Saturday, January 26, 2008
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Boring Churches
I have seen both boring churches and churches that really grab your attention and make you think that things are really 'happening', and I am convinced that an exciting, interesting church may well be the most unhealthy place a Christian can be.
Think about what goes on in places like that. Maybe there are intense doctrinal debates, or a cutting edge ecclesiastical movement, or maybe the church is in the middle of a big explosion in growth, or the head pastor is taking the city by storm with his preaching. Any of these things can be very appealing and exciting and can make church members feel like they are at last in the center of things--that they are finally in a true church. But you know what happens when we start to feel that our church is the only true church--we get proud, insulated from the rest of the Christian communion and judgmental. We stop critiquing ourselves and starting only critiquing every other church. What happens when our pastor is the best preacher around? We tend to idolize him and without being quite aware of it we let him take God's place in our spiritual lives--and open the door to allowing him to abuse his authority. What happens when we are in the middle of an exciting big church growth phase and our church is building buildings and starting new programs or 'shaking things up' and reengineering the whole idea of church? We get caught up in the excitement and busy-ness of the thing and forget about the need for serene contemplation and communion with God. And we don't stop to question whether our capital expansion projects or our new worship styles are really what we should be focusing on. Who wants to spoil everybody else's fun?
And what happens if our church or denomination or our preacher are the only ones that really understand the Trinity or salvation or true holiness? We become fearful of everything outside the church--maybe even terrified of falling short of the standards and risking judgment from God just like all those people in those other 'dead' churches. We start working very hard to make sure we stay pure. We let the church tell us what to believe and how to behave and we lose our own identity, and worse, we lose our personal relationship with God and substitute it with a dysfunctional human relationship with the pastor or other leaders.
When I finally found myself in the only healthy church I have ever been in, I must admit that I found it quite disappointing at first. Nobody stood clustered around after worship arguing about theology. There were no classes where people feverishly studied up on the evils of Islam or Mormonism. There were no new movements or fads taking hold, nor was anybody interesting in talking down anybody else's new movements or fads. Mostly people talked about our 12-step meetings or the next community project we were helping with or so-and-so's new baby. Bake sales. Food drives. Stuff like that. When folks talked about theology, it was to try to understand the lectionary readings for that week, or to get a better handle on what is really the mission of this congregation: healing, grace and forgiveness. You can easily see that topics like healing, grace and forgiveness aren't nearly as exciting to talk about as law, purity, new church styles or discussions about all the ways that everybody else is sinning. You can hardly get indignant about anybody but yourself when you are focused on God's grace, can you?
The long and short of it is that the more exciting something is, the more readily we will idolize it and let it distract us from our true Christian duties. A nice, quiet, boring church may be the best place to examine yourself, get in touch with God, and learn the gentle virtues that we are most in need of. I know it's right for me, at least.
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Comments (13)
apyus, I always enjoy your comments and never understand them.
That's a really good point. Personally, I have wondered in the past if perhaps the best thing for a church to do after it grows beyond a certain size, rather than build a bigger building (with all the money and resources, not to mention hassles, involved), is what could be called a 'voluntary split'. Identify someone who feels led of God to pastor a church, who has demonstrated both aptitude and maturity - essentially the qualitites listed in 1 Timothy and Titus - and decide that a portion of the congregation will follow that pastor to begin a 'seedling' church somewhere else.
The idea is based on the fact that historically, and in line with the historical precedent found in the Bible, God seems to prefer his people scattered in smaller groups rather than conglomerated in huge packs. In fact, it seems He has used persecution in times past to force believers to scatter out in the interests of furthering the gospel, implying that the tendency to huddle together and suffer the effects of such behavior is nothing new.
Megaprops! This is an excellent article. I think alot of churches fit this model, actually, but very few people know about them.
I agree with yankeejwb, too. Megacongregations can't function as true churches unless they do it in small groups - which essentially are little churches that all gather once a week at the same time and place. The problem with most of the megachurches, though, is that they are built around one guy or one narrow vision IMO.
Apyus - ??? Why should any one race or nation have preeminence in a Christian church?
Thanks for an excellent blog, Mrs D!
