Recently I have been studying the church culture here in Mesa. I am finding some interesting things. Here’s one element of our local church culture that keeps coming up: self-centeredness.
While it might be an overgeneralization, there seems to be too main modes of church here. First there are those of the traditional (what I would call attractional) church. And then there are those who out of frustration with the ways things are in those churches, have begun dreaming of church differently. This most frequently here has meant that “pissed-off-at-the-established-church” Christians are collecting for very informal bible studies or even simpler conversations about God. They label themselves house churches.
These two modes of church couldn’t be further apart in the way they function and yet I am finding a major similarity with both of them – an attitude that this whole thing should be a bout “me”.
Don’t get me wrong, by no means am I implying that all Mesa churches are guilty of this, but it does seem as though we are talking about the vast-majority. Here’s what I mean.
There is a new church in town – a major megachurch listed as one of the largest and fastest growing churches in the nation (I am embarrassed to say that I interviewed seriously with them before I knew much about their approach.) This megachurch of some 13-15k people is a multi-site, video venue church that has opened two new campuses here in the East Valley. Today as Kelli and I were walking through the local mall with the kids I ran across a large promotional sign for this church. It read like this, “Would you rather sleep in on Sunday mornings than go to church? To be honest, so would we. such-and-such-church.tv” I foudn this half humorous and have disgusting. Is this really what it has come to? Do you really feel as though for people to embrace the person of Jesus we must play to the lowest common cultural denominator? All I heard was this, “Church to much committment, too much sacrifice for you to be interested? Let us dumb it down and make it easier for you” The biggest thing I fear with this approach os that is communicates the exact opposite of what Jesus said following him would be like. He made it clear to his followers that it would be hard and it would have a cost.
It seems as though most conversations I have with established church leaders focuses on keeping the people of their churches happy so that they will continue coming. It’s about them. We don’t want it to be that way, but we created our own reality in attempting to make it easier for people to attend church.
On the other side of things, in many house churches I am coming across, communities of disenchanted Christians gather informally (somtimes with no purpose or intent) and call this church. Now, I am a big believer in the house church movement if they are done right. But I fear that many of these are simply groups of people who don’t like the way things are in the established church and their solution is to gather like-minded Christians together for Bible Study and forms of creative worship. Here’s the problem as I see it: they aren’t all that concerned about their culture around them (and if they are concerned thay aren’t doing much about it). I would say that very few of these are missional communities – meaning that they exist to be a blessing to the world around them. It pains me to admit it, but I fear most of these house churches are nothing more than a blessing to themselves – to other Christians. Again, don’t get me wrong, this is a worthy endeaver, but it is not the worthiest endeavor. It is very far from living in such a way that focuses outward into the local culture of sojourners (non-Christians) and seeks to build bridges for them to come tot know Jesus.
This is the endeavor of the church – it is the mission that the church exists for. And this mission must be reclaimed by both of these modes of church – otherwise the church is doomed. In an American culture where the church is losing it’s lnfluence daily, we have to evolve into a movement that is motivated by everythign but ourselves. We have to get over ourselves. This is not about us! It never has been and it never will be. It is about the world around us learning about and coming to embrace the fact that the kingdom of God is accessible through Jesus Christ. It’s about God’s plan for redemption and for my neighbors’, co-workers’, and friends’ (and also my) need for that redemption.
We can no longer be the “me-church”.
(I’ve posted a video entitled “me-church” on the revolutionary life podcast – it’s very funny and not that far off, Check it out. You can subscribe at www.therevolutionarylife.com)
