and (2), and then more importantly about (3). Form and function: this is not critically important, so long as it is not so alien that the content becomes inaccessible. This is the classic problem with traditional church; the language and rituals make the content extremely opaque to most contemporary visitors. My visit today found things very accessible given my eclectic experience and exposure to church cultures (albeit I wanted to tell the the person on the sound mixing desk that "there's a control for mid-range frequencies, please use it"). The music was appropriately competent, the people were genuine, and the focus was not on the organization, but on the community of faith that brings us together. The talk was challenging, pointed and relevant. One could quibble; for example, my years of teaching has taught me at least one thing, that a 40 minute monologue leaves 80% of the people unable to remember 80% of the detail. But overall, great. Choosing to engage: there are two aspects to this; participation in the corporate expression, and thinking about how one might engage if one joined the community. The former is predicated on (1), and today it was really great to be able to participate without the over-burden of layers of tired ritual and esoteric ecclesiastical jargon. The second aspect, that of how I could possibly be a participating member of this community, cannot be explored in one visit, and of course subject to what God wants of me, certainly there appeared to be opportunity. The bigger picture of fundamental purpose: Christians gather to collectively express worship, to publicly evidence their faith, and to serve one another in relational community. The church service is one expression of this. This morning's visit was really refreshing from this perspective, and I realized how unreal some my church experiences of the last year had been. As in all gatherings, today a range of degrees of engagement was evident: in the row in front of me two kids playing first-person-shooter games on their cell phones, while further along teenagers clearly immersed in the worship, and then there was the lady in a wheelchair taking extensive notes during the talk. Overall the dominant expression from most was "for me this is real", and the theology on which it was founded (as best I can tell) was orthodox (literally meaning “right teaching”, not a tradition of ritual and institution). And that's what makes Christian faith exciting: the individual experience of a reality cannot be denied. Of course it can be abused, and it can be emotionally hyped. But when built on reason, and where the heart rationally chooses the values and foundations of a God-relationship, this contains something that all society appears to yearn for. Sadly, many find Christ's cost to the ego too high.
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Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
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