-Robin
There's such a nebulous line between a spiritual successful church and a secularly successful one. As you've observed, to measure by the "excitement" within the body is to often be led astray. I just attended one of the larger successful churches in our community for the second time. The first time, I attended their very contemporary service. Though it's not my week-to-week style of worship, I perceived a very tangible sincerity from the young musicians and pastor presenting the message. Today, I attended the same church's traditional service. I walked out before it ended - no kidding. Outwardly, one would've seen the same polish and money invested, albeit in a different manner of worship. But in my heart, I felt this "traditional service," (which should've been more to my manner of worship) was contrived and canned from the very start of the service.
How can I convey the difference to someone who hasn't had experience with churches? Really, I can't. I can only share what I felt in my spirit.
Another good point you made is what I would consider "pastor adoration." I see this a lot on Xanga. "Pastor So-and-So said this and that." Not a big deal if it's once in a great while, but when I hear people speak or write about "Pastor So-and-So" on a frequency or level that rivals the Biblical authors, it creeps me out. Cult bait is my first, not so nice, thought.
So - there are my rambling thoughts on a good topic!
Another really incredible blog. I've never commented before, but just wanted to tell you that I really enjoy reading your blogs. You have such wonderful insights, and you articulate them very well. God Bless You!
RYC: Any book on attachment disorders will do the trick. Some of the common reasons same-sex parent and child don't bond are:
too great a difference in temperament, between child and same-sex parent; a same-sex parent who is emotionally distant; adultery, pornography and the like, the same-sex parent pours their emotions into things or others outside of the family; abuse, drug and alcohol abuse by the same-sex parent; distance placed between very young child and same-sex parent due to work, illness of child or parent; bad relationship between parents, and parents with children; sexual abuse by trusted person.
Those are some of the most common issues which create distance between child and same-sex parent. Not all broken relationships lead to people experiencing same-sex attraction, but all forms of sexual brokenness come from broken relationships.
Some resources you might look at: Eros Redeemed, by John White. Loving Homosexuals As Jesus Would, by Chad Thompson. Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, by Dr. Jeffrey Satinover. And The Broken Image, by Leanne Payne. (If you read Payne's book, be warned some of her methods of "healing" are pretty bad. But she has a great deal of understanding of what sexual brokenness is, and how it is caused.
Blessings,
Lonnie
Yankee, that's a great observation you made about scattering! It began at the tower of Babel, didn't it? Man needs to scatter, I think, in order to get out from under the consuming influence of a central, powerful ruler, so they could have fewer powers and other influences interfering with their relationship with God. This reminds me of Paul's speech to the Athenians in the Areopagus in Acts 17: 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.'
HumbleWalk, I have the same reaction as you to the constant invoking of Pastor. In one case I see alot, I believe it is perfectly innocent, but it feels very wrong--idolatrous. I wonder if the person doing it would ever be able to see the inevitable imperfections in Pastor. We are far too prone to let a human person be the spiritual authority in our lives. I am more and more convinced that the church is supposed to be a guide to point us toward God, not an intermediary. We are to go straight to Jesus for access to God.
And about that church service you didn't like--well done. Our instincts really matter, I am sure.
Roland, I promise to try to remain humble. It's easy for people as wonderful as I am, you know
I talked today with a man who's music minister at one of the huge churches in our area. In his words, "In my life I've been music minister at two huge churches, and I think that's because I don't have enough talent to minister at a small church."
Makes you think....
I think I'd say much the same thing. There's a difference between boredom/interest and death/life. The church I'm currently attending has an artistically boring service -- far too much Chris Tomlin for my taste. But it's also very true what you said -- in the less glitzy atmosphere, I find myself able to focus on God in Christ. What's happened in too many of our churches is that we've denied the working of the Spirit, and need to come up with a substitute for his power. So we have the showmanship, the arts and crafts production, and, yes, the theological debate. We use these things to help us feel spiritual, while denying the present working of the Spirit. In essence, we're putting rouge on the corpse to make it more lifelike.
What challenges me, then, is how to connect beauty and appeal with life and truth -- two switch to a both/and rather than either/or. Because, as the Tabernacle makes plain (to say nothing of Solomon's work) they can and perhaps should coexist.