I think we Christians tend to turn a blind eye to the reality of how American culture has changed around us. We just don't want to recognize that the church no longer has the primary seat of honor within the larger culture.
Out west somewhere, a poll was conducted that asked people a simple question: "WHAT DO CHRISTIANS DO?"
They received 2 primary answers:
1. They go to lots of meetings
2. They are against things.
Great. We Christians have managed to communicate the message of Christ, an amazing message of peace and hope, forgiveness and wholeness, purpose and meaning, in such a way that those outside the church think those 2 things are what we do.
Now obviously cultural change is happening at different rates in different parts of America. Don't write off the above poll because it happened in San Francisco. There are some wonderful churches in San Francisco. Besides, I would bet my second car that you'd get just about the exact same response if you did that poll in the 4 or 5 blocks that surround our church here in Champaign.
The point is, we've spent so many generations focusing our church life (programs, budgets, staff, buildings, etc) on taking care of ourselves that the world around us has no clue what we do. Which also means they have no clue why Jesus matters. Because Jesus left it in our hands to show them and to tell them.
Time to rethink our relationship with our neighbor...
Amen! We need to literally fight the desire to keep ourselves insulated from engaging the war, and meetings are at the core of this fight.
ReplyDeleteBalancing the need and belief to stay connected (we Presbyterians are fans of that) and use meetings to convey how God is at work amongst us and not as a buffer from doing the work God is calling us to.
We should form a committee to look into that!