During the past three or four months, Evelyn and I have decided to take off one Sunday during the month. There was never a moment that we said, "Hey, let's take one Sunday a month and skip the Sunday morning show," but that has become the case without a long-range plan.
And, it's a habit that will be hard to break.
One of those Sundays we drove about an hour to visit Ev's brother Dave's church so we could hear him, uh, preach. His is the only sermon we've heard in longer than you can imagine.
But, on the other Sundays, we did what most Americans these days do. We slept in and simply lazed a good part of the day.
Ironically, joining the people of the world, we Sabbathed. We rested.
And, I have to tell you that those lazy Sundays were the most healthful and enjoyable times I've spent doing anything in years.
Over the years, there were a handful of Sundays that I didn't "go to church." But not many.
Since I was a boy, going to church has been an important duty in my life. So, on those Sundays that I didn't take in a Sunday morning show, there was always at least a dull pang of guilt--and never the joy I've experience in recent months when I skedaddled from the Sunday morning show tradition.
It took a long spiritual journey for me to be able not to "go to church" and also feel no hint of guilt about it.
It took a ton of Bible study and meditation on the Word to realize that attending a Sunday morning show is, in no way, a form of righteousness that pleases the Lord. But, clearly, that realization has now taken hold in my life.
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Now that I've gotten point that I can not take in a Sunday morning show and be guiltless, I realize what a formidable task faces institutionalized American churchianity.
Not going to church is a wonderful way to live! It can be one of the few positive addictions a person can fall prey to. It can be a profoundly positive spiritual lifestyle!
And, here's the point: Now that I've tried it, I can't see the church competing with not going to church.
And, I'm guessing that, in the era in which so-called millennials' values are becoming increasingly dominant, the Christian movement is going to have to adapt and define being a follower of Jesus in a more biblical way--than assuming that church attendance is central.
This Middle Ages notion of Christianity--rooted in attending the Mass/Worship Service/Show--no matter how attractional the event may be, is, very likely, a thing of the past.
It will not, in the future, be able to compete with simply sleeping in--even for a geezer like me!
When I'm away, I can skip without guilt. I can't think of the last time I was motivated by guilt.
ReplyDeleteThere are, however, plenty of people who show up on a Sunday morning that didn't ( in their fairly recent past) used to.
In our congregation, plenty of people take a Sunday a month or so 'off'. That's fine. I want the people who are here be here because the want to be, not out of a sense of duty or obligation. They come because they want to be with their brothers and sisters. They come to share what's on their hearts and solicit prayer. They come to hear from God's Word (read and yes preached).
Sure, sometimes we have a particular responsibility on a Sunday we might prefer to lounge around, but that's life.
What people don't want to get up and going for is to sit around being bored for an hour or more.
Dan in italics.
DeleteWhen I'm away, I can skip without guilt. I can't think of the last time I was motivated by guilt.
To quote the old church-goers joke: "When I was a kid, I had a drug problem. My parents drug me to church."
I was raised in a large Evangelical and Reformed Church that became a UCC congregation and I could recite the Lord's Prayer AND the Apostles' Creed before I could read.
And, I was taught, through my Kantian father's devotion to duty, to love that stuff. And, I did love it. It took repentance not to love it. Hence the guilt I describe.
No doubt I have a background that is rare, and extremely unusual."
There are, however, plenty of people who show up on a Sunday morning that didn't ( in their fairly recent past) used to.
My question about that is, based on what Jesus taught and incarnated/modeled and what the Book of Acts teaches and models and the Epistles teach and give testimony to, WHY?
Why and WHAT that the New Testament (plan) defines as righteousness are they accomplishing.?
In our congregation, plenty of people take a Sunday a month or so 'off'. That's fine. I want the people who are here be here because the want to be, not out of a sense of duty or obligation.
A telling paragraph:They come because they want to be with their brothers and sisters. They come to share what's on their hearts and solicit prayer. They come to hear from God's Word (read and yes preached).
Again, the questions, based on the authority of the New Testament, why are these the motivations that bring them together? As I read the New Testament, I see disciples gathering for entirely different reasons--reasons that reflect belief in a gospel with a very different content which produces a very different sort of fruit.
