Words from WW Blog

WORDS FROM W.W. December 18, 2009
“The Walmarting of Our Faith”
In his book, The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman writes extensively about the business practices of Walmart. We’ve come to recognize the “Happy Face” symbol that Walmart uses in its advertising as the picture for “falling prices.” Sam Walton and David Glass (the company’s CEO from 1988 to 2000) recognized three principles that have resulted in the success story of the company. I won’t go into them in this writing, but they were key to the expansion and on-going health of the company, even in the midst of wide-spread economic tough times.
Adhering to these principles has also allowed Walmart to undersell its competitors. In many towns where the arrival of a Walmart is announced, small business operators begin to board up the windows and close up shop.
I’ve been thinking a lot about consumerism lately as we rush through Christmas. Walmart is successful because it increases the thirst within people for products that they crave, and surrender to the craving, regardless of whether it’s good or bad. It’s successful because it knows what people want, not necessarily what they need.
When I look at our faith journeys I see the residual effect of Walmart spreading like a glass of spilled eggnog into the church. People want what makes them feel good. They want what feels comfortable without being too demanding, but still looking a little bit spiritual. Falling prices is just a cost-saving way of saying “falling doctrinal beliefs.”
And the thing is . . . it’s what people want! Call me cynical, but unless there is a radical transformation in a person’s life that can come only from an intimate encounter with Christ, we’re prone to look for the bargains.
The question someone is bound to be on the edge of blurting out right now is, “Don’t you go to Walmart?” The answer is “Yes! When it’s extremely beneficial for me.” Since I hate crowds of bargain-hunting people, my Walmart visits are usually restricted to early in the morning or late at night. For a long time it was the only place I could find Orville Redenbacher’s Pour Over Cheddar Microwave Popcorn. (Another example of a product that is not good for you, but, boy, is it good!)
In recognizing what I just said about “when it’s beneficial to me” I see another human flaw. Walmart makes it convenient. I CAN go early or go late. In other words it’s all about me.
Our walk with God has that unfortunate tendency to descend to that as well. It becomes all about “me” . . .
• “What’s God done for me lately?”
• “I’m okay right now, so I don’t need an intimacy with God. Check back with me next week.”
• “Is there a real short worship service? My availability is limited.”
I’m flawed as much as everyone else, and that troubles me—that I write about Walmart, and yet I’ll probably be in their “chips and snacks aisle” before the week is out. It’s an analogy for our lives. I’ve “Walmarted” my faith walk, but still want to be recognized as a saint.
Perhaps if I buy another new Bible it will raise my level of spirituality. I hear they are on sale for two days only at . . .

WORDS FROM W.W. December 9, 2009

“Specific Requests”

An old friend from Michigan (I’m old. She’s not!) wrote us about her son Timmy’s letter to Santa Claus. It read, “Dear Santa, could you please bring me a Crystal Swiper with the Power-minder guys and rock monsters and crystal Lego set. You can get them at Meijer’s (a store) on the top shelf.”
I love the specificity! It reminds me of the plot line in the movie A Christmas Story, where Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun, which his mom doesn’t want him to have because of a fear he would shoot his eye out.
It’s interesting that the Bible has a multitude of stories about specific requests of God to His people, but is lacking in the number of specific requests from the people of God to Him. It’s not a completely vacant category–Gideon did cast a fleece before the Lord–but specific requests are few and far between.
On the other hand, God “gets specific” with Moses about numerous points of emphasis for the Jewish law. He gets specific with Jonah about the city he is to go to and the message he is to speak there. He gets specific with what Philip is to do and say to the Ethiopian he meets. He gets specific with the wise men about where they will find the Christ-child.
God specifically requests that we go in a certain direction, listen in a focused way, speak certain words, practice procedures in a certain way and order. The intent is not to create a legalistic culture and following, but rather to hone and shape an obedience that deepens the divine-human relationship.
Perhaps Timmy has something that we need to recover! A child can see hope in the world in a certain way that being specific and precise in his requests does not bother him. He hasn’t lost faith in a parent, or Santa, or in many cases, God to come through with the boxed object on the top shelf.
The harsh stories of our lives have a way of lowering our sights. The more mature we become, the less we look up. That may sound a bit brutal, but it is often the case. What is beyond a child’s reach is still hoped for. What is beyond a grown-up’s reach is disbelieved. We’re afraid that looking higher will cause us to lose our bearings.
May there be more “Timmy” in us this Christmas, and less Thomas (the doubting kind).
Look up.

