Dividing people into the Churched and Unchurched is an inherent problem with Christianity. Here is a link to the most recent Barna Groups article:
https://www.barna.org/barna-update/culture/685-five-trends-among-the-unchurched#.VD7J1BF0zmL
Christianity is a living organism. The church happens most outside of the walls of a building. People are not churchless. People are building-less, and its okay. The world is not ending. Each of the five points in the Barna Groups' Study needs to be addressed.
1. Secularization is on the rise.
We went outside to play. Post-Christian means that we are not in Churchianity. Churchianity is state with the church which makes people have a dependent reliance of the proscribed party platform of a denomination. Lots of people still believe in Jesus. We also have higher educations, don't need patriarchal micro-management, and are able to pray with one another. Power structures in organizations that thrive on a top down struggle for dominance cause most people in America to think about inequality. We want equality, so patriarchy needs to turn into shared power structures where all voices can be heard.
2. People are less open to the idea of church.
Most outreach programs have hidden agendas that require the person involved to give up their own identities for a group collective. While resistance may be futile for some, most other people just stop going there. If I have to question what I am getting out of church, then it's because I am being indoctrinated into group think.
3. Church going is no longer mainstream.
It never was in my family. I didn't come to America on the Mayflower. Everything I can do at a church for a rite of passage in life I can also generally do at city hall. I don't need the church to approve of my marriage and the funeral home will bury me if I elect to have my body disposed of that way. I don't need to be bothered with going to church because I don't need a specific place to try to control God. I can be at one with God everywhere. Anyone can lead prayer. You taught us that what's important is a personal relationship with God. You taught us that each one of us can pray. You taught us that anyone can lead prayer and to lives Godly lives outside of the church services. So, we are. You got what you wanted...
4. There are different expectations of church involvement.
I am most interested in the pastor showing up when we need him to facilitate corporate worship as we would like it. Notice, I utilized the word "facilitate." Let the people choose and some of us might want to be involved. Deciding that I am unable to reach God through anything but your ideology is ridiculous. I like how my denomination uses the phrase "reimagining the church." Imagining is correct. The church's policies are all made up. WE can change them. WE are the church. Since the church exists to help us serve God and each other, they need to come to us and not the other way around. Pray with us on the bus, in coffee shops, or at a park. Stop demanding your "fair share" of our lives when we promised it to God already. The church needs to think of churches more as hub stations instead of local parishes which is a sign of the era we live in. I want to be a full member in Paris, Los Angeles, and in London if I show up in any of those places.
5. There is skepticism about churches' contributions to society.
I think churches contribute a lot of good things to society. Churches help a lot of people. Churches are good places to take you kids just like the ballpark or the zoo. We can pray at the ballpark and the zoo. I've never heard of a church that didn't want to know how much money a person made to be able to be there. Eventually, church is just going to be an account into which people give money and a place they never go. The church will be pacified by it. Church is more of a bill for people than a place for community. That's why we have community centers.
I am more in favor of church where I am not being forced to be stationary in one place. I live in a global community and have more global concerns. The problem with this in the church is that when someone says "global" it means Third World.
I am more at one with my community, especially my faith in community, by going to or watching Ted Talks, live chats and workshops with clergy and faith teachers, and communities that are focused on Oneness of God and humanity than other places. Since I am more of a humanist everyday, I find the idea that ecclesiastical titles means righteous is ridiculous. I want the human being to embrace humanness over correctness.
The creedal "one true church" is now and has always been. It is the spark within all of us. It is the soul we are given and the humanness that we all called to embrace about ourselves.
Christianity has always been a missionary faith. Technology has made us far more a missionary people. I am happier learning and believing with those in Europe, South Africa, Washington National Cathedral, and other faiths than I will probably ever be in the local church. Why?
The local church can't compete with the freedom that I have in considering the ideas of a human being thousands of miles away without the fear of retaliation if I don't agree. They cannot compete with the freedom I have of experiencing God in my own way within another faith structure while maintaining my own faith. My tradition embraces diversity. Being bound by the pastor's understanding is the opposite of it.
We didn't leave the church. We aren't churchless. We just went outside.
No comments:
Post a Comment