Un-churching Update
It’s been about six weeks now since we left our local church and began meeting at home. You would think that we would be having a lot of adjustment issues to the sudden change in things we’ve done every week for more than 40 years. But the truth is exactly the opposite. We couldn’t be happier or enjoying the experience more.
For most of our adult life, we have been church leaders. We’ve taught and led at every level, and almost every office imaginable as well as creating a few positions and programs that didn’t exist before. We’ve encouraged and evaluated and spent hours considering and praying over what needed to be done. We encouraged innovative ideas and fresh perspectives. And I’ve come to the conclusion that for the most part, we’ve been doing CPR on a corpse. The traditional church as it exists in many Christian communities, is barely breathing and turning blue.
We need to KNOW why we do the things we do in the name of faith and not do anything just because we’ve always done it. That was our contention at our former church, that the church is shrinking, dying by leaps and bounds. We are losing our youth and not attracting new families. And it’s not because we don’t have a rousing praise and worship service with a band where we try to get everyone to raise their hands or sway in their places. It’s not because we don’t have a drama team to do an emotional skit with a cool musical background. The church keeps trying all the stuff that other churches are doing, comparing ourselves to the mega churches.
Those mega churches do not have REAL power. They have emotion. Symbolism over substance. It feels good, but it’s like cotton candy. Get a mouthful and it tastes so sweet, but it dissolves into nothing. It satisfies the craving for something to eat, but it doesn’t nourish the body. And a steady diet of cotton candy religion will cause truth decay.
What has been draining OUT of the church over the last 40 years, is the bread of life, that focus on Scripture. It’s the only place there is true life-changing power. The Word, not the fancy trimmings, or the innovations, not the eloquent preachers. It’s the Bible. People are starving to death in the pews. They hear a few verses here and there, but they don’t get taught how to study it for themselves. They aren’t being urged to deeply study on a daily basis.
My husband and I cut our teeth on real Bible study, it’s what drew us in like an addiction. We learned to study, to listen for the Lord’s voice, to recognize His truths in the Bible. We learned to dig into the Word with a concordance and some Bible commentaries and a Greek and Hebrew lexicon. What does it say? What does it mean? What should we do about it? Were the foundational questions as we studied. And now, in our little group of 20 or so each week, sitting with our Bibles and study tools, that’s what we are doing. A “feeding frenzy” at times, but it’s joyful and the most real thing we’ve done in our lives.
September 1, 2014 @ 8:40 pm
I agree with 99.9% of this–you know I do! However, we have given mega-churches a bad name (I believe in an effort to excuse the fact that we continue to dwindle). I was surprised (SHOCKED) at a survey done between mega churches vs small churches and found that the big churches, most times, were MORE spiritual than the small churches.
And then I began to watch—the larger churches are not bogged down with the stupid, petty, “people ego” stuff that the small churches have, that spreads and poisons all 25 people—the larger churches can have 25 “sick” members (you know what I mean) but if the rest of the organism is healthy and strong, rather than becoming the gangrene that kills, it becomes the splinter that is expelled. (Is this making sense?)
And while music doesn’t make a church—for ME (and I’m sure others) it is HOW I worship most and best!!–Therefore, to sit and sing the same hymns, watching from the piano, a whole congregation (25) that are lifeless and PRAISE-LESS–with lips barely moving–affects me deeply. The Doxology brings tears of praise to my eyes. I want to get up and scream, Are you LISTENING to what you are singing?!?!) Doug Batchelor once tried to make the point that it was the “contemporary” MUSIC at the golden idol of Daniel that was instrumental in the worship of that idol, and the sign for that false worship was to bow when the “music played.” MY rebuttal to that flawed and ignorant reasoning is this: IF Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were considered traitors to an earthly king for not bowing and participating when the music played, how much guiltier are we when we refuse to sing and give such lackluster praise to the King of Kings?! So if a group (no matter the size) agrees to praise with a certain type of music (and it IS a matter of taste–some like southern gospel, some the old hymns, some the new praise–I like it all from Martin Luther to Third Day) it isn’t the music it IS the HEART and the praise from those hearts that matter. I don’t think He is as much interested in HOW we worship and praise nearly as much as IF we are truly worshiping and praising—-and from what I have seen from my spot on the piano bench, for way too long, the indication is there is LITTLE true praise happening from lifeless lips. From the same musical artist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7qzMpn5Syc
September 1, 2014 @ 9:07 pm
You are right about the larger churches having more room to accommodate the unhealthy members. When you’re a small church, if you have a lot of “problem” members, you should probably ask yourselves what you are doing/teaching that attracts this type of person more than the mainstream “normal” members. (not that ANY of us are “normal”). When a larger church dwindles down to a handful of “problem” members, it’s an indicator of issues that need to be addressed. The principle of “like attracts like” is always at work. If we are joyful, uplifting people, we will attract those who prefer that type of fellowship. That doesn’t mean we reject people with problems at all, but we need to be bigger than the issues of one or two people. We have to have a core group of people committed to being people of the Book. And when it comes to music…dare we get into that here? LOL