WORDS FROM W.W. December 3, 2009
“Leading an Accommodating Jesus”
My wife knows me like a book. She knows what I enjoy (jumbo shrimp, Monk, and basketball) and she also knows what pains me (reality TV shows, Walmart, and picking croutons off the top of my salad). One of the things she has been very cautious about asking me to do is going with her to the mall to do some shopping. I thank her profusely for extending “mall grace” to me.
But once in a while when she needs me to look at something in particular with her I tag along. I am not a man on a mission in those situations. Where she leads me I will follow . . . except into Victoria’s Secret. There I draw the line at the door!
When we go the mall the one store we’re going to go to turns into five. I usually don’t quibble, especially if I can get at least walk through Border’s. I don’t want to give the impression that I am always like this, but in that setting I am the picture of an accommodating husband.
She wants to look at new pillow cases.
“Okay.”
She wants to see if Macy’s has sandals on sale.
“Okay.”
She wants to check out the price of a new spatula at Sears.
“Okay.”
When it comes to malls, she leads and I accommodate.
It may be a fairly rough comparison (because Carol is about as sweet and giving as you can get), but many times our relationship with Jesus has the same dynamics to it.
We lead. Jesus accommodates.
And whereas in a marriage relationship each spouse has those situations and occasions of leading, and other situations of accommodating (always leading and never accommodating would be a relationship based on authority, not equality), in our relationships with Jesus, He is the leader and we are His followers.
That understanding gets skewed by each one of us at times, or continually. The hymn gets reworded. “Where I lead Him, He will follow. He’ll go with me…with me…wherever I say.”
We can blame it on our fallen nature, our propensity for making mistakes, our home environment, or our friends, but it really comes down to our preference for a Jesus who accommodates us, who nods in agreement to our every whim, who rides in the back seat as we steer the vehicle, who always says “yes” when that’s the answer we desire to hear. Our life decisions often have us asking Jesus which direction to go in as we’re already turning right.
The cure is constant surrender of the controls to the Master; and repentance in those decisions that we’ve determined He will be the accommodating One.
I must unceasingly be asking myself how my life is accommodating the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It’s something I’d prefer to ignore, and therein lies the struggle.
Pastor Bill

WORDS FROM W.W. November 23, 2009
“DEAR CHURCH”
TO: The Church
FROM: Ira Tator
RE: Abusive Giving
I’m writing this letter because there is a disturbing trend that is emerging in the church. I feel that I must address it now before everything gets blown out of whack. We are playing with fire, and people are about to get burned.
My concern involves abusive levels of giving. People are doing insane things!
For example, last week I had no freezer space left in either refrigerator at the house. Both of them are crammed full right now with steaks and chicken breasts, and a few gallons of ice cream that happened to be on sale the week before last. I bought a frozen Dutch apple pie to go with the ice cream, but I didn’t have room for it! So I decided to bring it to the church and store it in one of the freezers there, but, good Lord Almighty, when I opened up the freezers they were full of frozen turkeys for some poor families in the community. I couldn’t count how many turkeys were in there frozen solid and taking up space. I had to take that Dutch apple pie back home and my husband, Dick, commanded me to bake it. He had three pieces that night and was sick for three days. Too many turkeys caused it!
If we want to give turkeys to poor people do they have to be frozen? If it’s in our church building, shouldn’t our freezer space be for people from our own church who are in desperate need of a little room?
And then there was the offering a few Sundays ago! When the offering plate got to our family’s pew there was so much money in it my sister Hesi didn’t know what to do. There weren’t any one dollar bills in sight. It was all twenties and fifties and even a few hundreds. It was embarrassing! She sat there staring into that plate for at least ten seconds before she finally tucked her dollar bill underneath, but then she turned beet red! And my other sister Emma followed the crowd and almost emptied her purse of all her money. If I hadn’t stepped in and stopped her she wouldn’t have had any money left for lunch at Red Lobster.
That is just another sign that things are getting out of hand!
A couple of weeks ago the pastor told how many people had been helped this year by our church with groceries and other basic needs. I couldn’t believe the figure he said…and look how much good it’s done. We still have poor people around us. In fact, doesn’t it say in the bible somewhere that we will always have poor people around us? If we keep trying to help them out of poverty pretty soon there will be no poor people, and therefore, we will be going against what scripture says…since they are ALWAYS suppose to be there!
My sister Emma hopes to land a man someday, and have little ones, but what’s going to happen when a few Tator Tots are learning bad habits like sharing with the other children.
People need to cut back a little bit. If we take care of everyone in need we won’t have money for IHOP, and that will put them in jeopardy of closing, and then there are all those people who will be out of work. As you can see, generosity is a tool for evil. There will always be the haves and the have-nots, and if we are the haves we’ve just got to grin and bear it.
If we help people in our community too much the church won’t stick out as the light of the world because everyone else’s lights will be shining brighter.
I’m sure this all made sense to you. We’re all about proclaiming the name of Jesus. That’s why we believe he has made us prosperous- because we’re such good living witnesses for him.
One more thing! Someone keeps parking in our family’s parking spot that we’ve had for years. We know it’s not marked, but everyone knows that’s where the Tator family backs up the wagon. It’s ours and we’re not giving it away!
See you Sunday!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Ira Tator

