09.19.04

a tale of two churches

Posted in culture at 2:36 pm by

I went to church. You were all dying to know if I would after my last little rampage, admit it. Well, I’ll admit, I was curious if I’d go myself. But, I went. Why? Well, partially because I know that one or two of you–for whatever sick reasons–actually look forward to reading these. But there were other reasons as well, I really hate to give up on something…and no matter how hard I try or how much I criticize, I’m not a cynic. I believe that our church can move forward.

The easiest move would just be to leave, of course. I could find me one of those accepting, thoughtful, academic type churches. They’re out there, you know. Places where I’d be happier. Lots of people have found those places and they wonder, why Brandon, would you choose to go to a place that you really don’t like sometimes? It’s a fair question. My answer is that there’s work to do here. I could find one of those better churches, though, indubitably there’d be other challenges there as well. So, here I am, back again from another Sunday service.

We’re starting a wonderful series of sermons. It’s about becoming transformational in the kingdom of God. How wonderful. This is something I truly care about. Our pastor, though rarely a captivating speaker, was good this morning. He delivered his points well. I didn’t like the worship, but you’ve heard my tack on that before. I won’t bore you with the same old details. (There were two women–microphones turned down to almost to the point that there voices were inaudible–standing WAY off to the side of the podium. Men in the middle, playing ALL the instruments–come to think of it the only thing I’ve ever seen a woman play is a tambourine.) So much for not mentioning worship, eh?

Okay, this week we had a drama. You’ve doubtlessly seen the dramatized version of Carman’s “The Champion” where Jesus comes in in a boxing/WWF costume and kicks the ever living shit out of Satan. Whenever I see that dramatized version I have a hard time telling if the Holy Spirit is moving or I’m so uncomfortable that my skin feels like it’s physically moving around on my body. I’ve felt both–the Holy Spirit and my skin crawling because of discomfort–they’re really very similar sensations.

So, you’ve all seen that skit. Well, this was kindof like that, except exponentially tackier. In fact, this skit was the “Hooters” of tacky. (Another attempt at the one-ups-personship of Just Pat at our metaphor game.) There was an angel (I think Gabriel made an appearance)and Satan squaring off about whether or not a young woman should finish work for her co-workers, or watch a pay-per-view event featuring “Triple H” and “Chris Jericho.” They wresteled, I’ll let you guess who won, the angel or Satan.

This, of course, became an audience participation event. I was expected to cheer on Gabriel from the audience. Actors waived up the crowd–this met our crowd with mixed reviews. Some folks actually did cheer the good guy on, and booed Satan. Others, like me, sat in our seats, not quite sure that this akward spectacle could really truly be happening right there in front of us. I fidgeted uncontrollably. Then, just as soon as it all started the fictional announcer of this bout declared it over. He added a tidbit about spiritual warfare and we were off to the sermon (which had nothing to do with spiritual warfare, and yes, I still have ideological whiplash.)

My problem isn’t with having a drama. I like good dramas. Particularly ones that prime a congregation to be ready to interact with the message, or with the worship at a deeper level. This one was none of these things. I guess my biggest problem isn’t really the concept of the drama at all–though it plays a role. My biggest problem was that I was told last week to go out and invite all my unchurched friends to my church.

Now if my unchurched friends were largely 5th or 6th grade boys, this drama would’ve kicked ass. Here’s the deal though, pre-teen adolescent boys make up only a small percentage of the audience on a given Sunday morning. Had I invited a friend from grad school to come on out and check out church this morning they would’ve heard an awesome sermon, but they would’ve also seen that drama. Which would’ve they remembered? I don’t know, but I have a sneaking suspicion.

But maybe it’s not fair for me to hold my community up as a representative example of who our church is trying to attract. Let’s take the community it’s located in for example. You all can imagine the scene if I say, yuppieville. If you’ve seen the movie American Pie or any of its successors you are probably farmiliar with the types of families that our church seeks to reach out to. Not likely the kinds of families that sit around and watch Wrestling on wednesday nights for family bonding.

The sermon, though, was pretty good. So what’s a guy to do? You all know I’ll keep going. Just Pat challenged in a comment whether I would be a “thrower awayer” or a person who bucks the system. She is right, I’ve always bucked the system I’ve always done the hard thing. So a little clarification. In my last post I mentioned that I can understand how people feel when they’re ready to take their last step through the church’s doors. I didn’t say I would.

But, on a deeper level, answering the questions of how best to respond to these tough challenges appropriately continues to be tough work. For now, I’ll probably keep y’all as my sounding board. After all, one needs to be able to feel free to flesh out ideas so that one can truly understand the things they say! You all are therapeudic in that sense.

Please do also keep in mind my friends, that you are a sounding board. That, as Greg once said over at his blog the parish, “you’re getting the bitchiest version of me, here.” This is quite true of myself as well. I’ll certainly keep y’all posted as to updates (and weekly rantings.) I ask you all to know, and hope, and pray (if you’re the prayin’ type) that beyond these frustrations there are also actions afoot…it’s just that some of the me that you see here is still trying to figure out just what he thinks about the way things are in this crazy messed up world.

