So I have a question for all of us doing life as followers of Christ.........
What's the deal with Sundays? Why do we do it?
I have had this burning question inside of me since I was a little boy....growing up in the Southern Baptist tradition. Let me be very clear right up front about something. That Southern Baptist church introduced me to The Lord and they are part and partial to the reason I'm even here tonight writing this into blogoshpere eternity. I am deeply grateful and personally rejoice at my time I spent with them. I love them.
Nevertheless, the question persist.
I know all the normal answers. The things we tell ourselves. Some of which are very good and true. Some of which are total junk.
I feel like that agent - Agent Smith - in "The Matrix". He asks the question "why o why do you still persist." He asks the question of his formidable foe Neo. Of course in pursuing Neo, this was the great challenge Smith faced - that Neo continued to persist. So this question of Church and "why do it?" is my Neo......I seem to be chasing it into oblivion much like Smith.
All the same, off I go.
There is one glaring thing you need to remember when you hear me ask this question: I'm asking as a Pastor. Sunday's are extremely important to me. I love the idea of gathering together for a common purpose and seeing these amazing people that I love so dearly. So you can infer that I might struggle with this question some. It is my great hypocrisy. I find myself sometimes doubting why I do the things I do. Of course I guess that puts me in decent company. There was another guy who felt that way about his misgivings - the Apostle Paul. I think I may understand him more than I should.
I want to continue setting the stage a bit. I'm not talking about deconstructing the church. Well, maybe I am. I'm not talking about decentralizing the church. Well, maybe I could be. I'm not entirely sure that either one of those things are bad anymore. Truth is, God did those very things with the Church throughout biblical history. He did them with intent - obviously. To reach those that didn't know him yet. To create an environment of deep discipleship. I wonder if His intent has changed? I'm not disenfranchised as a wounded Christian. Well, probably. I'm not arrogant and self involved with the reasoning that drives this "persistent question." Well, I suppose that's possible too.
You get the point.
I think we all bring a certain level of brokenness to anything we approach. The same can be said of this subject matter. I'm also certain I am broken. So basic math tells me that I need to step carefully and with wisdom when I talk about such things. When I approach the bride of Christ - it better be with good intent and a loving heart.....or He may just feel the need to defend her from me. I wouldn't want that. You shouldn't either.
With that said, let me elaborate on the question at hand. Why do we do Sunday church?
I think we are instructed TO gather. I also think we are instructed on WHY we gather. I think, as well, we have a clear idea WHO makes it possible for us to gather. However...I don't think we are instructed on how to gather. I don't think we are instructed on where to gather. I don't think we are even instructed on what to do when we gather - except to gather to worship (to include communion).
Worship looks like many things. Or does it? I've heard this statement my entire life. I think that as I have gotten a bit older and as I have been somehow learning to Pastor, my perspective may be changing on this. I am starting to wonder if gathering to worship should look like.....well.....worship.
I think that we (especially here in America) tend to use this statement "worship looks like many things" to somehow justify the fact that worship looks like "I" want it to look. But isn't that counter intuitive to the very concept of worship in the first place? Shouldn't worship look how The Lord wants it to look? Consumerism is born of such statements. Isn't it? I want a certain thing. I prefer a certain thing. This makes me happy. So I shall shop until I find a great deal on it and then I will trade my time and energy for it.
I see a problem with this worldview when applied to our churches. Don't you?
This dynamic creates an unhealthy element of common wants and "needs" that we join together to experience far to often. Unhealthy because all of those elements are based on the universal standard of "I".
We are and have been gathering around our preferences for far too long. Instead, I believe that Sundays should be more about gathering around a wounded and dying Savior that beat death back with a stick and came out looking kind of like the Son of God.
You see - It's often been described as "DNA" or "preference" in our church circles. I'm guilty of describing it this way myself.
I wonder though if this does more damage than good. Here is why I say that. DNA is at the core of our genetic make up. DNA defines us as human first and blonde second (or brunette - whatever). I think we have greatly damaged the concept of "DNA" in our terminology. Because we have let something temporal and unimportant define it in us. Like, for instance, your preference. It's almost like saying "being blonde makes me who I am". No it doesn't.