WORDS FROM W.W. November 15, 2009
“Scripturally Evasive”

One of the things I enjoy doing, besides being a pastor, is officiating basketball. This will be my ninth year doing high school basketball, and I’m first year doing junior college games. As you become more experienced and, hopefully, better the games you referee become more intense, and the coaches more demanding. After all, for many of the junior college coaches this is their occupation.
An important part of being a good, and respected, official then is to know the rules. An official who says “It’s in the rules, coach!”, but isn’t quite sure where in the rules it is will quickly be discounted by a coach. As officials we have a saying, “If you don’t know the rule, don’t call it!” In other words, better to not call something than to call something wrong.
I find that more and more Christians are becoming less and less knowledgeable about what the Bible says. One of the ripples of that is an increase in the amount of scriptural evasiveness. Decreasing use of the Bible is resulting in decreasing use of, as we used to say, “the address”.
And so we find people saying things like “According to scripture…” or “It says in scripture…” I’m guilty of this myself. In reflecting on my messages and writings I’ve realized that I used the phrase “Scripture teaches…” more often than a teenager uses Clearasil.
To put it in a different conversation of life, it would be like a 7th grader coming home from school and saying, “Hey! No school tomorrow!” The parent’s response no doubt would be “Who said?”
“One of my teachers.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know. It was someone I had in some class today.”
People are being intentionally evasive about where scripture says what, We’re known as “the people of the book”, but we seem to be forgetting that we’re there are 66 books in “The Book.” We’re getting more generic, even as our culture is getting more specific and inquisitive.
Evasiveness will cause us to lose a grip on what is truth.
It’s always interesting as we get towards Christmas at how “what scripture says” (There I go again!) gets mixed together with what we’ve added to it. When you read the Matthew and Luke account of the birth narrative you begin to realize how much of view of Christmas has been shaped by Chjristmas carols instead of scripture.
On-going evasiveness may blur the picture of the Bible even more. Pretty soon Hezekiah will become more frequently quoted than Isaiah; and Madonna will be sung more than Psalms.
George Barna reported that eight out of ten Americans believe the phrase “God helps those4 who help themselves” is in the Bible. Actually, it was Benjamin Franklin who said it…about 1,700 years after the Bible was written.
Bottom line, being scripturally evasive will lead to being spiritually irrelevant.