P.S. I just realized that I never really described what I mean by “a tale of two churches.” I’d like to explain the title, but it really is another blog entry unto itself so I’ll just leave this one off like this….to be continued…

Permalink

Trackback URL »

http://www.badchristian.com/2004/09/19/a_tale_of_two_churches/trackback/

a tale of two churches

Posted in culture at 2:36 pm by

I went to church. You were all dying to know if I would after my last little rampage, admit it. Well, I’ll admit, I was curious if I’d go myself. But, I went. Why? Well, partially because I know that one or two of you–for whatever sick reasons–actually look forward to reading these. But there were other reasons as well, I really hate to give up on something…and no matter how hard I try or how much I criticize, I’m not a cynic. I believe that our church can move forward.

The easiest move would just be to leave, of course. I could find me one of those accepting, thoughtful, academic type churches. They’re out there, you know. Places where I’d be happier. Lots of people have found those places and they wonder, why Brandon, would you choose to go to a place that you really don’t like sometimes? It’s a fair question. My answer is that there’s work to do here. I could find one of those better churches, though, indubitably there’d be other challenges there as well. So, here I am, back again from another Sunday service.

We’re starting a wonderful series of sermons. It’s about becoming transformational in the kingdom of God. How wonderful. This is something I truly care about. Our pastor, though rarely a captivating speaker, was good this morning. He delivered his points well. I didn’t like the worship, but you’ve heard my tack on that before. I won’t bore you with the same old details. (There were two women–microphones turned down to almost to the point that there voices were inaudible–standing WAY off to the side of the podium. Men in the middle, playing ALL the instruments–come to think of it the only thing I’ve ever seen a woman play is a tambourine.) So much for not mentioning worship, eh?

Okay, this week we had a drama. You’ve doubtlessly seen the dramatized version of Carman’s “The Champion” where Jesus comes in in a boxing/WWF costume and kicks the ever living shit out of Satan. Whenever I see that dramatized version I have a hard time telling if the Holy Spirit is moving or I’m so uncomfortable that my skin feels like it’s physically moving around on my body. I’ve felt both–the Holy Spirit and my skin crawling because of discomfort–they’re really very similar sensations.

So, you’ve all seen that skit. Well, this was kindof like that, except exponentially tackier. In fact, this skit was the “Hooters” of tacky. (Another attempt at the one-ups-personship of Just Pat at our metaphor game.) There was an angel (I think Gabriel made an appearance)and Satan squaring off about whether or not a young woman should finish work for her co-workers, or watch a pay-per-view event featuring “Triple H” and “Chris Jericho.” They wresteled, I’ll let you guess who won, the angel or Satan.

This, of course, became an audience participation event. I was expected to cheer on Gabriel from the audience. Actors waived up the crowd–this met our crowd with mixed reviews. Some folks actually did cheer the good guy on, and booed Satan. Others, like me, sat in our seats, not quite sure that this akward spectacle could really truly be happening right there in front of us. I fidgeted uncontrollably. Then, just as soon as it all started the fictional announcer of this bout declared it over. He added a tidbit about spiritual warfare and we were off to the sermon (which had nothing to do with spiritual warfare, and yes, I still have ideological whiplash.)

My problem isn’t with having a drama. I like good dramas. Particularly ones that prime a congregation to be ready to interact with the message, or with the worship at a deeper level. This one was none of these things. I guess my biggest problem isn’t really the concept of the drama at all–though it plays a role. My biggest problem was that I was told last week to go out and invite all my unchurched friends to my church.

Now if my unchurched friends were largely 5th or 6th grade boys, this drama would’ve kicked ass. Here’s the deal though, pre-teen adolescent boys make up only a small percentage of the audience on a given Sunday morning. Had I invited a friend from grad school to come on out and check out church this morning they would’ve heard an awesome sermon, but they would’ve also seen that drama. Which would’ve they remembered? I don’t know, but I have a sneaking suspicion.

But maybe it’s not fair for me to hold my community up as a representative example of who our church is trying to attract. Let’s take the community it’s located in for example. You all can imagine the scene if I say, yuppieville. If you’ve seen the movie American Pie or any of its successors you are probably farmiliar with the types of families that our church seeks to reach out to. Not likely the kinds of families that sit around and watch Wrestling on wednesday nights for family bonding.

The sermon, though, was pretty good. So what’s a guy to do? You all know I’ll keep going. Just Pat challenged in a comment whether I would be a “thrower awayer” or a person who bucks the system. She is right, I’ve always bucked the system I’ve always done the hard thing. So a little clarification. In my last post I mentioned that I can understand how people feel when they’re ready to take their last step through the church’s doors. I didn’t say I would.

But, on a deeper level, answering the questions of how best to respond to these tough challenges appropriately continues to be tough work. For now, I’ll probably keep y’all as my sounding board. After all, one needs to be able to feel free to flesh out ideas so that one can truly understand the things they say! You all are therapeudic in that sense.

Please do also keep in mind my friends, that you are a sounding board. That, as Greg once said over at his blog the parish, “you’re getting the bitchiest version of me, here.” This is quite true of myself as well. I’ll certainly keep y’all posted as to updates (and weekly rantings.) I ask you all to know, and hope, and pray (if you’re the prayin’ type) that beyond these frustrations there are also actions afoot…it’s just that some of the me that you see here is still trying to figure out just what he thinks about the way things are in this crazy messed up world.

P.S. I just realized that I never really described what I mean by “a tale of two churches.” I’d like to explain the title, but it really is another blog entry unto itself so I’ll just leave this one off like this….to be continued…

Permalink

Trackback URL »

http://www.badchristian.com/2004/09/19/a_tale_of_two_churches/trackback/