Is there a right or wrong way to do church? All of us, especially us Americans, are so individualized that I think most would say whatever works for a certain person is the “right” way for them. I guess I’d tend to agree. I’m fairly open minded, ready to accept almost anything as long as its working for someone else. Doesn’t mean it will necessarily work for me, but… perhaps if its making them happy or furthering their life in a certain way there must be some good in it. Whatever “it” is, be it church or the last place they ate dinner. But more specifically church at the moment.
Last night, Peter emailed me proposing a kind of… idea. About the porch; about a different way to go about having church. He suggests a sort of open ended thing. Like, the doors will be open this time to this time, we’ll have music about -here-, a message about -here- , and feel free to come and go as you please. Sort of. Cause you know, people worship in different ways. People gather in different ways. Peter made the point that as the porch, we’re really good at talking and connecting before and after the service, and during our small, 7 minute break in the middle. Everyone is eager enough to talk to each other (myself excluded) during those times. Then during the singing and the message, people listen and that’s it. There’s no real exchange.
I’d say that is how most churches operate. Although most don’t get a break in the middle.
He suggested trying to emphasize that just those being together times, without an agenda, are just as sacred as the times we’ve specifically sanctioned to “worship God”. That worship is in all things, giving and receiving gifts, listening, sharing your own opinion, laughing, etc. Everything. I think there’s something there. Maybe not his exact idea itself, but a variation/adaptation of it. But maybe, if there’s twenty minutes where we could listen to Dave, then 2-3 hours AROUND that twenty minutes we could talk, share stories, sing, create art, etc…. we would have an exchange. Maybe we’d really become a community. Because we talk so so much about getting out and doing things outwardly, not focusing on the porch as a closed body of people… but I honestly don’t think we can focus outwardly without having a firm foundation of people first. If our attempts fail in the “real world”, what would we fall back on.
Its like me moving to Portland. If I just alienated and cut out of my life everyone in Spokane altogether, then up and moved to Portland.. what if I got there, couldn’t find a job or a place to stay, couldn’t make any lasting friends or have a support group, I wouldn’t have anything to fall back on. It would be like jumping from the plane with no parachute. Not only is that just plain stupid and the epitome of “unprepared”, but its unhealthy. It would be unhealthy of me to forget my family and friends here and just leave. It’s even unhealthy the way Mike is treating me. But back to church.
I think Peter’s idea has merit. I think we wouldn’t become a close-minded “club” group .. thing… if we were to spend time getting to know one another. We spend way too much time trying to figure out how to NOT be close minded, that we don’t get close enough to even be a group. I think there’s a delicate balance we’re trying to walk along, and we’re making it harder than it is. The more comfortable we are with each other, the more we’re willing to invite people in. The fear of others taking over or throwing off the balance of the group just isn’t there. It reminds me of this: My roommate met a guy in Missouri who was moving to Spokane, So when he got here, the roommate introduced him to all his friends and viola! In no time he has a boyfriend, and a large group of friends that he just assimilated into. They were all tight knit, close friends who share countless days and conversations together, yet the newcomer was welcomed and fit in. There was no question that perhaps he’d “steal” a best friend, he wasn’t threatening, there was no question as to what he’d do to their own friendships.
(On a side note, I think that’s the problem with girls. We’re immediately threatened no matter WHO it is that comes near us or our friends. If its another girl we worry our best friend will soon be their best friend. If it’s a guy we worry they’ll like our friends better than us. We just have issues as women, its disgusting.
But, they say the church is a woman, so maybe we’ll have that issue no matter how firm our foundation is. But I guess if the foundation was God there wouldn’t really be that problem, either.)
I just think an idea like this one… would be closer to the authentic thing than a church “program” of any kind. Think of Jesus, the way he traveled and taught. The way he sent others out to teach as well. Jesus didn’t set specific times to sing, a certain number of people that would have been acceptable attendance, nothing like that. They way Jesus did things was so …. Radical. That’s probably the problem now, he’s already done it so its not like we can even BE original about it anymore. With Jesus here, visible, tangible, it was much simpler. It was a simple truth as he told it, maybe not necessarily easier to comprehend or accept, but much easier to be informed about. I suppose a thousand arguments could be made about how its just as easy and simple today, or just as difficult if you prefer, but I think it all boils down to the fact that we’ve been contorted and retarded as a society since Jesus was here.
There are different things in play now. Society and people themselves are different. We can’t just trust what we see. We’re so corrupt and horrible to each other we can’t just go out and care for people without an agenda. Life was simpler then, and now its not. Even if Jesus appeared here, now, born from a virgin and all that—things would be very different. We can’t handle any simple answers because there are too many cynical, analytical, distrusting people in the world like me. I know I can’t handle the simple answer myself.
I’d say it transfers over to the church idea. Its much easier to create a program, some kind of hierarchal system to fall into than to just accept the simple answer: Jesus is Lord and he doesn’t CARE what we’re doing for church, as long as we’re honoring and doing it for him. That’s much harder to accept than most would believe. Sure, maybe this different way of church/hanging out is just another template we’re trying to follow. Maybe. But perhaps with less structure we’ll have the ability to really listen to and learn from one another. But still give people time to really share the words God’s put to them. Like Peter’s singing, Dave’s teaching, and others could participate as well—not only those who’re considered the porch’s “staff”.
I really don’t know. I just think we do everything wrong, and that’s why we’re constantly talking and nothing’s really changing. Cause we recognize that things are weird and out of whack, but we don’t know why or how to change it. At least there are people like Peter, Dave, and I’m sure thousands of other people in the world who’re trying to bring it back to simplicity. To bring it back to what Jesus made it in the beginning, even if we can never know exactly what that was like. We just know there’s something wrong, but we don’t really know what to do with those feelings.
And on the other side, what do we really do to measure if a certain way is “Working” or not? I don’t think we really can. Attendance and baptisms aren’t an effective measuring tool. There really isn’t one. I think we have to get past the fact that that is OKAY. Its alright to just… not know some things.
No comments:
Post a Comment