The culture of “MORE”
It seems to me that our American way of life revolves around the word “more.” The basic premise of advertising is found in creating a desire for more, making us feel we are lacking or missing something unless we have whatever it is they are promoting.
We grew up in an era where “if a little is good, more is better.” But is more always better? That’s a dangerous premise when it comes to things like chemicals in our environment and medication (more chemicals). And when you look at the problem with obesity in our generation, clearly there are some things that are not needed in more quantities. Our western world has more of EVERYTHING, more clothes, more shoes, more appliances, more stuff all the way around, than most of the people in the rest of the world. And all our “more” adds up to needing more space to store our stuff, more money to protect our stuff, more cost. Accumulation is the name of the game. Like that bumper sticker that says “he who dies with the most toys wins” (wins what??) We need to think less about “more” and more about “enough.”
That’s a concept we are considering with our little home church. We grew up in a church world where everything revolved around more. Having more people in attendance, more congregations, more tithes and offerings, more people in leadership, more, more, more. Here, too, more is not necessarily better. Being one of a multitude is hardly personal, and it doesn’t encourage close relationships. We want to reach “more” people in our world with the gospel, but not necessarily make them part of our local church group. Maybe what we need to do is show a lot of others how easy this home church concept is, how simple it is that ANYONE can do it. We can do that online and in many other ways, without having to have a large group physically here with us. And perhaps our 20-25 people is enough. Maybe more than enough since the Christian church started with only 12!
