Last
Saturday night was my first in-person experience with a professional soccer
match. I was not disappointed. Tied 0-0 with the Seattle Sounders at the 83
minute mark, Sporting KC scored on a penalty and went on to win the game 1-0. We were right behind the goal when the point
was scored. During the game, it was
announced that there was a record attendance that night. The atmosphere was family friendly and
welcoming. I will be back!
I
was reflecting on this experience on Sunday and thinking about church
participation. The church I attended on
Sunday morning was not packed with people and the atmosphere was—well--worshipful. This contrast often leads commentators to
talk about decline of churches, denominations, and organized religion in
general. If we were doing the right
thing, more people would attend our services.
Let’s not compare apples and oranges.
Certainly we do not often find the kind of enthusiasm and participation in
organized religion that we find at concerts, sporting contests, and other mass
events; however, I attend a mass event in a stadium with far different
expectations than I take to a worshipping community.
This
does not mean that churches cannot and should not change, but if we are just
trying to make the church bigger, louder, and more enthusiastic, our criteria are
misplaced.
In
a recent blog, Tom Ehrich wrote:
“Much of the ‘dying’ we worry about [in the church]
is the normal passing away of structures and ideas that no longer convey
meaning. The big downtown church isn’t empty because church leaders failed or
people were unappreciative. It’s empty because people are finding life
elsewhere.”
Ehrich suggests that rather than dying, we
may well see manifestations of the church in new ways that meet people where
they actually are rather than where we wish that they were. He goes on to write about possible “faith
communities” that would be characterized by action, drawing closer to God, living
simply, and powered by true enthusiasm (“possessed by God”).
People go where they are challenged, where
they are welcomed, and where they find life.
This does not call Christians to accommodate themselves to the
marketplace but to become servants to the world.
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