Does a service format make the best disciples? If we are honest with ourselves church is a bit of a spectator sport. Sure there are a few parts that have to be played, but for the most part people are sitting in seats. At it’s heart Sunday morning is an event that attempts to get those who are outsiders to become insiders. To do this we give a nice talk, play popular music, even take care of your kids while you are in the service. Is this what Paul meant when he encouraged us to not neglect meeting together?
I would argue that Sunday morning services do not product good disciples. For example I have had the same conversation with many people. It starts a couple of years after they have been attending a church, they begin to say things like; I am not being fed anymore, the preaching is getting old, I want more “meat” in the sermons or my personal favorite they want to go “deeper”. What I gather from conversations like these are that people have handed their spiritual formation over to the professionals, the pastors. Who can blame them, if you look most evangelical churches they have all sorts of classes that are intended for spiritual formation. If you need to know something or want to experience something new chances are you just have to plug yourself into the right place.
My friend Steve has been asking the question; “What is a disciple?” He came up with this answer; A disciple is a person who loves God and loves other people. Pretty simple isn’t it. If I am a leader how am what am I doing to get everyone I know to love God and other people? I wonder if we are we are short-changing peoples spiritual lives, by sending them to a class instead of sending them out into their neighborhood to love their neighbors?
Photo Credit Van Der Mouche (Click)
2 comments:
I vote no! I think services the way we conduct them now are practically a guarantee that most Christians will live unchallenged and unchallenging lives. Like you said, it's a spectator sport, a consumer pastime; your active engagement is never really required, and there's no accountability to see if what you do on Sunday carries into the rest of your life. We can hardly expect that kind of extreme passivity to be productive ... I mean, heck, even my largest lecture classes had homework and tests to make sure I was learning and able to apply something.
I don't think we can't have mass teaching times ever; Jesus certainly did. But he followed it up with eating, talking, praying, living and traveling with his followers ... how many of our pastors or church leaders do that? It's by no means all their fault; we ask them to constantly herd us like unthinking sheep, and that doesn't leave a lot of time or space for deep contact. But what would church look like if we and they insisted that being the church required that kind intensity, and required serious interaction even in our large-format teaching?
I think you and I and Steve have all had bits of this conversation with each other; but I always stumble when I try and figure out how to take my opinion about church as it is and more clearly describe what I think church as it should be would look like. I don't think you can just send people out to "love their neighbor" with our both prep work and ongoing feedback about what that means and what they're doing ... and that necessitates some sort of support system.
So what is that support system like - a prayer circle? a small group? an intentional community? a group of friends who just hang out and shoot the breeze regularly? Maybe it's all of those things, and maybe it's different versions of those things (or other things) to match the needs of the people involved. Whatever that support is, that's what I think church is. The trick for me: how do I find this church that I keep looking for - or make it with others if it's not already out there somewhere?
(Out of curiosity - now that you're detoxed, are you done with traditional church, or planning to go back? I'd be very interested in hearing what you think about your next steps.)
BB, Thanks for the comment. You'll have to wait until the last post (Part 5) to find out what I am doing next.
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