Big picture - we trade our true DNA for something so surface and cheap that it can be bought and sold as easy as hair color. Who cares what the worship team sounds like. Who cares how good the coffee is or how warm the bagels are. We aren't gathering for any of those things anyway. Are we?
I think we should really take care on how we handle Sunday gatherings. We may be outsmarting ourselves. I'm not convinced anymore that we get to apply something as trivial as preference to "why" we make the choices we make when it comes to "doing" Church gatherings. Shouldn't it be bigger than that? Shouldn't we model something different? After all, the entirety of our lives are based on our preferences aren't they? Why should that same principle be applied to how we do our Sundays? It seems that it shouldn't but maybe I'm wrong.
Don't misunderstand me - preference has its place. I would hope, however, that we are all talking about "preference" in terms of callings and giftings. In other words, our preferences should sound more like "I really have a heart for the homeless in my city" or "I want to plant churches and build community" or "My preference is to lead worship or play an instrument". These are great preferences.
Alas, I fear that to most of us, preference is just another way to say "I like the show". As a follower of Christ you were never called to watch the show. Not on Sunday or any other day for that matter. There are way too many instances in scripture where Jesus calls us into life, action, silence, contemplation, prayer, or even death. None of which have much to do with watching. At least, not only watching.
Yet we have created a culture of watchers. Consumers. To me (and many many others) this fact has become simply irrefutable. The reasons for this are many. I have resolved myself to not blaming any one thing over the other. We don't have to look to deeply to see the first one though. Money. We have worked ourselves into a freenzy over budgets and buildings. Secondly - there is that old enemy, ego. Somewhere down the line, as Pastors, I assume we all can find ourselves on that continuum. In general, we work from a place of fear in ministry. There are many outworkings of these things:
- We are afraid that we might not meet budget (who cares we aren't really using the purse strings the way they did in Acts anyway).
- We are afraid that someone might go to the church down the street instead of ours (you are the church down the street).
- We are afraid that we might lose people (they aren't yours).
- We are afraid that we might lose our buildings (why would that stop you?)
- We are afraid to look foolish (we already do).
I have had a couple of great exchanges with people lately on that great bastion of wisdom we call Facebook. This seems to have been a common discussion as of late. Good. We should be talking about this. Most definitely.
The Rebuttal:
I guess there are some of you out there that might be saying this is bad stewardship to talk like this. I think it's bad stewardship to not. This is basically an issue that has choked me for most of my life. I have avoided asking these questions of myself or anyone else for far too long. Because they are hard questions. I, like you, tend to really dislike hard questions. Lately, though, I have decided to chew my food better....and think more patiently, deeper.
So I will end with my opening question: Why do we do Sunday church?
I honestly hope we know.
I think we are approaching an age where the options on how, where and when are unlimited. I can't wait to see it. I think revival might just happen when we stop thinking like a bunch of small business owners and start thinking like an agent of consuming power that shapes everything it touches....and it should touch a lot of things: namely people and communities.
Remember - This isn't an issue of management. Most people would argue that the church is like a business because it has to be managed. Nope. I now utterly disagree with that statement. I didn't used to. But now I absolutely do.
The Church is, instead, like a family that needs to be managed. It's a different construct altogether. Both require efficiency, effort, commitment, and responsible choices. But a business can function just fine without God. A Church cannot. Neither can a biblical model of a family. In a family - the goal is safety, love, relationship, growth, sacrifice and all the other intangible things that sound like Heaven on earth. In business, however, the bottom line often rules with a hard lean towards hitting targets and gauging growth on what the eyes can see and what the hands can touch. A business owner has preferences. He is successful when he achieves them. A father, on the other hand, has hope. Hmmm.
Leadership and Pastoring should look more like mentoring and parenting than anything else.
The world outside of the walls of our churches is about ready to revolt until they get this sort of thing. They are desperately hungry for depth. Not another meeting. Not another concert. Not another coffee bar. Not another small business fighting for their affection.
I have heard it said that we have created these environments of preference to be "attractional."
It also seems that, for the most part, doing that has attracted (or shifted) only other Christians. Probably pulled them out of places that they neeeded to be in. To serve. To lead. To grow. To disciple. Not to watch or consume. Not to slip through the cracks of just another organization while we all stretch our necks watching our attendance records and worrying about the rent and the light bills.
But what if it's all changing........?
Just consider the possibilities.
