Extend Love - Build More 

If Jesus were planting a church in our modern day era of the US, what would it look like? That is a question I have been pondering…what would be his emphasis? What would be the priorities? How would it function? What would Sunday morning look like…or would there be a traditional Sunday morning gathering? Would healing and mission be the focus or worship “style”? Would he work to get more bodies in the seats or every now and then bring out an old teaching that thinned the crowds? How would all the outcasts feel? How would the middle class feel? How would the poor feel? What would be the role of children and youth? So many questions… in my gut…I feel it would be different than what we are seeing. Why? Because in Jesus’ day, he was a radical and was perceived as a threat, especially to the religious community. Therefore, if we fast forwarded Jesus in our time and he ministered within our constructs, what he would do would also seem radical, revolutionary, and I believe a good chunk of the religious community would find themselves threatened and deeply offended. So it begs the question-what might the faith and church community resemble if Jesus was the designer?

It’s Sunday morning in the modern contemporary church of today. The coffee and biscuits are out and people are mingling in the foyer discussing the highlights of the previous football game or anticipation of the one coming up later that day. Moms are planning next week’s play dates. College students are comparing their all-nighter stories and the paper they just barely completed with the help of Starbucks. The worship band is playing in the background, the lights are low, videos are looping through and at the right time we’ll be invited in to find a stadium type seat where we can be as comfortable as possible, coffee in hand, visually stimulated, ears perked, and then we stand and sing. And it goes something like this, hear a song, get a few announcements usually by video, sing two more songs (which are usually about everything Jesus is going to do for me), get twenty minutes of some scripture sound bites, sing two more songs (and now the fog machine has cranked up) while we take up an offering, be told about an important meeting coming up and then dismissed with “have a great week”.

The other extreme is the somewhat rigid structure we can find in a more high church experience, a bit more liturgical. Although the setting is different, the discussions in the foyer are the same. What may be a bit different is that this church may still have Sunday school so some might be talking about the day’s lesson or what they learned. Organ music and choirs usher you in, there is pomp and circumstance as the pastors process into their pulpits. The prayers are  orderly but the sermon is rich. If you like the old hymns with lots of voices and rich sounds, you will feel at home. Sermons typically start with a joke, have three points, a poem/hymm, and then a wrap up conclusion.

There is nothing wrong with these church services. In fact, I find myself, like many others worshipping at both types. Since I travel so much, I see many types of services throughout the year. And the things we discuss in the foyers are going to be our life circumstances and whatever is pressing. But, do you ever leave feeling….well feeling like there was nothing that really changed? I would love to walk into church one morning and instead of someone talking about football, recounting what God did in their life that week, or what they feel God is calling them to in the upcoming week. Is not an aspect of worship about us reliving and reviewing this beautiful narrative of God’s redemptive work and His continued redemptive work in our own lives and journeys? But that would be weird would it not?

Our living out the gospel should be taking us to the very fringes of life where things are hard and messy. If the most interesting things we have to share on Sunday morning are play dates, sports stats, and gas prices, are we not missing the point? If worship is not having us encounter the very  life of Jesus who we should then go out and imitate as soon as we walk out the door, then what are we doing? Getting a great concert, free food, and some self help anecdotes which have some personal application may be entertaining and somewhat helpful for our daily lives but do very little to challenge the church community.

And I am not trying to bash “the church”…not by any stretch because I am part of it. And the leadership of the church is simply doing what we are asking them too. But I ask the constant question, what are we really doing? Even with lots of people donning the doors, can we see the real fruit in our communities? Are our conversations deeper, richer, and more in-tune with the Holy Spirit? Are our evangelistic efforts and intentions drawing others into this personal relationship with a living/loving God? And if you are in a faith community and can answer “yes” to those questions, then awesome! Keep it up and help others! I pray we aren’t just doing church but being the church.

So, don’t change the music….well, maybe let’s do a bit better at some song choices that have us singing more about us “getting out there” versus “Jesus is my buddy and look what he is doing for me”.  Don’t change the biscuits and coffee for that reminds us of breaking bread together in fellowship…but can we please be challenged as the church? Instead of the sermon having a personal application for my life or my family…are we really being challenged the way Jesus would have challenged? Is someone really looking us in the eye and making us question materialism? Is someone saying, go be in relationship with the poor and the sinners-because Jesus did? How are we being salt and light? I would so much rather hear and be part of those conversations in the morning and walk out of the church ignited to live out faith in Christ that has tangible fruit the next week. That is what worship should ground us in…worship in Spirit and in truth. I read that somewhere… (see John 4).

So that you know where this is coming from, they are two books. One is called “The Faith of Leap” from Allan Hirsch and Michael Frost and one that I am currently reading called “Untamed” by Allan and Debra Hirsch. Good stuff but deeply challenging. This week, think about some of those questions and what your next Sunday may look like in that context. And trust me, I struggle too-I am as much a part of our consumerist society as anyone else and find myself in a deep battle to say “no” to those things so I can say a huge “yes” to what Christ would have me and you do! Blessings!