Wisdom from my friend, Glitz

I haven't written much lately (well, at least not here), so I thought I would steal something someone else has written for this post. (By the way, will have a post soon regarding my weekend with Jessi and Jewel.)

This comes by way of my friend Josh Glitz, who likes to opine from time to time about his favorite subject: Christianity.

I agree with most of what he's trying to say.

Here goes:

The modern American church has lost the sight of one of what I view to be a key component of the vision that Christ had for the Church. Rather than focusing on The Church, capital T capital C, we have become focused upon our church. Rather than being a unified body of believers working for the good of the kingdom, we have become a series of disjointed, unconnected groups that pursue our own agendas and goals. We all have a common goal, and ultimately all serve the same purpose. However, in our pursuit to achieve that goal we tear each other asunder. Churches compete in an unspoken competition amongst each other and specialize until we have a proliferation that is not always leading to a proliferation of the number of believers.

While the poor outside our doors suffer the church begins the process of gilding over the cracks and imperfections that exist within its walls. We are a self centered country that wants to be entertained at all costs. Crowds flood to see the brightest and most visually appealing presentation of a beautifully simple message. Lights, sounds, and movies are needed to persuade enough people to join in order to justify the exorbitant cost of purchasing the technology in the first place. We will gladly spend thousands, at times millions, of dollars on buildings and technology to attract people in. We have begun to rely upon the power of megawatts of light rather than the power of the gospel to bring people in the doors. Get them to come see a magnificent display and slip the gospel in there.

Don’t trust me? Let’s take a look around us. Do we really need Easter pageants that rely upon pneumatic machines to raise Christ from the grave? Or a seamless piece of fabric to project a realistic night sky upon? Do we really need to purchase thousands of dollars worth of cameras and lights for a single night of worship? Don’t get me wrong, I believe whole heartedly that all that money is worth spending if it brings even a single person to Christ. My question is when we began to be so prideful that we think it is our actions that bring people to Christ. I am sorry; I refuse to believe that a light display brings someone to salvation. The Bible explicitly tells us that it is Christ that does all the saving work. Has our culture really became so self centered that we demand to be entertained in order to entertain the notion of Christ. We will pool our money together in order to purchase new lighting equipment, but struggle to raise support to raise money for the poor and needy within our own city. Is it just me, or is there something desperately wrong with this picture. The moment that anything else besides Christ becomes the main attraction is the moment we need to begin to evaluate our actions.

We need to begin to embrace our brokenness, as it encourages us to fully value the grace that is afforded to us. Walk into the typical American church on a Sunday morning and you will find a bunch of people masking their fears, hurts, and insecurities. We value our wholesome image. We flaunt our happiness when our insides are groaning out. We refuse to let our real emotions show in order to save our public perception. The church, which is supposed to be a place of unity and comfort, is the place we most have to put on our false images. A place of honesty and acceptance becomes one of the most demeaning places of pubic opinion. Our church becomes a place of disunity with The Church.

By gilding over our faults and insecurities to both the outside and to ourselves, the church falls short of being The Church. This is not the only way we do this however. We also fall in love with dividing ourselves up. I believe in church planting, I would love to take part in a church planting mission one day. However we do not need any more niche churches in America. The Church is a body with many parts. This demands a variety of not only skills, talents, and gifts but also of age and worldview. There should be a distinction between church’s and ministries. Ministries can serve an individual age group, however a church should never focus on one age group. Ministries can serve certain types of people, churches should never focus on one type of person. A church is supposed to a body of believers, not just an arm. If/when a doctrinal issue arises we can begin to discuss the possibility of dividing a church. However starting a church simply to serve a specific demographic of people is not a wise decision under my estimation.

We need to begin to embrace the notion of The Church rather than staying fixated upon our own churches.