What happened to the church I once belonged to? Many church-goers are asking that question. What happened to song books, reverent hymns, 3-point sermons, suits and ties, long prayers, and a time when the only technology needed was a PA system. Or maybe they are asking what happened to several generations of the same family belonging to the same congregation? What happened to being able to talk over a pot-luck or call a deacon for help home maintenance?
We now arrive to large theateresque auditoriums where our seats have cup holders, big screen tvs on the walls, mood lighting, video, powerpoint, full rock bands with the newest hit Christian Pop songs, and we listen to the 15 minute message in our shorts and flip-flops, text in our questions to the preacher (live) and tweet the service, while our children are in a mini-more-hip version.
Where do these two distinctive (and might I add both effective in their own right) styles of church meet? In Community!
Sometimes I worry that we have given up being community to be in the community. I am concerned that sometimes we play with an ideal for community with bad ideas. We want people to live in this faith community and we create a space so expansive and an atmosphere so distant that we achieve individual holiness and communal charm without true community. And sometimes I wonder if we have chucked true community to pursue helping our community! We send people out on a mission only to bring people to place where they feel awkward and the proverbial “sore thumb.” How do we follow the commands of Jesus’ Great Commission (Mt. 28) and still absorb His “Limited Commission” (Mt. 10)? How do we find true community where we talk and share past the weather and the latest headlines and share struggles, joys, concerns, and enlightenments?
Let’s face it our culture has taught us that our best try at life is to be the best individual we can be and succeed at the things that matter most to us. We have rights and entitlements and we are the nation that can pull itself up by its bootstraps and overcome. When we decide to fall into our neighbors arms in a pool of tears or share honestly our struggle with sin we have decided to trust in a people and a system that lacks trust. We are on dangerous ground! Of course as you know…Danger is God’s middle name! We must be different and lean on God and one another get past the glitz of our worship, the barriers of our plastic smiles, the superficiality of our small groups, and dig into the dirty, that is Community!
I don’t have all the answers for how this becomes, nor do I think we will ever “arrive.” However, we begin with awareness and a push. We begin with honest, sincere, dangerous interactions. We turn the lights in the auditorium on high, so we can see one another. We put down our phones and lift up our faces. The preacher ask a real question and we respond to our neighbor. We shorten our worship assembly and build in time to actually precipitate conversation. We reduce the size of our congregations. We give time for quiet and reflection. We proclaim honesty from the stage. We accept a covenant as a congregation to sincerely care about one another.
One Sunday at a time we build a community together and then we enter into Community where the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit welcome the Church and the Church reciprocates.
This blog isn’t finished, there is too much to be said and too much I just don’t know. How can your church become a true faith community or How has it been true community?
-Mercer
