it's a quiet morning here. the little one spent the night at grammy and opa's since M and I had plans last night - no toys have been strewn around the room yet, there have been no plaintive requests for 'Elmo!', and I'm drinking my coffee without fear of a 21-month old knocking it over. I miss my morning cuddle, but appreciate the quiet moment. before I head into the kitchen to make turkey chili for hot dog night at the church tonight and then gingerly pour myself into the tub before trekking to work, I wanted to share a couple of things.
one, that I read this blog from RHE yesterday, titled ' Fifteen Reasons I Left Church', and was riveted to the comments, which I've continued to peruse this morning and still haven't reached the end of them. I don't think I've ever read such a gamut of opinion and experience, and one of my first reactions yesterday was 'this is how the internet should work... so many different flavors of people out there chiming in on an intensely personal topic, but very civil on the whole'... I'm interested in dialoguing more about what we expect our churches to be, what we're allowed to expect from them, and where 'church' may not be required to meet us...
another thought I've been mulling over as I've trolled around and read different pieces the last few weeks - that may dovetail a bit into the topic above - is the different sort of life structure my generation and those younger (and older?) than I have these days, and how it affects the traditional workings and expectations of 'church'. maybe this isn't 100% true, but my perception is that the life of church tends to model itself as the intended primary community of those who work within it. I think many of us today have a number of communities we revolve in and out of that all vy for our limited time... church, work, family, friends outside our faith community, carving out time for ourselves... combine these with the ease and regularity of travel most of us engage in - which is generally waay more than people of past generations - and you get contemporary people of faith communities participating as they can, but maybe not in the steadfast, day in-day out fashion of congregants of the past. How does this - or should this - change what our churches do? Or how they do them? How do churches of today navigate and plan for the mobile, fluid lives of people while simultaneously calling for community, help, and service?
-m.y.
3 comments:
You ask hard questions. The church that our grandparents knew is on life support. I believe in the importance of coming together on some day of the week for mutual edification and corporate worship, yet that does not always fit the life this generation is creating...I think we're tapping in to the worldview that "church" can happen anywhere, and that God isn't limited to what occurs within the walls of an address (open the doors and see all the people!).
My Dad often told me that the church isn't a building, it's the people. And, I think it's meant to be fluid. Periods of "growth" wax and wane, we revisit old projects and programs, we try new ones...there is no set progressive timeline by which we must measure anything. I think that appeals to our generation a lot. Real personal growth as opposed to raising up a congregation (not to negate that important gathering, it simply could look different).
I like this conversation and hope it continues. It is important. Not to place a definition, but to observe the changes.
Girl, this does not need to be a blog post. This needs to be a quarter-long Bible class for the whole church. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts.
Our examples in the Bible are people sharing meals, sharing resources, teaching, reaching out, and loving one another. But I guess that loving and caring for one another are much like the elastic clause in the Constitution -- we could claim just about any activity, any purpose, fits in the "love one another" category. So unless we want to go with the "super-conservative only do exactly the things we see mentioned specifically in the Bible" angle we've got some sorting out to do.
For me, the church is my home base. I mean that physically, spiritually, emotionally...all of it. I go out into the world, I interact with family, friends, co-workers, but centering it all is my church. Even physically: I know our church is not like say, a Catholic church, where people stop in to pray in a candlelit sanctuary. But I found one day when I was consumed with frustration and exhaustion and loneliness, I finally packed up Carter and went up to the church building. Of course I pretended to need to get some work done for Roots, but really I just needed to be there and think of the people that pass through there, the prayers that are said there, the love exchanged there. It was calming.
I don't want the church to be a be-all, end-all though. I don't want it to become like the government, providing just about every service imaginable but not doing it well. If my car needs work and there's a mechanic at the church then I may go to him first to support my brother. But I don't want the church to go into the mechanic business itself. I go to Sugar Creek Baptist and I enjoy their free, air-conditioned, beautiful indoor playscape. And sometimes it feels like they are really providing a service to me, loving me even. It's a safe place to play for my kids and a respite for me. But while I happily take advantage, it's not something I want for MY church really. I look around and I wonder how long did it take the committee to come up with the plans for this? Were there friendships strained over whether to have a ball pit or a padded maze? I guess it comes back to the testimony I gave in church a few weeks back. I am cautious of extraneous things that distract me from God. This probably comes from fear on my part and I am too conservative in that regard.
I'm still mulling this over but I didn't want to put off responding and then never do it. So I may be back to say more. I will DEFINITELY be back to see what others have to offer.
Wow! And I only had a few seconds really to catch up on blog reading. Great discussion! I'll do my stuff and try to get back to it. Blessings.
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