“We live in a culture where image is everything and substance nothing.” This quote from Eugene Peterson’s book, “Run With The Horses”(page 67) got us thinking.
Surely no one would admit to actually valuing image over substance.
Or would they?
The message we hear often is, “If our church could just look cool, talk cool, dim the lights, dismiss the choir and put guitars and drums on the stage, then our ‘worship’ will attract those coveted 20 and 30 year olds who are conspicuously absent.” What happens, then, when we do all this and they still don’t come? Are we just not cool enough? Maybe the music should be louder (or softer?), less happy, less churchy, less “eternity,” more “here and now.” Or maybe we need a worship leader who sports a soul patch.
Or maybe the unchurched stay away because the church’s public face looks too much like a business enterprise. Yes, there are buildings to maintain, workers to pay, programs to manage. Marketing strategies are needed to publicize all the wonderful things the church offers.
The problem seems to be this: we think that if we can just get them to come to church, then they will see how “cool” God is.
How did our thinking become so undiscerning?
The church (the body of which Christ is the head [Ephesians 1:22-23]) is an organic, relational, living entity, empowered by the very presence of God, Himself. Instead of focusing on attracting people to the congregation’s property at a particular time on a given day, maybe we should be trying to work out a life of love and justice among our families and friends, our neighbors and co-workers. Rather than developing a business we call church, maybe we should be developing a life of daily prayer and scripture meditation that nurtures our faith in God and provokes a Christ-like response to poverty, injustice, hunger, and war (to paraphrase Peterson).
If enough believers lived like this, don’t you think our gatherings for worship would display a wonderful sense of excitement, joy, and gratitude? The music and the praying and the sharing would be rich; the stories would be amazing. We could simply be ourselves (stop looking over our shoulder to see if we are impressing the visitors) and, through it, discover what God has in mind for our congregation in our community.
Are we holding to the form of religion, but denying its power (II Timothy 3:5)?
Love your thought process!
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note... we used to attend a church that always had someone signing the worship songs but nothing else. It was beautiful and worshipful. My son Ryan (he was younger then, but always insightful) noticed this and commented that it must be important for the deaf to understand the songs, but apparently not the sermon! = )