This is part two of what will probably be a never-ending string of posts. Remember to read my disclaimer before reading any of my posts. It’s just to the right under “Disclaimer”. The things I say in this post may step on some toes, mine included, but here we go anyway.
I saw a quote today from a guy named Dan Edelen that really solidified some thoughts I have had about church in the good ole US of A.
Busyness is crippling the effectiveness of the American Church, but no one wants to fix the root causes because doing so would call into question the very nature of our modern society.
A church in any culture naturally takes on elements of that culture. Different cultures do things differently. All this is fine as except when something in that culture is in direct violation of Scripture. Obviously the Word takes precedence. That being said I think many things we do in church that we consider to be “God’s way” of doing things is in reality a product of our culture. Again, nothing wrong with that if we realize that these things are just that, cultural things, or we could say personal choices.
Let’s look at an example. Actually let’s grab a big bull by the horns and use the example of music. How many fights have you heard about in churches over the music, particularly the style of music. The arguments usually end at this point - One side says God “can” use this music, the other side says God “can’t” use this music. What do we have? A fight over personal taste in music. Period, over, out. Nothing more than that.
Ok, back to the quote. A huge part of our culture in the USA is busyness. Think about it, if you aren’t busy you aren’t being productive. This has been ingrained in all of us. But, activity and productivity don’t always go hand in hand. Am I advocating lazyness, No, definitely not. What I am saying is this. As churches we can keep ourselves so busy with christian activities that we forget the one we are trying to serve in the first place. This is a place that God has really been dealing with me lately. We all have to find out in each of our lives what is vital and necessary and what needs to be pruned. Pruning hurts but a tree that has been pruned bears more fruit. I’m not finished on this subject. I have some other thoughts on this that are still running around in my head that I’ll post in the future as they become more solidified.
October 26th, 2007 at 7:35 am
Kevin,
Thanks for the link to my post at Cerulean Sanctum on the 100 truths I’ve learned.
As for the busyness I mentioned, I’m not really referring to church activity busyness, but work and lifestyle busyness. The average American today has a 50 work week with an hour of commuting each day. Both of those are only growing longer, too. It’s not that churches are overwhelmed with people doing church activities, but rather the opposite. Fewer people have time to commit any time to their churches. It’s why a lot of non-Sunday church programs are failing. People just don’t have the time to lead them or participate. Just trying to get ten people’s schedules to sync to meet and pray can be like juggling live alligators. People work odd work shifts or they get up at 6 AM get to work by 8 AM, work a ten hour day, commute home, eat, and then it’s 8 PM. What time is left to be involved in anything, much less a church activity? Then everything that didn’t get accomplished at home during the week gets crammed into the weekend (sports for kids add to this, too) and you’re lucky people actually show up on Sunday!
That’s the kind of busyness I mean.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
good post kevin. thanks….
November 1st, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I agree with you Pastor. Busyness in church does not the power bring! Being totally and completely in love with Him and bringing Him pleasure has become my number one goal.