Archive for August, 2003

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Making peace with the church…

Friday, August 29th, 2003

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’ve been posting here and thinking a lot about my conversations as of late, and I realize I’ve been pretty hard on the church.

In that process, I’ve realized, through repeated listenings to Derek Webb’s, She Must And Shall Go Free (which I personally believe is one of the best albums of the year), times in prayer, and of course reading the Bible, that I’m getting pushy with Christ’s bride. He loves the church, and I shouldn’t ever find myself beating her up.

I really just want to pray that the church gets its focus back. I just see way too many churches who aren’t focused on growing God’s kingdom, but who seem interested (in their practical theology) in growing their church and its programs…and then building more edifices and buying more stuff which quickly becomes a monkey on their back which, of course, now has to be fed with the majority of our resources…until the monkey takes over the mission of the church.

I guess it all comes down to materialism…and, don’t be fooled, I’m guilty, too. I’ve sat in worship services thinking, “Boy do they need help with PowerPoint,” or even in getting into this work in Canada, thinking, “They have no equipment to do what we need to do. How are we going to get students?”

I realize those material things — useful as they are (I’m aware that you’re reading this via one of those “material things”) — are not the things we should be seeking after as a church.

It’s like the church is in the dot-com era of Christianity, where marketing and media will do what God cannot.

At the end of the day, it’s a stewardship issue, and we’re called to be the caretakers of the world.

I actually was surfing through Derek Webb’s website recently and found the following statement, which I think says it all:

As you may have heard, this past year or two, since I left my band of 10 years, I�ve poured over a collection of songs about the Church. The thing I keep coming back to in all my study and reflection is the way in which the consumer mindset of our society has dug deep roots under our Christian communities. In ways where the people of God should be reforming as a Counter-culture, instead, we look more like a Sub-culture. We are marked more by the ways we imitate the world then by the ways we reclaim our civilization for the glory of God.

The world sells us false independence, disappointment, illusions of prosperity and an improved self-image�all at a great price. In contrast, the Church places us in right dependence as a community, gives us identity in the larger narrative of God and His people, and frees us from this relentless state of self-absorption. So if that�s true, then why do so many of our American churches seem to chase after marketing trends so we can fill more seats and build bigger facilities? And why is my heart so addicted to buying the latest product that promises to satisfy my felt needs? We are an idolatrous people, looking to all sorts of broken cisterns to satisfy our insatiable thirst.

That’s what I’m saying, I guess, though Derek seems to put it in a lot more spiritual terms.

In short, I guess I’m just waiting for the day when I’m out of a marketing job, and am forced to throw myself into a work, comprised of other servants of Christ who just want to reach people where they are, pouring themselves into them. I pray God will use this experience and others to mold me into that person.

All that said…at the end of the day, I love the church. Why? Because Christ loves the church. We’re a broken down, harlot of a people, and were it not for Christ, our prostitution would land us all in a place of torment, far away from the embrace of God. I just long for the day when our eyes are fixed on Christ, and what He longs to do for the church.

I’m sure it doesn’t have much to do with marketing.

Posted in Marketing, Spiritual Things | 6 Comments »

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