Your, "They come to share what's on their hearts and solicit prayer," especially the solicit part, speaks to me of a HYPER consumerism.
What I see in the New Testament is followers of the Way gathering to pray for each other--not be asking for others to pray for them and instructing others in how best to pray for them!!!
Paul talks about every disciple being about to speak a teaching or a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation, not of church-goers churching to consume, with their ears, God Word and being PREACHED to.
Yours is a very different picture of a gathering than I find in the Word.
Sure, sometimes we have a particular responsibility on a Sunday we might prefer to lounge around, but that's life.
Preach it. But, if "worshiping" is righteousness, I'm not sure that that attitude can be justified.
What people don't want to get up and going for is to sit around being bored for an hour or more.
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Dan,
I hope you know how deeply I respect you and appreciate your heart for your calling. All that I say here is rooted in that respect and appreciation and love.
Having said that, I can't see the life and teaching of Jesus bearing fruit in what you describe. And, I don't see anything of it modeled or taught in ACTS nor the Epistles in it either.
What I can see is a sort of progressive Shepherd Mafia-ism: a view of the gathering that still denies APEST and still clings to Parish Priest domination.
As I see it, no New Testament follower of Jesus was a net consumer of love, and grace and mercy. As I read you, the typical "congregant in your ministry IS a net consumer.
Perhaps I am reading you wrongly.
Blessings.
Sleeping in is one thing this world looks forward to and is something organized church has to compete with but to make your point even stronger is the man who said "Sunday morning is when I sleep in, make my wife breakfast, take it to her in bed then we have sex." How do we "compete" with that?
ReplyDeleteYes church in the 21st century must look different than it has.
David?
DeleteIs this the KING David of the Bathsheba, uh, affair?
You obviously don't have three little kids who wake you up well before you want to. haha.
DeleteDavid in italics.
DeleteGang,
I don't know who David is. And, I don't know how to take what he has written.
I suspect that this might be some good, old-fashioned trolling.
Whatever the motivation in David's post, I see an immensely important point coming to light.
Read David through again:
Sleeping in is one thing this world looks forward to and is something organized church has to compete with but to make your point even stronger is the man who said "Sunday morning is when I sleep in, make my wife breakfast, take it to her in bed then we have sex." How do we "compete" with that?
Yes church in the 21st century must look different than it has.
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David is taking my argument to a new level. And, as I see it, his point is brilliant, no matter what his motivation may be.
Since the worship wars began, say 30-40 years ago, it seems to me that worship has come to be understood to be beneficial if it brings pleasure to the consumer of the Mass/Worship Service.
Hence, we fight about which music we sing and who does and doesn't enjoy the music and the whole service.
My point was that it is more pleasurable for me not to "go to church" than to go to church AND that, if having a pleasant time is what church is about, staying home beats going to even the most attractive Sunday morning show.
David is pointing out that, well, you just can't have sex in church but a man can seduce his wife (or why not shack-up partner) and have sex by sleeping in.
How, indeed, are you going to get men, in search of a pleasant Sunday morning, to choose the Sunday morning show, once they realize that sex is an alternative to a few contemporary spiritual songs and a good, yet brief, sermon?!?
But,...
...Now, read through the New Testament to understand what gathering was about then?
It was not about consuming. It was not about bringing pleasure to attenders of a show.
Read Hebrews 10:24. What are disciples supposed to be doing by 'meeting together?'
Read 1 Corinthians 14:26. Why should everything in a gathering be done? And, who all should be doing it? (Also, read it in the ESV, not the NIV. The word 'church' is not in the Greek.)
Thanks, David! Awesome point.
You have skewed the contemporary, Evangelical consumerist worship theology and demonstrated that it is theologically bankrupt, foolish and even anti-New Testament!
Read what David wrote. Think it through.
Then, please, repent!!!
Dan,
ReplyDeleteYour point is well taken.
Clearly, I have led a sheltered life!
Maybe that's how my father ended up having me know the Apostles' Creed before I got to kindergarten!