Call to conversion or comfortable seats?
I spent a very long time in a meeting where we spoke about the "aesthetic" effect of the placement of the chapel in a new building. One person spent an inordinate amount of time explaining how important it was to have a beautiful sanctuary so that everyone coming in to the new facility would know The Salvation Army was "a church."
I have recently been reading the revised version of the 1981 book by Jim Wallis "The Call to Conversion. Why Faith is Always Personal, But Never Private." Wallis says some profound things about how people know the folks gathering to worship at a house of worship might "know" we are a church. He writes, "Evangelism often becomes a specialty activity awkwardly conducted in noisy football stadiums or flashy TV studios, instead of being a simple testimony rising out of a community whose life together invites questions from the surrounding society. When the life of the church no longer raises any questions, evangelism degenerates.......Perhaps never before has Jesus's name been more frequently mentioned and the content of his life and teaching more thoroughly ignored."
I have recently been thinking about how people know we are a church. I contrast the meeting early in the week, with one last night. I went with about 10 other people and we walked through some lower middle class to poor neighborhoods in Cleveland. We offered prayer for the neighborhoods. We talked to families. We prayed for people in their yards and on their porches. We offered to help them have food for their families. We invited them for something to eat or drink. There was no talk about how nice our place of worship looked. It was about how much we really wanted people to know Jesus.
Let me hasten to say that I think our buildings should be clean and kept in good repair. When they become worn out, we should replace them or renovate them. I think that is part of good stewardship. Will clean buildings, pressed uniforms, orderly worship, the best projection system, or computer labs in themselves let people "know" we are a church?
I think most of that stuff is just smoke and mirrors which we think passes for church. Often I think we are more concerned about how we can be happy or satisfied, or safe from hell, instead of showing our conversion is an experience that has changed us in such a way that people want to ask the question "Who are these people?" Do we show what the Kingdom of God is all about through our sacrifice?
I am really wondering these days if we have come to the point that we have become an entitlement people. I am a professional Christian. I get paid to be a Christian servant. Am I comfortable? Yes. Am I changing the world? I want to. I think for too many of us we have put comfort, programs and marketing in the place of real witness.
Are we calling people to conversion through our lifestyle or relying on comfortable seats and bells and whistles to make them feel better about themselves without bring real change? Are we calling people to adherence to doctrine or life-changing grace? How do we bring this state of conversion to the world the way the early church did?
What do you think?
I have recently been reading the revised version of the 1981 book by Jim Wallis "The Call to Conversion. Why Faith is Always Personal, But Never Private." Wallis says some profound things about how people know the folks gathering to worship at a house of worship might "know" we are a church. He writes, "Evangelism often becomes a specialty activity awkwardly conducted in noisy football stadiums or flashy TV studios, instead of being a simple testimony rising out of a community whose life together invites questions from the surrounding society. When the life of the church no longer raises any questions, evangelism degenerates.......Perhaps never before has Jesus's name been more frequently mentioned and the content of his life and teaching more thoroughly ignored."
I have recently been thinking about how people know we are a church. I contrast the meeting early in the week, with one last night. I went with about 10 other people and we walked through some lower middle class to poor neighborhoods in Cleveland. We offered prayer for the neighborhoods. We talked to families. We prayed for people in their yards and on their porches. We offered to help them have food for their families. We invited them for something to eat or drink. There was no talk about how nice our place of worship looked. It was about how much we really wanted people to know Jesus.
Let me hasten to say that I think our buildings should be clean and kept in good repair. When they become worn out, we should replace them or renovate them. I think that is part of good stewardship. Will clean buildings, pressed uniforms, orderly worship, the best projection system, or computer labs in themselves let people "know" we are a church?
I think most of that stuff is just smoke and mirrors which we think passes for church. Often I think we are more concerned about how we can be happy or satisfied, or safe from hell, instead of showing our conversion is an experience that has changed us in such a way that people want to ask the question "Who are these people?" Do we show what the Kingdom of God is all about through our sacrifice?
I am really wondering these days if we have come to the point that we have become an entitlement people. I am a professional Christian. I get paid to be a Christian servant. Am I comfortable? Yes. Am I changing the world? I want to. I think for too many of us we have put comfort, programs and marketing in the place of real witness.
Are we calling people to conversion through our lifestyle or relying on comfortable seats and bells and whistles to make them feel better about themselves without bring real change? Are we calling people to adherence to doctrine or life-changing grace? How do we bring this state of conversion to the world the way the early church did?
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 2:55 PM
7 Comments:
I could not agree more. Thanks, Larry.
Church (the body of Christ) happened tonight in a living room as the believers began to gently gather to comfort a family shocked by a sudden death of a young man.
As I reflect on experience and on your words, I would love to simply be a part of a house church fellowship that would abandon the trappings for a shared Christian faith. I'm in too deep SA wise, I'm afraid, to allow that to happen. Choices over time that lead to other choices, all in the context of serving God, only to wonder as to the purpose of it all. It's been a hard day.
Robyn,
You have proved my point though. If a place is needed to prove we are the church, we sorely lack in the community, service and outreach that are needed. The early disciples were known as the PEOPLE who turned the world upside down, not the PLACE where the world was turned upside down. In fact, our early roots discouraged owning halls and buildings. The empahsis was put on the simple delivery of the Gospel through relationship and courage. When we get comfortable in a place, we may be ceasing to be the people God wants us to be.
I can't disagree with you.
I am STILL giving up Steve Bussey's or Lt. Buseeys's blog for lent.
wthom,
I gave up the Lt's blog too. I can never understand it.
Good questions.
I have a shirt that says “Don’t go to church” on the front . . . on the back it says “Be the church.” The idea is that church is not a building, a place, or an event. You and I are the church. That means that “church” is seven days a week. Every day is Sunday. Worship is a lifestyle. Coming together under a roof to “worship” God is only one aspect of our worship.
I think that one of our greatest challenges is to help people look beyond the building and live as Jesus lived 24/7. Great post!
Blessings,
Bret
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