What If We Looked At Christianity Outside Of The American Religious Culture?
1. Our focus would not be on making good church members.
"There’s nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept."–Ansel Adams
The qualifications of a good church member are faithful event attendance and financial input to maintain the staff and facility. The qualifications of a Christian are to be born again and live, everyday, a life that follows the principles of Christ. The bottom line is you can be a good church member and not even be a Christian because the qualifications are not the same.
So much of what we do in American church culture is about perpetuating our own local “church plant” and “service event.” When we make the event and the facility the primary focus our people end up with the concept that “church” is just a segment of their life and use the allotted church service time as a weekly prescription to medicate their carnal symptoms. They become event driven, simply surviving from event to event, not living for Christ.
We should focus on helping people see the significance of Christ in their everyday life. Let me give you an analogy. Let’s say your child develops crooked teeth. There are a couple of different methods of correcting this problem, the event method and the process method.
The event method is to take the child, have him smile real big and hit him in the mouth with a 2 x 4 or other heavy object. There will definitely be a rearranging of teeth, but the chance is high that the teeth will not reattach straight. So, the next scheduled event will be another whack with the 2 x 4. Yes, change is made but it is unpredictable, ineffective and uncontrollable.
The process method is called braces. It’s a slow process of small changes that affect the teeth everyday until they are straight. The results are intentional, effective and measurable. Braces are still painful and the process can be long and frustrating and many times requires a life long retainer to help maintain the change, but it works!
Christianity that works is a process driven life that changes slowly everyday and is maintained by Biblical principles that are followed for the rest of our lives. Otherwise we live in a series of incredible life changing events that have no long-term effects.
The American church, if you can call it that, it is probably better to say the American religious culture, has set up a spectacular stage of glitz and glamorous events that produces superficiality in most of its congregants. It becomes so much about the show and not the go. Jesus Christ never chastised the people of Judea for their superficial knowledge of the Scripture and its true application. He pointed His finger repeatedly at the ones responsible for the lack of depth, the religious leaders of the day.
They had refined their pageantry to an art form and when they took to the streets with their faith it wasn't to reach out, but to show off. These men retalliated by killing Him in cold blood, parading Him through the streets, a part of their big show. They were content to let the world see them because they had lost their ability to show the world who God was.
The Church is not about events and facilities, it never has been, it's about people. People who need God and each other. People who are hungry and those who are well fed. People who are ignorant and those who are well versed. Jesus Christ never came to set up a corporation nor an international religious conglomerate. His focus has alway been about His kingdom and bringing men and women into it. It's not an American or British or African kingdom, it's not a Sunday morning Baptist or Pentecostal or Lutheran kingdom, it's an everyday Jesus Kingdom.
It's a process not an event.
This is multi-part series that I am developing for my new book, "Cardboard Astronauts." To find out more about the project simply send me an email.
1. Our focus would not be on making good church members.
"There’s nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept."–Ansel Adams
The qualifications of a good church member are faithful event attendance and financial input to maintain the staff and facility. The qualifications of a Christian are to be born again and live, everyday, a life that follows the principles of Christ. The bottom line is you can be a good church member and not even be a Christian because the qualifications are not the same.
So much of what we do in American church culture is about perpetuating our own local “church plant” and “service event.” When we make the event and the facility the primary focus our people end up with the concept that “church” is just a segment of their life and use the allotted church service time as a weekly prescription to medicate their carnal symptoms. They become event driven, simply surviving from event to event, not living for Christ.
We should focus on helping people see the significance of Christ in their everyday life. Let me give you an analogy. Let’s say your child develops crooked teeth. There are a couple of different methods of correcting this problem, the event method and the process method.
The event method is to take the child, have him smile real big and hit him in the mouth with a 2 x 4 or other heavy object. There will definitely be a rearranging of teeth, but the chance is high that the teeth will not reattach straight. So, the next scheduled event will be another whack with the 2 x 4. Yes, change is made but it is unpredictable, ineffective and uncontrollable.
The process method is called braces. It’s a slow process of small changes that affect the teeth everyday until they are straight. The results are intentional, effective and measurable. Braces are still painful and the process can be long and frustrating and many times requires a life long retainer to help maintain the change, but it works!
Christianity that works is a process driven life that changes slowly everyday and is maintained by Biblical principles that are followed for the rest of our lives. Otherwise we live in a series of incredible life changing events that have no long-term effects.
The American church, if you can call it that, it is probably better to say the American religious culture, has set up a spectacular stage of glitz and glamorous events that produces superficiality in most of its congregants. It becomes so much about the show and not the go. Jesus Christ never chastised the people of Judea for their superficial knowledge of the Scripture and its true application. He pointed His finger repeatedly at the ones responsible for the lack of depth, the religious leaders of the day.
They had refined their pageantry to an art form and when they took to the streets with their faith it wasn't to reach out, but to show off. These men retalliated by killing Him in cold blood, parading Him through the streets, a part of their big show. They were content to let the world see them because they had lost their ability to show the world who God was.
The Church is not about events and facilities, it never has been, it's about people. People who need God and each other. People who are hungry and those who are well fed. People who are ignorant and those who are well versed. Jesus Christ never came to set up a corporation nor an international religious conglomerate. His focus has alway been about His kingdom and bringing men and women into it. It's not an American or British or African kingdom, it's not a Sunday morning Baptist or Pentecostal or Lutheran kingdom, it's an everyday Jesus Kingdom.
It's a process not an event.
This is multi-part series that I am developing for my new book, "Cardboard Astronauts." To find out more about the project simply send me an email.
