Tom, a buddy of mine recently was asking me about church. He was at a place in his life where he was searching for a church home for his family. He had visited many churches and decided to ask me if I knew of any great churches. So, I told him about one that I knew of where the rock (I mean worship) band that was smoking hot. I told him about the secular songs the band would do that would fit right into the message and the morning's theme. I mentioned the great sound system, the moving lights, and the cool video clips that are often rolled. I even spent time explaining to him that the churches philosophy behind the worship service was to reach the “disgruntled”
At this point in the conversation Tom stopped me and asked what do they mean by “disgruntled”? I tried to explain what I understood of their philosophy. I said that I thought the “disgruntled” are those who have had some church experience but for some reason drifted away. Maybe, they were disillusioned by the church. Perhaps they went away to college and never plugged into a church and strayed. Or perhaps, they had a horrible experience at a church and still have the marks from being burned. It might be that they thought that church was boring, and not relevant to the real stuff they faced every day. Whatever the reason “disgruntled” referred to someone who knew about church but something caused them to stay away.
With Tom satisfied at my attempt to answer to his question about the “disgruntled”, I continued on telling him about the relevant preaching, the cool building, the big stage……….. When I finished Tom looked at me and said, “I get it! They put on a show, and then people don't really see what the church is like”. Believe it or not, I enthusiastically responded, “Yes! That is it, exactly!” I think Tom's puzzled look at my response, jerked me back to reality and caused me to reprocess what I had just said. In my mind I played back Tom's words“…. they put on a show, and then people don't really see what church is like.” OUCH! Tom had just hit me right between the eyes with a stinking 2x4 and I totally missed it. I was so caught up in talking about the production, the cool factor, not to mention being relevant to the over stimulated “consumer”, (the all important “disgruntled”)that I totally missed the fact that a true church, a fellowship is about the people not the “stuff” or as Tom correctly called it “The Show”.
When did I come to portray that the church is in the entertainment business? In my mind had “The Show” become the most important thing? Was it not even a worship service anymore? Was it a production, slick, smooth, elegant, captivating, and moving? Yes, it could be justified that the above mentioned church is putting on a worship service (and they are). You could say “look at the crowd that shows up, if it wasn't meaningful they wouldn't come back…. would they?”Or “The songs that are sung are worshipful (most of the time) and the video clips played are inspiring, sometimes even challenging. Come on! People are moved by them!” I found myself still processing Tom's comment about “The Show “and wondered, had I just communicated to Tom that slick, smooth, relevant, captivating…. were the only ingredients needed for a worship service? Had I rated the effectiveness of the service based on the smoothness of the transitions, or the “cool” look that was created with the moving and theatrical lighting? So, why did I communicate a wrong impression of what church is?
Well, it wasn't about the above referenced church. I am sure they are sincere in their efforts and are using the tools I mentioned in a powerful way. No, in reality it was about me. I had placed the emphasis on the wrong things. In talking about that church I made the tools sound more important than the people that attend and their Lord. Yes, my friend had hit me right between the eyes, and boy did I deserve it!