WORDS FROM W.W. November 4, 2009
“Having A Starbucks Image”
I recently read a new book by Bryant Simon, a professor of History and American Studies at Temple University, entitled Everything But The Coffee: Learning About America From Starbucks. I frequent Starbucks, so it was an interesting book exploring different emphases of the business.
Simon makes the point that everything a person sees and encounters in any Starbucks establishment has a purpose behind it. The seating arrangement, the placing of overly-expensive espresso machines, the CD’s situated by the cash registers, the language that is used to order a drink . . . everything has a purpose behind it.
The purpose of each element is pointed towards the main strategy of creating a certain image in the customer’s mind. Starbucks wants each person to feel special. It puts within the reach of a large part of our population certain products, and sells us on the idea that purchasing these products will make us feel . . . special.
To understand that best let me use a different business establishment. Think fast food hamburgers! My guess is that every one of us has been in a hamburger place and felt like we were imposing on the employees in just being there. There was an absence of specialness . . . even if what we ordered had “special sauce” on it.
Starbucks sells us on the idea that we are special, “and these are the things special people drink and buy.”
Bryant Simon visited 425 Starbucks outlets in nine countries in his research for the book. I have to filter his observations a little bit because of his increasing irritation with the company, but the one observation that stuck with me is that Starbucks creates an image, protects that image, but sometimes keeps the image propped up when there is no commitment to its messages.
Starbucks touts itself as eco-friendly, but I can’t remember the last time I was in a Starbucks and they asked me if I wanted a coffee mug that could be washed afterwards. It’s always a Starbucks cup that is just 10% recycled material. In other words, for a business that trumpets “being green” there isn’t much substance underneath the statement.
This article, however, is not meant to be a Starbucks bashing session. (I took my own mug there this morning for some java!) It’s meant to be a teachable moment for the church.
We need to ask ourselves “Are we conveying an image that we really aren’t willing to live out?” The church of Jesus Christ can communicate how wonderful we are, but are their feet underneath the veneer?
A number of years ago a friend of mine had a picture of himself standing next to Ronald Reagan. It was a great picture, and I wondered where he and the former president had been in the same place for the photo op. But the closer I looked at it the more I realized he was making a life-size cardboard cut-out of the president look like real life. It was as fake as a three-dollar bill.
The body of believers must have deep-rooted commitment to what we say we’re about and what we really are about. Otherwise we risk being a spiritual version of Starbucks- all fluff and foam but limited authenticity.

WORDS FROM W.W. October 28, 2009
“Wishing I Was There”

Living in Colorado has its benefits (Except today as I look outside at the snow that is falling. Snow in October just isn’t right!) I step out my front door each morning and gaze at Pike’s Peak. I love the low humidity, and the significant drop in the mosquito population compared to Michigan. God has opened up doors for me to coach basketball at the middle school and high school just a couple of blocks away from our house. There is a lot of upside to life in “these neck of the woods.”
The downside is separation from my mom and dad, sister and brother, and attached uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, and nephews. It’s especially hard these past couple of years as my mom and dad have experienced so many hospital stays they almost have had a room named after them.
It’s a “deep aching from a distance.” Distance creates anxiety and uncertainty. It also has a way of putting a pinch of guilt into the recipe. I’m proceeding with my life, my ministry, my day-to-day routines even as my mom and dad are facing daily struggles. There’s something unsettling about that.
In the unrest of this week’s struggles from southern Ohio, I got on-line to see about getting a quick flight in from Colorado Springs to Columbus. The price, although hefty, didn’t drive me away. It was the way I would have to get there. Immediate need is not a good situation. I would have had to fly from Colorado Springs… to Houston… to Charlotte…to Detroit…to Columbus. A delay at any of those would have cooked my goose…the non-flying kind!
The immediate concern is my mom’s deteriorating memory and mobility. (My sister said Mom asked her where “Billy Dean” was yesterday- a name she hasn’t called me since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.) And in the midst of that situation, my dad’s servant spirit is taking its toll on him. He has had significant cardiac issues, but his wife of 62 years has needs that he can’t- and doesn’t want to- be blind to.
Thank God that my sister and brother-in-law live right down the street! They are a part of the daily battles of confusion, emotional breakdowns, and physical ailments that Mom is having.
Meanwhile I can only offer that I wish I was there. I took some solace reading in several of the Apostle Paul’s letters that he felt some of the same aching and desires. For example he told the believers in Colossae “For though I am absent from you in the body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.” (Colossians 2:5) To the Thessalonians he wrote “…When we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. (1 Thessalonians 2:17) In most of Paul’s writings that sense of longing echoes from the pages.
Distance is difficult, and it has taken me a short distance…from standing to kneeling.
It’s amazing how the episodes of our lives can keep driving us to our knees.
An almost-dad praying for his expectant wife and child that she is precariously carrying in her womb.
A mom praying for her son who is heading to Afghanistan.
A child praying for his dad to arrive home safely in the midst of a winter storm.
A church praying for renewal.
A friend praying for his buddy who is spiritually distant.
And so even though the aching is still deep, I go to my knees for my mom and my dad.

