9:31 AM
Light
Category:
Sorry I haven't blogged in some time. I guess it needs to be moved up my priority list.
I've been wrestling with some stuff lately. I don't know how to answer the questions I have. So I'm trying to process it and see where God leads me. I am seeing major inconsistencies between what Jesus told us to do, and what we as the modern church actually do. I believe that a lot of it has to do with the disservice we did ourselves in developing an entertaining church experience for some many years. I remember thinking that the programs we have planned and what not are in competition with TV and movies and other things like that, so we need to make it as entertaining as possible, get people in the door. For the most part, that has worked pretty well. But I don't think we realized what it would do to the person attending the program. We have created a generation of consumers, well not created, but enabled. Everything about American culture is driven by consumption. The clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the food we eat, and now, the religious programming we partake in.
Things I've been reading have opened my eyes a bit. There are way to many things Jesus commanded, (and that's commanded, not suggested), that we can't do in the way we have programmed Christianity. It is impractical to expect people to care for orphans and widows by coming to a Sunday morning service, sitting in chairs, facing forward, singing some songs, hearing a message, giving some money, taking communion, and going home. And yet, church leaders are confused about why it's hard to get people to serve, and be like Christ.
Our religious experience has been confined to a 1 hour block on Sundays, a two hour block sometime during the week, and occasional praying while driving because the song on K-Love made think about praying. But Jesus didn't command that, and early church sure as heck didn't live like that.
Jesus said in Matthew 5,
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house."
This idea of light in through out the Bible. A simple search on www.youversion.com (best online Bible out there, and for iPhone! www.youversion.com/download), shows that Jesus spoke about light through out his whole life. Light is something that reveals, shows what is there. It illuminates.
But for light to truly be effective it has be introduced to someplace that is dark. If you go into a dark cave, a flashlight can reveal every nook and cranny. But then I remember being a kid at church camp, and being away from home the first time, and they always made you bring a flashlight. And as kids, we would always turn on our flashlights even when we were in the well lit chapel. Why? They were very uneffective. We really didn't make it more light. But it was after chapel, when we left into the dark Florida night that those flashlight became our lifeline. The flashlight illuminated the path we were walking.
I feel like the church has become a room full of people with flashlights. We have a light, and it's shining, but we're in a room with lights already blazing. We try to illuminate what is already light and it's not effective. We need to leave that room. We need to look for the dark caves and crevasses, (I just wanted to say crevasse).
And this is where I'm struggling. We as church leaders think that our program is the most important thing, and we spend the greatest bulk of our time on planning music and videos and lights. But is this effectively being a light going into the cave? I have never seen a cave move to where there was light. Jesus even says that evil men hide from the light because they don't want people to know their deeds. We need to take the light everywhere with us. And where we go needs to be places that need light. Sure I'm saying go downtown and bring light to the homeless dudes like Chris Colson does. But what about your office? What about your high school? Your family? Your annoying neighbor that always parks his car in your grass?
Truthfully, I'm changing my terminology. From here on out, the word "church" needs to be sacred. In Greek ekklesia meant and gathering of people. So it's time to shift it back to that, and only that. It doesn't refer to a building anymore. You don't "go to church" anymore. You are the church. I am the church. We are the church. And the church is the light of the world. Let's call the building where gather something else. The word church needs to be sacred and specific about us, not our location. This change in terminology will help people understand that Sunday morning is a gathering, it's not church. Church is an army of Christ followers that are forcibly taking the light into the dark. And if you aren't doing that, if you haven't been in the dark in a long time, if you only hang out with other Christ followers, what are you thinking?!!?! Jesus COMMANDED us to change the world, to illuminate the dark, to heal the sick, feed the hungry, cloth the naked. He definitely did not command us to sing three songs listen to a sermon and go home.
If you read this, Thank you. I'd love to hear what you think. That's why blogs have comments. Let's start a discussion. I want to know what you think. I want to know of dark places we can all go and be the light.
