So what happened to ‘religion’ that made one of its central
practices such a chore, or worse? Let’s
begin by looking at the fundamental problem in any church service –
traditions. While everything else in
humanity, including even Christian doctrines, have evolved and matured over
time, so much so that they would be hard to recognize by someone from the late
1700’s; church has not changed much at all.
In fact, our misplaced pilgrim friend would be largely at home in most
of the traditional churches across North America. Even more so, in the far more conservative
churches of South America, Africa, and the former Soviet Union. Why you ask?
Not much of a church go-er hey!?
Because the typical church service is based on traditions that have not
kept pace with the times since 1790. It
is like we somehow came so far, and then got frozen in time.
Tradition, upon closer examination, is really nothing more
than a particular kind of worship style.
A predefined list of activities, in a predefined order, with a
predefined genre of music, and a predictable speaker. There of course many variations of the style
of preaching, and the style of music in a service – but they ALL stick to a
predefined list of items that generally last about 2-4 hours. The “modern” churches emphasize much less on
the formality of clothing worn to the service (i.e. read jeans or shorts are
acceptable); usually offer contemporary sounding worship music styles; and have
a youth-oriented speaker. Traditional
churches can be a wonderful affair with full blown pipe organs playing Bach during
the interludes, formal attire, and ordained speakers offering traditional
fair. Country churches are smaller,
poorer, and more down to earth; they wear suits from Sears, and J.C. Penney;
they greet each other by name; they sing hymns from hymnal. All different styles, all different parishioners. Two things in common mostly, traditions they
follow, and their memberships are usually in decline.
Yes, I know people seem to be leaving the older more
traditional churches for the newer ‘modern’ ones, but this is like updating
your music collection from 1890’s hymnal to 1920’s big band. You moved along, but you are nowhere near
where you could be. And speakers are
trying to recapture the youth by becoming more youth-aware. But this is as acceptable as me, a white man
in his forties, walking into Harlem to hang out with my “bro’s” attempting to
speak eloquent Ebonics. I figure to be
dead in ten minutes. But in fairness, I
will have lasted longer than most youth listening to misguided speakers trying
out “their” language.
So what is the secret?
How about a little REALITY!!! No,
I don’t mean buying more land and making bigger buildings. Nor do I mean setting up a Survivor meets the
Great Race, meets Kitchen Nightmares experience during the services. What I mean is how about the “church” which
is really made up of its members, getting back to the idea of making a real
difference in their worlds in the here and the now. What if coming together on a weekly basis was
less about tradition, and more about service to others. What if it were about planning, coordinating,
and acting on mission’s right here in the local neighborhoods and
communities. What if church went from a
meaningless set of predefined activities to a place where anything could and
did happen that benefited others.
Youth do not need someone who relates to them, they need
someone who relates with GOD. They need
a genuine speaker whose life is being changed by the power of God; not an
eloquent speaker who has no clue who God really is. Genuine.
Authentic. Real. Do these words ring a bell? Youth are not looking for a perfect person,
they are too smart for that. They
already know that no-one is perfect (yet).
They are looking for someone who can both admit it, and then talk
plainly about real solutions to real problems that make your real life
better. This is what not only the youth
of America crave, it is what everyone in the world craves – real solutions, to
real problems, that a loving God is alone capable of providing.
But instead of this, or perhaps because the folks in church
have no idea what I am talking about, we get wrapped up in making the “worship
experience” all it can be. We integrate
multimedia to stimulate the senses, add instruments to spice up the music, tune
up our lighting gear, engineer our sound boards, focus our TV cameras, and get
the whole experience out on the WEB for viewers to see. Very soon our words reflect our priorities
when we start saying really stupid slogans like … “we were made to worship”.
Really!? Our loving
God created an entire species capable of independent thought, the ability to
pro-create, invent, and reason – so that our entire sole divine purpose of
existence would be to … worship God and like this. Nonsense!
Worshipping God is a RESPONSE to His love, not a pre-requisite. Worship is something we do from the
recognition of who God is. But we have
elevated its purpose to become our all consuming passion. And in so doing we have replaced service to others
with our “worship experiences”. We crave
the momentary high of worship over the down and dirty act of service. Hmm … can’t imagine why? Maybe because yet again we are thinking
primarily about self, even within the confines of our Christian religion.
You want to worship, do so at the homeless center – AFTER
you have made a real difference in someone’s life. Do so in the car on the way home from the
food bank after you make a deposit. And
if you think you do not have enough money to give to someone else, then give
something of far greater value, give of your heart. Be a friend to someone everyone else hates,
and is hard, I mean HARD to love. After
all, that is what you may look like in another’s eyes. Give of your time. Give a child just 30 minutes of undivided
attention, no TV or movies to entertain, just you and them and your
imaginations, the nature that surrounds you, the Word that gives you
meaning. Can’t hang in there that long
with a kid, then give them 10 minutes.
Five. Anything? Why is worship more meaningful, than anything
I just described? Why not replace 2-4
hours of euphoria with 2-4 hours of service that might actually impact someone
else this week?
Nothing about Christianity as it is practiced today looks
real to anyone. We claim a real God, but
do not really follow His practices, or share His heart. Instead we offer words of judgment and often
condemnation but offer nothing of hope and redemption. We guard our sacred times, and holidays, so
that we can spend 2-4 hours back in a building that reminds us of nothing but
our own guilt. We seek tradition more
than service. We seek the
internalization of “worship” more than service.
We seek out music and speakers that make us happy more than service. In short, we seek self more than service, and
it is plain for everyone to see what we seek.
We announce it on loud speakers in the lives we live and the words we
utter. There is no REALITY in Religion
anymore. There is no fundamental change
and apostleship anymore.
The apostles of old cared about their churches, meaning they
truly cared about the needs of the people who comprised the church. They cared about those who knew Christ, and
those had yet to know Him. And because
they cared, they planned, they coordinated, they pooled resources, sent envoys,
collected for the common cause. Church
was about the building of the brotherhood and the strengthening of the faith,
less so about the testimony of a selected predefined speaker. People listened to Peter and Paul, both young
and old, because they were REAL. They
related to God, even if their language barriers prevented them from relaying as
effectively with everyone else they met (i.e. the reason why the gift of
interpretation was poured out on the early church, now known as the gift of
tongues).
Instead of trying to find meaning in the repetitive nature
of songs we sing every week until they become just words with pleasant tunes;
how about if we search for meaning in building real relationships with those we
claim a common bond with. How about if we
just begin to get to know who it is we are ‘worshipping’ beside. Maybe we can make a difference in the lives
of those closest to us. Maybe we can
restore reality to our religion, and turn church back into a focal point for
service, rather than an auditorium for self…
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