WORDS FROM W.W. October 22, 2009
“Satanic Church Signs
Last week I was going to change what was on our church marquee. As I strolled to the far side of the sign I discovered that someone had taken blue paint and put the name “Satan” on that side of the marquee. After the scrub brush and Ajax did their job I thought a lot about the contrasts of the situation:
• Satan on the church sign.
• Satan being noticed more than anything else on the church sign.
• Some people feeling un-intimidated to boldly paint Satanic graffiti on the church.
• Darkness invading light (In fact, our marquee is lit up!)
• Proclaiming hope is under-valued by some of the people that need it the most.
One word, one name, caused me to do a lot of thinking. My office administrator would tell you that it put me off-stride for the rest of the day.
It used to be that a church was considered sacred space. Whether someone ever darkened the doors of any church they still viewed church property as a place that was not to be disturbed. That day has gone bye-bye like a flock of geese flying south for a long winter.
“Sacred” isn’t what it used to be…even though it is!
More than the name of the Deceiver on our sign is the disturbing thoughts I’ve experienced about the impact of the church on the community. One of the foundational beliefs that I hold about the church is that it is called to make a difference…outside the walls…in the world…in the community…in the lives of people that the Body of Christ comes into contact with. For example, there is an elderly couple that live a block from our church building. Neither of them has ever been inside our building, but when the husband had a stroke the wife called our church and asked if I could visit him in the hospital. Since then we’ve had people from our church visit them at their home, take cookies to them, pray with them. This week I took communion to them. Our students are going to go rake the leaves in their yard this Sunday. That’s a picture for me of what the church is to be- a reflection of Christ to our, and in our, community.
When the name of Satan starts being cast on top of the reflection of Christ it causes me to ponder whether we have reached a point in the battle where being inside the fortress is a solution that will lead to a wider expansion of irrelevance. The church must be about preparation and advancing.
It is much easier to teach people what they are to do AT church, how to act, when to stand and when to sit, where to turn in our bibles when it’s Christmas time, and what an adequate donation would be for a Sunday morning donut and a cup of coffee. Our discipleship, our spiritual formation, must shift somewhat to include “who we are to be out there”, who we are to simply be…no matter where we are!
In that shift there will be an accompanying shift in how “the light of the world” will be perceived and function.
“…that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
I see a lot of followers of Jesus and Jesus-people churches looking and acting defeated. It’s as if Satan has spray-painted the whole church and there is a weariness about whether going on is even an option. If we believe what scripture teaches, however, we’ll throw those thoughts back to where they came from. In other words, spray paint some hope on the dominion of darkness. What a picture…to see the Deceiver having to use his Ajax for a change!

“Corporate Church”

As I was watching the Rockies play the Phillies on Monday night at Coors Field, which is not too far from the Pepsi Center, I realized that a Rockies win would take the series back to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for a game five, a city that also includes Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Come to think of it, the previous weekend when Carol and I went to our daughter’s homecoming at University of Sioux Falls we were reminded every time that the USF football team got a first down (which was often in their 64-0 victory) that the first down was brought to us by “First Premier Bank,” even though the tailback was the one who churned out the yardage. We watched many an extra point conversion kick glance off the end zone scoreboard that was sponsored by Sanford Medical Center.

It got me thinking!

Church budget deficits could be easily erased if we thought creatively about bringing in corporate sponsors. My mind is going crazy thinking of the possibilities.

• Not just a church work day, but a “Home Depot Clear Out the Dirt Day.”
• Not just singing a couple of hymns, but let’s do a “Harmony Bowling Lanes Hymn-fest.”
• Get over the potlucks. Rename it “Country Buffet at the Baptist Church Sunday.”
• Don’t call it the sermon. Liven it up with “Today’s message sponsored by Pizza Hut, now serving hot wings!” Or, perhaps better yet, how about “This week’s sermon sponsored by No-Dos.”
• Not Sunday bulletins! It could be the “FedEx Delivers On-Time Anywhere Programs.”
• The Praise Team could get shirts with a dog and cat logo and become the PetsMart Praise Team.
• A Christmas children’s program could be the Crimestopper’s Christmas. Extravaganza . . . okay, that one might not fly.
• Church tours for first-time guests might include the Mrs. Field’s Fellowship Hall, American Eagle College and Career Classroom, Babies-R-Us Nursery, and the Amazon.com Memorial Library complete with Blockbuster Family DVD Section.
• What about business sponsor signs on each parking space? Closer to the entrance, the higher the corporate donation!
• Perhaps we should investigate corporate stained glass windows. Golden arches in glass might bring a hefty contribution. Considering that the Sunday morning service is right before lunch, subliminal stained glass messages might have restaurants lined up. Taco Bell right beside Texas Roadhouse, and Red Lobster looking pretty tempting in the window beside the red-headed girl from Wendy’s.
• Safeway could be the sponsor of the sidewalks leading to the main entrance.
• How about the Pontiac Prayer Room?
• Band-Aid Summer Day Camp has a nice ring, and reality, to it.
• Sierra Springs Water Fountain?
• “Today’s baptism is sponsored by Hot Springs Spa!”
• Use “PowerAde” cups for communion.
• Using our visual technology for the screen in the sanctuary, we could rotate sponsor screens every time we have a different element of the worship service take place . . . kind of like what they do behind home plate at most major league baseball parks.
• How about Starbucks being the corporate sponsor of the youth lock-in?
• “Buffalo Wild Wings” single adults’ weekend retreat has a special flavor to it.
• Benadryl could kick in for the church hay ride.

