That's a word I just made up as I was commenting on today's post from Out of Ur (leadership).
A pastor in South Carolina was denouncing all the lazy pastors and churches for not putting more effort into entertaining their crowds on Sunday. Apparently, people should be more excited about going to the Sunday morning event than watching their favorite TV program. Though I have contributed to entertainment-based and consumeristic worship services in the past, I certainly can't stomach that combination anymore. I just found the guys comments repulsive (literally, my stomach was upset reading the post) and completely misguided.
To even speak of "Church" and entertainment as similar experiences betrays a distorted understanding of the Kingdom.
5 comments:
Love the word! I may find myself using it sometime in the near future.
Chris,
One of the problems I see with this guys article is that he uses the word "church" to refer to both the Church proper (i.e. the people) and to worship (which is a function of the Church).
That is one of the most critical errors of the past few centuries. We have substituted an event in the life of the Church for the Church. We can make another error though, one which I've been making for several years now. That is to devalue or discredit coming together in groups, large or small, to recreate the story. People of faith have gathered together for thousands of years to do just that. It is arrogant to think that this is wrong or should die off in order to bring about authentic Christ following.
I've railed against the system for several years now (and have been unhappy with it since college or before). I've heard most of my friends who actually think about such things also rail against it. This struggle over the system has even gone so far as to seriously mess up several of my friends' lives. The thing is, I've come to believe that the system doesn't mean crap. It doesn't matter. It's what you do with it that matters. House church, traditional models, mega-church, underground church, organic, emerging, whatever. I've seen consumerism, institutionalism, lack of focus, arrogance, anger, self-centeredness, etc. in every model. One model's strengths are another's weaknesses and vice versa.
You are right, if worship is about entertainment then it is devoid of meaning. If it feeds consumerism then we've lost our way. It doesn't have to though. It doesn't have to be thrown out just because it has been horribly mismanaged and distorted. History shows us (if we're willing to pay attention) that responding to error with overreaction generally produces more error.
Sorry that this is so long Chris. I'm not really even trying to say anything about your particular beliefs or way of being what God has called you to be. This all just seems so damn complicated and I'm trying to work it all out. Probably should just give you a call and come down for some face to face dialogue over some Starbucks! Peace brother...
jb
thanks for those comments, John (and Rob).
By the way, Rob, I just heard the God Journey podcast which catapulted your name into fame and notoriety.
Having had this conversation from the other side of the issue I can say the guy is, no doubt, well meaning. To entertain someone is to try and hold their attention. This is a real challenge for a communicator. It does come in to play if you are speaking to a group. Clearly its not good to bore people because you didn't prepare well (or at all). My problem is that the basic gathering of the church is not the place for this, as John mentioned. Again, if that gathering is dreadfully boring then something is probably wrong but that's not typically a problem. When you are trying to keep people coming back to your "church" or to get them to pick your "church" over another one then you need "pop and sizzle". You want them either crying or laughing. I can't do that anymore. Enough said.
havent been around your blog for a while...glad to see youre still writing :-)
just wanted to insert that ALOT of south carolinians do not feel that way.
:-)
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