Why didn’t we think of this sooner? We wouldn’t have to worry about the year-end deficit if we got on “Target” sooner. Pull in “Penney’s” now and we wouldn’t have to fret over the dollars later.

Just a few things to chew on! And, in case you’re wondering, I’m not being “Sirius”!

Pastor Bill

WORDS FROM W.W. October 9, 2009
“Changing The Terms…the Other Way”

(Last week I wrote about my credit card company’s notification that they were raising the interest rate on unpaid balances or cash advances. I then talked about how churches sometimes accept someone into the Body of Christ and then, after a while, change the terms of what that means.)
The Bible is filled with fickleness! The Israelites rated gods more often than the BCS voters. One week it was the Lord God Jehovah and the next week it was Baal. When Elijah slammed the 450 prophets of Baal…Yahweh was at the top of the rankings for quite a while!
But “fickle” has a limited memory, and pretty soon it was back to Baal or some other god again. Lukewarm with a sipping straw. If you picked up a bible for the first time and didn’t know how the story ended you’d find yourself shaking your head at all the ups and downs. You might even think that “Days of Our Lives” used the biblical story as inspiration for all its plot twists and turns.
Of course, Jesus had to deal with a lot of that as well. After he said some demanding things in John 6 we read this sentence: “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (John 6:66) Evidently they were okay up to a certain point. Jesus had just fed the five thousand and walked on water. Things were good! People proudly wore their “I’m with Jesus” t-shirts and freely entered into conversations and discussions about what they thought Jesus’ next miracle would be. People were feeling good, and then Jesus gave a prickly message.
“Nope! Jesus, we’ve had second thoughts. The free meal complete with take-home container- that was pretty sweet! But these hard teachings are…too hard!” Sweeten the deal again and maybe we’ll come back. If not, we’re outta’ here!”
Sometimes the church changes the terms of the agreement, but perhaps more frequently the people change the terms, or reject the terms of the covenant they make with the Body of believers. It comes out in the language:
“That church just isn’t meeting my needs anymore.”
“The worship service extended into the NFL pre-game show too much. I’m looking for a place with an earlier start time.”
“The pastor preached too long. The Methodists were beating us to the restaurant.”
“I like to hear a choir every Sunday.”
“They started using wine and those little stale crackers for communion.”
“I got tired of being asked to help serve.”
“A new family showed up and sat exactly where I’ve sat for the past 20 years.”
“There’s too many old people there.”
“There’s too many young people there.”
“There’s too many people there.”
“There’s just not many people there.”
Our culture, especially the Christian culture, is more prone to opt out than buy in. It’s like deciding on where to grab a hamburger tonight. I might choose McDonald’s…or Five Guys…or Red Robin…or In-and-Out…or Chili’s. But if I grab a burger again on Saturday night I probably won’t go to the same place. Having a taste for a Butterburger at Culver’s on Friday may turn into a taste for a Big Mac on Saturday. For many people in our churches it’s the same for their commitment to church. One week I’m a Lutheran, but next week I’m a Pentecostal, and the third week I’m a patron of a sports bar with twenty TV screens. To enter into a covenant is something fewer and fewer people are willing to enter into, because the focus is not on me, but a greater cause and purpose.
Sometimes I ask myself “Am I just whining?”, but thirty years of experience tells me I’m dealing with reality. With all of the reality TV shows I’m surprised someone hasn’t done one on “church”.
Nah! People probably wouldn’t buy in to it.